—–

As a member of Toyota’s North American Operations Strategy team, I had the privilege to visit Toyota Motor Kyushu (TMK) in February, 2003.

Quite simply, I found TMK to be one of the most impressive, well-managed factories I’ve ever seen.

The workforce was incredibly motivated, and the power of their simple, low-cost suggestions were visible everywhere.

50% of their hourly workforce was female — a HUGE difference from any other Toyota plants in Japan. It was refreshing to see this example of diversity in Japan.

The plant itself was unusually quiet, even for a Toyota factory, with a natural lighting system that was a stark contrast to even the most well-lit Toyota factories I had seen.

Also, the physical surroundings of the plant were designed to be environmentally-friendly, so the plant blended into the surrounding landscape and exuded a Zen-like quality that is hard to find at any manufacturing site.

Within Toyota, TMK was viewed as a TMK was viewed as a source of innovation within Toyota, and team members from other Toyota plants visited TMK on a regular basis to learn from their experience.

One secret to their success might be the fact that TMK started as a separate, contract mfg. company (known a “body maker” within Toyota).

Even after Toyota absorbed TMK back into the mothership, they continued to maintain a strong entrepreneurial sense.

As part of their “BT2″ (Break Through Toyota) initiative, Toyota set a 3-year goal to reduce fixed costs by 30%, in order to improve cost competitiveness of their Japanese plants vs. China.

Their Motomachi plant had benchmarked TMK to derive targets that would allow them to achieve this aggressive goal.

So TMK was a source of learning even within the highly accomplished Toyota network of factories in Japan.

I vividly remember walking the bodyweld line, and being awed at every andon (visual control) board on the line reading “99.9%” uptime.

It was a powerful message. Admittedly, it was early in the day, and all plants have problems, but it was an indicator of what a motivated team with great management systems can accomplish.

My amazement only continued to increase, as we came across a visual control board on the recent launch of the then-new Harrier / RX300 (483N).

The chart showed that, while running the old Highlander model at full volume on the same line, TMK launched an all-new vehicle and ramped it from Quality Confirmation Stage (QCS) to mass production (steady-state) volume in just eight (8) days!

Our team marveled at this level of excellence, and when we commented on how Toyota’s North American plants could not ramp a new model so quickly, we were told that even other Toyota plants in Japan could not match this ramp so quickly!

What differentiated TMK from other Toyota plants was the visible enthusiasm for continuous improvement — we called it “Kaizen Spirit”.

The workforce at that plant is a competitive weapon and the plant’s management harnesses the power of ideas in a way that I’ve never seen before.

The last point I want to emphasize is quality. Only a handful of processes were flagged as a special, “Lexus quality” step (similar to a critical safety or quality check in any plant).

There was NO discernible difference between the manufacturing processes for Lexus RX 300 / Harrier (Asia version) and Highlander, and Kruger (Asia version) — and not just because these vehicles shared many, common parts.

To me, it was about the high quality standards that pervade all Toyota plants in Japan. They don’t differentiate between high- or low-margin vehicles in manufacturing.

Bottom line — TMK is one of the best factories in the world, and anyone who has the opportunity to visit should do so!

Original comment:
link