Q&A

Kerry Creech, Toyota group vice president for Region 1 and president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky - Toyota's largest factory in the world at more than 1,300 acres - is an executive with a story that is rare these days. He started at the Georgetown plant in 1990, working on the line in powertrain quality control.

SAE Media was part of a panel of journalists who sat down with Creech after a tour of the expansive plant that produces the Camry Hybrid, the RAV4 Hybrid, the Lexus ES 350 and 300h, as well as four-cylinder and V-6 engines. Soon it will be building the all-electric Highlander, including assembling the batteries on-site. Lines One and Three have been fully modernized, with AMRs carrying chassis through an open environment that is more efficient than the traditional front-to-back-end line full of switchbacks.