Toyota's 'Simple Slim' cuts Camry engine costs in half

These days, with ever-thinning margins and rising production costs, automakers are generally pleased when they can cut the cost of their major systems by a few percent between model cycles. But apparently, for Toyota, that isn’t good enough, as they’ve reportedly cut the cost of building the Camry’s V6 engines by a full 50-percent.

By Chris Paukert
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These days, with ever-thinning margins and rising production costs, automakers are generally pleased when they can
cut the cost of their major systems by a few percent between model cycles. But apparently, for Toyota, that isn’t good
enough, as they’ve reportedly cut the cost of building the Camry’s V6 engines by a full 50-percent.

The massive cost savings arrives courtesy of ‘Simple Slim’, the quizzically-named cost-cutting program whose
centerpiece is a new method for pouring molten aluminum into less-expensive castings. The process resulted from the
work of some 300 engineers, and is just one facet of Toyota’s ‘Simple Slim’ cost-savings regime.

[Source: Bloomberg.com]