North American Manufacturing Excellence Summit

Kevin Austin is Group Vice President, Supply Chain Strategy and Operations and Quality for Toyota Motor North America. He also serves as Deputy Chief Quality Officer.

In his role, Austin oversees North America’s end-to-end vehicle and parts supply chain operations, as well as the strategy and execution of quality systems and policies. His responsibilities span Demand and Supply Management, Supply Chain Strategy, New Product Introduction, Service Parts Operations, and Logistics, covering both parts and finished vehicle distribution, along with product technical support and customer quality assurance. He is also focused on advancing digital and structural transformation across the supply chain organization, leveraging technology to enhance efficiency, resilience, and customer experience. His team is committed to driving operational excellence and continuous improvement in support of the company’s broader strategic goals.

Austin began his career at Toyota in 1999 as an analyst within the Production Control division at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America (TEMA). In this role, he was responsible for production planning efforts and helping lead Toyota’s supply chain coordination to ensure appropriate production capacity and output to meet customer needs and demand. Following Production Control, Austin worked in the Human Resources department supporting company-wide initiatives focused on team member engagement and development.

In 2012, Austin took an international assignment in Japan where he worked for two years in the Toyota Motors America Japan (TMA-J) division for Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC). Upon completion of the TMC assignment, Austin rotated to Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) in California where he worked in the Distributions Operations department until his transition to the TMNA headquarters in Plano, Texas in 2015.

Austin has held several roles since then, including a rotational assignment within TMS in the Denver Region office, supporting and engaging the regional team and dealers in achieving mutual sales and fixed operations goals and objectives, general manager within the Toyota Sales team, and most recently, serving as vice president for DSM.

Austin is originally from Montgomery, West Virginia and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from West Virginia University.