Toyota Motor is preparing a large-scale automation program across its global manufacturing network. According to Nikkei, the company plans to introduce about 40,000 humanoid robots that will work alongside people on factory lines.
The rollout is scheduled to begin in 2028. Toyota will spend 1 trillion yen a year on plant modernization, or nearly $6.4 billion.
Toyota Motor operates 60 factories worldwide and employs 18,000 highly skilled full-time staff at those facilities. The company says the robots are intended to improve the productivity of that workforce rather than replace people in production.
The report says the machines can learn on their own and identify the best way to carry out assigned tasks. Some robots are already working on certain assembly lines, where they mirror human actions and perform finer and more complex operations.
In the future, Toyota Motor also plans to use robots as instructors for newly hired employees. The company’s management stresses that the robots are meant to interact more closely with people and work as part of a unified team, not to substitute for human workers.
