Toyota Leader Eiji Toyoda Dies at Age 100

Eiji Toyoda, the Toyota Motor Corp. president and chairman who turned the company into a global giant, died on Tuesday of heart failure. He was 100.

Toyoda became the company's president in 1967 and chairman in 1982. When he retired a decade later, he was made honorary chairman. A cousin of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda, he was the longest-serving of the company's 11 presidents.

Eiji Toyoda is credited with guiding Toyota from its origins as a pre-World War II producer of cheap, low-quality cars for the Japanese market to the world's largest and richest carmaker.

Toyota graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1936. His tenure began with Toyota's shaky entrance into the American market in the 1960s.

He championed the creation and implementation of the company's legendary Toyota Production System, which is based on just-in-time supply and a focus on continuous improvement. The process has been widely imitated by manufacturers worldwide.

Toyota oversaw the global expansion of Toyota's manufacturing base, the launch of the Lexus luxury brand, the company's New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. venture with General Motors Co. in California and its extraordinarily successful move into hybrid vehicles with the Prius and other models.