be sold under both brands. GM saw the joint venture as a way to get access to quality small cars and an opportunity to learn about the Toyota Production System and The Toyota Way, a series of lean manufacturing and management philosophies that had made the company a leader in the automotive manufacturing and production industry. For Toyota, the factory gave the company its first manufacturing base in North America allowing it to avoid tariffs on imported vehicles and saw GM as a partner that could show them how to navigate the American labor environment, particularly relations with the United Auto Workers union. The companies made the unusual choice to remake the troubled Fremont Assembly into the new NUMMI plant. The leadership of the UAW union insisted on re-hiring the same union leadership that had overseen GM's worst workforce. GM was against it, but Toyota agreed, believing that their system could turn things around. However, Toyota insisted that the plant would need to operate differently and old seniority rules wouldn't apply. The workers hated the proposed changes, but desperately needed jobs. Ultimately, over 85% of NUMMI's initial workforce were the workers laid off at Fremont Assembly in 1982. GM would also assign 16 managers to the plant and Toyota sent 30 managers and production coordinators from Japan, including the CEO, Tatsuro Toyoda, part of the company's founding family. Ahead of the reopening of the plant, Toyota sent many of the workers to Toyota's Takaoka plant in Japan to learn the Toyota Production System and actually work for a few days on the assembly line. Workers who made the transition identified the emphasis on quality and teamwork by Toyota management as what motivated a change in work ethic. Among the cultural changes were the same uniform, parking and cafeterias for all levels of employment in order to promote a team concept, and a no-layoff policy. Built-in process quality and employee suggestion programs for continual improvement were other changes. Consensus decision-making reached management level, in contrast with the old departmentalization. By December 1984 (two years after the closure), the first car, a yellow Chevrolet Nova, rolled off the assembly line. The plant started producing the Toyota Corolla in September 1986. Almost right away, the NUMMI factory was producing cars at the same speed as the Japanese factories and Corollas produced at NUMMI were seen as equal in quality to those produced in