Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO) has announced they will bundle their software development in autonomous vehicles (AVs), increase its global investments, and establish a new company called T-Hive B.V., which will be headquartered in The Netherlands.
By combining the software products, partnerships, and innovations from TICO’s main companies—Toyota L&F, Toyota Material Handling, Toyota Material Handling Europe, Raymond, Bastian and Vanderlande, and other respective brands—the organization will strengthen and expand TICO’s main brands solution portfolio.
“The new portfolio will consist of existing solutions within TICO, ensuring that our loyal customers can benefit throughout their automation journey," said Yojiro Mizuno, TICO senior executive officer, who is responsible for TICO’s material handling solutions business. "Our strong customer organizations support such developments while managing smooth project implementation on the customer side.”
In recent years, the demand for AVs has been increasing with the rapid growth of the e-commerce market, labor shortages, and the need for flexibility. With this in mind, T-Hive was established to centrally coordinate all developments, leverage existing solutions for new market segments, and accelerate innovations globally to support TICO’s customer-facing companies.
“Due to the increasing demand for software development in all industries, securing personnel is also becoming a global challenge. Our new company, T-Hive, will create opportunities for us to work together across the Toyota Industries Group network," said Norio Wakabayashi, TICO executive officer.
The new company will be led by Léon Jansen, serving as T-Hive CEO and managing director. T-Hive’s main focus will be to provide a seamless control system encompassing all AVs within TICO, such as automated guided forklifts (AGFs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).
Information provided by Toyota Industries Corporation and edited by Alexis Brumm.
