TOKYO-Toyota Motor Corp. TM-021% T is preparing to reorganize the company around product classes in a shift from a regional orientation after topping global sales of more than 10 million vehicles in each of the past two years. Toyota will outline the changes before its fiscal year ends in March. The plan, said people familiar with the situation, is to make the car maker more nimble in the face of challenges due to its sheer size. President Akio Toyoda wants to reorganize the company into units focused on vehicle size and type, according to one of the people famillar with the matter. One unlt might be in charge of Toyota's compact-car business, while another might handle sedans. Other units could focus on commercial vehicles or additional business segments. Toyota spokesman Ryo Sakai declined to comment. So far only three car makers have neared or hit the 10 milion annual sales plateau-General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Toyota-and each has stumbled technically or financially in the aftermath the prlor global sales lender, realled millions of vehicles ion 2014 over faalty lgnition switches linked to more than 120 deaths Then came Vollswagen, which reached 10 million in world-wide sales in 2014, and now lo grappling with recalls, lawsults and fimes after I admitted to Acceleration Problems and that's why we wereal at Toyota sald "But at this scale, we've come to a point that beling too big is perhaps not a good thing TOYOTA Toyota's move would be a shift from a reglon-focused structure Mr. Toyoda put in place three years aga. Carrently, one unit handles developed markets, second deals with emerging markets, and a third oversees 5 2006 ho 2006 THEWALL STRRY Lengines and transmissions. The fourth contains Toyota's Lexu uxury divislion It wasn't immediately clear whether the new structure would supplant the existing management structure or coexist with it. Whille the frequent changes have caused some confusion among employees, they have helped Toyota act more quickly than it would have in the past, people familiar with Toyotals executive- level decision-making say. Satoshi Nagashima, a managing partner with consulting Arm Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, sald Toyota's changes over the years have allowed the auto maker to act mone swiftly in recent years. "What matters now is how effectively the managers could run any new structures that come in place," he sald One of the people familiar with the situation said Mr. Toyoda intends to name relatively young members of his senior esecutive team to head each unit. The goal is to speed up decision- making and groom a new peneration of leaders, the person sald. Me. Toyoda, who took over as presidest in 2008 believes he has passed his halfway mark at the helm, one person said Toyota has come a long way since Mr. Toyoda took over seven years ago, shortly after the company posted its first annual loss in decades due to the global financial crisis. It has since overcome a seriesof crises inchuding recalls, the effects of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami diuster in Japan and floods in Thailand, Its share price has roughly doubled in seven years and this year the aulo maker is expecting a third stralght year of record profit. Despite changes it made tollowing the recall erisis, Toyota remains slugzish and hierarchical in some of irsdecision-making,cuent and former esecutives say Shits in the auto market have blurred lines between developed and emenging countries, posing chalengrs to the companywesikiing structure, one pephon fanmillar with the situation sald 3. Why is Toyota reorganizing its global structure as detailed in the assigned article