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April 03, 2025

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Young: Time at Toyota an “amazing journey”

By Tonya McMurray

When Robert Young joined Toyota Motor North America Inc. in 1995, the automaker was still in the early stages of building a North American presence. There were no hybrid or electric vehicles, and advanced electronics, safety systems and GPS were still fledgling technologies. 

“When I started with Toyota, we had one plant and two vehicles in North America,” said Young, retired group vice president of purchasing and supplier development for Toyota Motors North America Inc.  “Little did we know that 30 years later, we’d be making more than 2 million vehicles a year in North America with multiple plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It’s been an amazing journey.”

Not only has Toyota grown and changed over those 30 years, but automotive technology has evolved significantly. 

“I remember when we had roll-up windows, and nobody had clear lenses on their headlamps. Everything was completely different,” he said. “Now we have adaptive technology and advanced safety systems. The technology is getting better every day. And our supply partners have played an instrumental role in allowing us to do what we’ve done here in North America.”

An introduction to purchasing

Young will retire at the end of March, ending a more than 30-year career in the automotive industry, most of it at Toyota. He began his journey in purchasing by accident. He was studying business at Indiana University when he met a plant manager of a Bloomington, Indiana, company while playing basketball on the weekends. The manager helped him get an internship in the company’s purchasing department. 

“I didn’t even know what purchasing did when I started,” he said. “But I liked it, and I leveraged it into a role at Ford Motor Company when I graduated from college.”

Young spent about three years at Ford and then went to work for a supplier for two years before deciding he preferred the corporate side of the business. Some of his former colleagues had joined Toyota as it started operations in the U.S. and followed suit in January 1995. 

Before moving into his current leadership position, he served in various purchasing division roles, including several buying and general manager posts. He has been responsible for overseeing all vehicle parts and materials, indirect manufacturing procurement and supplier development, and supplier preparation and development. 

“What I really like about purchasing is that it has a pretty substantial and important internal role within the company, but it also has an external role,” he said. “I really like working with our supplier partners to determine how we collaborate more effectively. They learn from us, and we learn from them; at the end of the day, we’re all in it together.”

Other Toyota leaders see Young’s commitment to supplier engagement and development as critical to the company’s ongoing success.

“Bob’s approach to building relationships and supporting our supplier partnerships is a core value I will carry forward and coach our purchasing team members on,” said Matthew Stich, vice president of purchasing, parts and materials engineering/indirect and general manager electric vehicle supply, advanced planning. 

Creating partnerships

Young said partnerships are foundational to Toyota, going back to its founding, when the Toyota family asked 12 suppliers to help it transition from a loom manufacturer to an automobile manufacturer. 

“All of those companies still supply Toyota today,” Young said. “One of those partnerships goes back 140 years. It was a company that made the wooden screws that held the wood looms together, and then they transitioned over to making parts for automobiles. They’re still a close partner of Toyota and support us globally. It’s part of who we are to foster long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.”

Toyota’s emphasis on successful partnerships helped drive supplier diversity efforts, which Young credits with the company’s success in North America.

“We recognize that we need to be a good corporate citizen,” said Young, who serves on the board of the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council. “And we learned from the other auto manufacturers the importance of casting a wide net and trying to ensure that we’re inclusive in our sourcing decisions so we can get the best supplier candidates to support everything we need to be successful in the North American market. Our intention is to continue to cast a wide net and provide opportunities for every type of supplier so we can continue to leverage what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last 30 years.”

Matt Greene, senior manager of supplier diversity, said Young’s focus on creating a supply chain open to various supplier partners has helped the manufacturer maintain consistency in its supply chain.

“Bob’s dedication to an ‘open door’ policy for purchasing at Toyota has resulted in supplier partners that are very strong, nimble and can help Toyota maintain continuity with production,” Greene said.

Navigating growth and challenge

Over the past three decades, Young has helped Toyota navigate significant growth in the North American market, evolving technology and an ever-changing supply chain. 

“Every day is different,” Young said. “We have new challenges, and trying to do the upfront planning and execution for managed growth has been a real opportunity for me. I’ve enjoyed all of it.” 

Young has also helped the company navigate multiple crises that impacted the supply chain, including the 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan, the 2009 recession, microchip shortages and COVID-19.

Young said that partnering with suppliers and focusing on best practices were key to navigating all of those. 

“I focused on over-communication and getting input from all parties,” he said. “We’re good at cross-functional problem solving as a company, and our suppliers are good at it. We at Toyota don’t have all the answers but our supplier partners come up with some unbelievable solutions. And sometimes, we borrow best practices from our competitors. We’ve been able to react and adapt quickly to any hurdle before us.”

Ryan Grimm, who is succeeding Young as group vice president of purchasing supplier development, credits Young’s focus on partnerships with helping Toyota maintain its competitive edge.

“Bob’s commitment to supplier engagement has resulted in innovation and growth throughout the supply chain with our supplier partners,” he said.

As Young prepares to leave Toyota, he is optimistic that growth and innovation will continue. The supply chain has largely recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, with improved labor availability and resolved semiconductor shortages. 

“We’re not seeing the level of challenges today that we did 12 months ago,” he said. “We’re hitting our production plan month over month. We’re anticipating a strong North American market for the next two years; we have capacity of about 2.3 million vehicles a year; and we’re going to run close to that for the next three years. I’m bullish over the next few years.” 

To learn more about Toyota, visit toyota.com.