The son of Toyota Motor’s chairman is about to take a big step on a path that may lead him to the top of the world’s largest carmaker.

Daisuke Toyoda, great-grandson of the founder, will be appointed to a role at the company’s hallowed Motomachi factory, according to a person with knowledge of the plans. Not only is it one of Toyota’s oldest plants, it’s where his father, Akio Toyoda, learned the company’s manufacturing philosophy during his formative years.

The 38-year-old scion will make the transition after spending eight years at Woven, a Toyota outpost working on new technologies. Daisuke’s move is as symbolic as it is strategic: the factory near Toyota’s headquarters opened in 1959 as a passenger-car assembly plant and has served as a proving ground for new production ideas and engineering showcases such as the Lexus LFA.