YOKOHAMA, Japan – Johnson Controls has been awarded a top honor by Toyota Motor Corp. for promoting the automaker’s Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA), which is considered a structural reform at all stages of car development.
Alex Molinaroli, Johnson Controls chairman and CEO, received a “Superior TNGA Promotion Award” from Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota Motor Corp., at Toyota’s Global Suppliers convention in Nagoya, Japan, on Feb. 27 for the company’s early involvement and commitment during the development process.
Johnson Controls was recognized for successfully developing a next-generation front seat structure, meeting Toyota’s increased safety requirements and at the same time reducing weight, complexity of components and costs by effectively leveraging its global capabilities.
The company’s engineering, manufacturing and sales teams started a joint development process with the engineering and purchasing teams at Toyota 18 months earlier than usual. By implementing optimized production requirements into the seat design early in the development stage, the team made it possible to create a product that Toyota will leverage globally and is expected to be competitive in the long term.
“We’re honored to be recognized by Toyota for our efforts, which is a great example of the value of the enterprise Johnson Controls Operating System,” said Molinaroli. “A critical factor to our success is creating world-class manufacturing and a commitment to collaboration with our customers, and we look forward to continued success with Toyota.”
Production is planned to start in the near future, with North America being the first region for implementation.
