Moving forward: the impact of Toyota after 10 years in southwest Indiana.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Toyota Motor Corp.

THERE WAS understandable elation that day in November 1995. Toyota and Indiana economic-development officials had called a news conference to make a stunning announcement--the Japanese automaker had chosen a site in southwest Indiana for its new automotive assembly plant.

Who wouldn't be excited about the promise of a nearly billion-dollar investment and 1,300 new jobs? No wonder the high school band was ushered into the auditorium in the little community of Princeton to serenade a gathering of dignitaries including then-Gov. Evan Bayh. In an area stung by declines in the coal industry, it was a thrill to hear the proclamation by Toyota Motor Co. president Hiroshi Okuda: "We will invest our heart and soul to become good corporate citizens of this fine community." The executive hailed Indiana's "traditional values of hard work and excellence."

The following spring, Toyota broke ground at a 1,100-acre Gibson County site. In the decade that has followed, it has become clear that the company's impact on the Hoosier state has far exceeded that initial promise of 1,300 jobs. Most visible are the plant expansions that started even before the first pickup rolled off the line, adding thousands more jobs and more vehicle models. Also potent have been the additions of Toyota suppliers, drawn close to the site by the company's practice of just-in-time manufacturing.

Most recent is the company's move to build yet another model at yet another Indiana site: the popular Camry, to be produced at Lafayette's Subaru plant starting this spring. As many as 100,000 units could emerge from the assembly plant each year, and as many as a thousand new jobs are being created.

Just as important has been the prestige that Toyota bestowed upon Indiana when it made that announcement. Though it's impossible to measure statistically, economic-development officials have little doubt that Toyota's success in Indiana has raised the state's prominence on the development radar screen, giving it increased attention and credibility when seeking new investments--from other manufacturing operations in southwest Indiana to the Honda plant announced last year in Greensburg.

Though it was a decade ago that Toyota chose Indiana, the automaker had its eyes on the Hoosier state for quite some time, according to George Rehnquist, interim executive director of the Economic Development Council of Southwest Indiana.

Rehnquist was vice president of economic development at the local chamber of commerce in Princeton and Gibson County a little over decade ago when Toyota came calling for a truck plant site. "I had previously shown them the same site 10 years...