Toyota Plant TourToyota Plant TourThe Trip to the Toyota Production Plant was a very informative trip. Toyota is a very cultured driven corporation, before the plant tour started, I had a coffee cup that I need to dispose of and one of the plant guides told me to separate the lid and cup and dispose of them in the corresponding bins. Later on the tour, Toyota utilized the term “Muda” which refers to “wastefulness” and Toyota’s ability to reduce waste. Throughout the tour we can see how Toyota tried to reduce waste by having a multitude of bins for corresponding waste like recycling, gloves, etc. The plant tour was incredible large, that they had to develop their own traffic system. Team members had their own walk ways and any vehicles had to follow signs and “point” to the direction they wanted to travel. The company focused on the management system “Just-in-time”. The production plant that we went to only sold Toyotal Canada INC and Toyota Motor Sales. By using the “push” method of only producing cars when orders and implanting the “Just-in-time” system helped reduced waste and lower cost.
The production plant also endured another Japanese term “kaizen” which refers to continuous improvement. Around the company there are various examples that show how much Toyota values its Team members. In the plant there is a wall where team members can post suggestions to better Toyota and 90% of the suggestions have been implemented. An example of one of the successful suggestions is the Automated Guided Vehicles that were implemented. For every successful implementation, there is a cash reward for the employee that suggested it. A lot of the process in the plant have been automated, this is to help reduced the burden on the Team members. The assembly’s lines feature a moveable belt for the Team members continuously move alongside the car while working and Team member never have to lift anything heavy because it’s automated. Team members also get Job rotation, which mean that they will be doing 8-10 jobs every shift and will change every 2 hours.
The Toyota’s own factory in the plant. (Tetsuya Sakashima / Japanese Motor News File)
Kazutaka, the former CEO of Toyota, also recently had to shut down the Kojikiri plant, so there have been many changes, but those decisions were made before the start of the year. To have the same kind of level of employee ownership as the original Toyota factory in Japan is an important step in improving the safety and efficiency of the manufacturing industry and, consequently, in Japan, we know that change always comes from outside the company and, consequently, this way could help.
The results of working together with the Japanese Government in improving safety for the future is positive. There is significant progress made in the quality of the Toyota’s cars. However, this is not a means to eliminate the challenges for the future. It is also a means for better working conditions within the company and the people, and it will also lead to improvements to bring the Japanese economy to a sustainable situation, which is the goal for the future of the company, for example.
What do you think of the plans from Toyota to boost productivity in 2017?
Source: ITA
Source: Newsbase