On Site Observations:

1.    Upon our team arrival, a young lady from public relations department introduced her self as our tour leader, one of our team members who was an experienced production manager, raised this question whether this young lady can answer my questions while visiting the company. Our young lady tour leader said you may ask any question from me and if I could not answer you correctly and you are not satisfied, I will ask the respective people to join us and explain the details to make you satisfied completely.

2.     JIT means, what is needed, how many are needed and when is needed. Everyone at work is thinking about the three. That is why everything is in the right order. GOOD THINKING, GOOD PRODUCTS
3.    Our tour leader asked from all of us since you know the seven Muda, if you come across any non-value added activity, please do not hesitate to indicate the case to me.
4.     Every year about 130000 people visit Toyota Company, Koreans and Chinese have the largest number of visitors.
5.    Seven different car styles are manufactured on the same production line. The line feeding system is under the close watch of line Water Spiders.
6.    Cycle Time of all processes is 59 seconds. There is a large signboard where everyone can see, to keep the pace of operations. Three numbers are shown on the board, Planned number of products from the start time of the shift, Actual number of cars that have passed the final inspection, and the percentage indicating the line are ahead, on time, or behind at any instance.
7.    A good suggestion made by the operator is Easy-in, Easy-out seats for line operators to move in and out of the car and do the job more easier and speedy way.
8.    Door Less System. After the process of painting the body, all doors are removed and after body assembly is completed, doors are assembled to the car.
9.    Resting place is located near the production line. Operators do not have to spend the time to go to the resting area, and they can enjoy more of their break time.
10.    An instruction sheet is placed on each car front, indicating all the options and details that are ordered by the specific customer. More than 4000 different cars /year, are made in just one style.
11.    Moving platforms alongside the moving conveyors are made by the kaizen-Han. This LCA (Low-Cost Automation) eliminates Muda of movement and improves productivity.
12.    I L U O training system to enhance Multi Skills Workers is another mean for job enlargement and job enrichment.
13.    Ten minutes break every two hours;  after the break, the operator moves to the next station to do another job. One of our team members asked the reason for this job rotation. Our team leader explained, number one reason is operators should not get tired to do the same job all day long. Another reason is, a better 5S, which means everyone must leave the place in such an order that the next person on the job can do it without any waiting time.
14.    Last year the company received 61000 suggestions from employees, 99% of them implemented. From 500 to 20,000 Yen is the reward for each suggestion.
15.    Each department has its own DOJO. DOJO Means Skill Learning. Education is to improve brain power, and “by doing training” people become skillful and can perform the job correctly. Education and Training are the two factors that Toyota tries to make its community, a “Scientific Society”.
16.    Employees are classified as, Beginners with 2 years of experience, Good with six years of experience, Second Best with fifteen years of experience and Best with more than fifteen years of experience.
17.    Jidoka means Man and Machine work together to make a good product. Stopping the line is rooted in the Toyota Looming industry. When a string was cut off, production had to stop, because a defect would occur in the pattern. Everyone on the Gemba has the authority to stop the line if he/she finds a quality problem.
18.    When the line is stopped a loud sound of Syron is activated. It is said a disaster has an accord, line engineers rush to the place to fix the problem and make the production line running ASAP.
19.    Every hour all used kanban are collected by a person on a bicycle and delivered to the Kanban Office.
20.    Though-Put-Time indicates how much time is needed by the supplier to replenish the line.
21.    Production lines are usually fed every two hours.
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23.    Visitors are not allowed to take pictures while visiting the Gemba, but there are video presentations about Design, Production, R&D, Recycling, Green Productivity and other topics in English, Spanish and Japanese, and anyone can go through them freely.