May 28, 2007 Mem
orial Day.
Today was our first visit to a business on this trip. First we boarded a bullet train that took us to Toyota city. The bullet train got up as high as 169 mph and rides extremely smooth. We forty Americans took up the majority of one car on the train. I was sitting right at the front of the car where the entrance was. I got a great laugh when one Japanese businessman stepped through the door (all the doors on the train opened the way the doors do on Star Trek) and then seeing all these Americans stepped back out the door and doubled check that he had the right car. I think he was wondering if he had stepped through some kind of a space warp or something. Pretty funny!
The Toyota tour was just amazing. We have often discussed over the past two years the efficiencies of the Toyota Production System. Seeing it up c
lose and in person was really something. They run a production line for 16 hours a day and yet they never have more than two hours of inventory on hand at one time. The true definition of Just In Time Inventory controls. The facility we toured manufactures approximately 600 vehicles a day and is equipped to produce 8 different models. The plant we toured was used for Japanese domestic cars only.
One thing that I really thought was amazing was the empowerment given the individual line workers. At any time, if a worker has a concern of any kind he can pull on a white cord that will stop the line until the problem is fixed. The important aspect is that if an employee goes to long without stopping the line it is seen as a greater concern than if the line gets stopped. They really want to ensure that each vehicle produced meets specifications. In fact, the vehicles undergo over a thousand different inspection tests prior to leaving the plant.
Along the line of employee empowerment…in order to continually improve, the workers are given incentives to make suggestions on improving the facility. Last year the workers at the facility came up with over 600,000 new ideas for improving the process. Makes me think about whether the companies I have worked for really value imput from the individual workers the way they should. Ever implemented idea also results in a bonus for the employee.
My favorite part was the welding section. The Robots were straight out of Star Wars! Very difficult to describe (and we were not allowed to take pictures in the factory) but the robots that did the welding were just awesome! They were long arm like mechanical beasts that would sit still as the welding sheet came to their section...then the whole line of welders would go crazy welding and shooting sparks into the air. Then they would switch to vacuum mode and vacuum all over the frames of the current sheet. At this point, the machines all along the line go back to sleep and the line shifts. The process then begins all over for the next phase. In all, each car has over 4,500 welding spots. What I hadn't realized before watching this process (besides the fact that apparantly the "Jetsons" was as much fact as fiction) was that the lines (both welding and production) were made up of different cars and that they were not made in batches. In other words, a worker or a welding machine goes from say a Corolla to a Minivan to a Camry to a Highlander etc. On the bottom of the cars is placed a data chip that tells the welding machine what spots to weld.
We then went to the Toyota exhibition hall and museum. Not being a major car lover myself, I was mostly intrigued by some of the goofy robotics they had on hand. One melodramatic performance introduced something called the i-Unit which is an individual motor vehicle that is pretty funny looking. I can’t imagine trying to explain it so I will have to rely on the photo. The most fun was watching the outer lighting change colors based on the color of the necklace of the driver. It really was top notch Asian melodrama at its finest showing off this futuristic mobile unit. The picture shows the i-unit upright but it can also become a four wheeler so you can take it out on the highways and really show everyone just how cool you are with your color coded robotic arm chair.
We had lunch and a Q & A at the Toyota Headquarters. The food was a little different than I personally would have ordered, but it was interesting hearing from the business executives at Toyota. I was surprised at how some of the questions from our group seemed to be rather confrontational in nature. I hope that along the way we don't offend any of these executives we have come to pay homage to.
orial Day.Today was our first visit to a business on this trip. First we boarded a bullet train that took us to Toyota city. The bullet train got up as high as 169 mph and rides extremely smooth. We forty Americans took up the majority of one car on the train. I was sitting right at the front of the car where the entrance was. I got a great laugh when one Japanese businessman stepped through the door (all the doors on the train opened the way the doors do on Star Trek) and then seeing all these Americans stepped back out the door and doubled check that he had the right car. I think he was wondering if he had stepped through some kind of a space warp or something. Pretty funny!
The Toyota tour was just amazing. We have often discussed over the past two years the efficiencies of the Toyota Production System. Seeing it up c
lose and in person was really something. They run a production line for 16 hours a day and yet they never have more than two hours of inventory on hand at one time. The true definition of Just In Time Inventory controls. The facility we toured manufactures approximately 600 vehicles a day and is equipped to produce 8 different models. The plant we toured was used for Japanese domestic cars only.One thing that I really thought was amazing was the empowerment given the individual line workers. At any time, if a worker has a concern of any kind he can pull on a white cord that will stop the line until the problem is fixed. The important aspect is that if an employee goes to long without stopping the line it is seen as a greater concern than if the line gets stopped. They really want to ensure that each vehicle produced meets specifications. In fact, the vehicles undergo over a thousand different inspection tests prior to leaving the plant.
Along the line of employee empowerment…in order to continually improve, the workers are given incentives to make suggestions on improving the facility. Last year the workers at the facility came up with over 600,000 new ideas for improving the process. Makes me think about whether the companies I have worked for really value imput from the individual workers the way they should. Ever implemented idea also results in a bonus for the employee.
My favorite part was the welding section. The Robots were straight out of Star Wars! Very difficult to describe (and we were not allowed to take pictures in the factory) but the robots that did the welding were just awesome! They were long arm like mechanical beasts that would sit still as the welding sheet came to their section...then the whole line of welders would go crazy welding and shooting sparks into the air. Then they would switch to vacuum mode and vacuum all over the frames of the current sheet. At this point, the machines all along the line go back to sleep and the line shifts. The process then begins all over for the next phase. In all, each car has over 4,500 welding spots. What I hadn't realized before watching this process (besides the fact that apparantly the "Jetsons" was as much fact as fiction) was that the lines (both welding and production) were made up of different cars and that they were not made in batches. In other words, a worker or a welding machine goes from say a Corolla to a Minivan to a Camry to a Highlander etc. On the bottom of the cars is placed a data chip that tells the welding machine what spots to weld.
We then went to the Toyota exhibition hall and museum. Not being a major car lover myself, I was mostly intrigued by some of the goofy robotics they had on hand. One melodramatic performance introduced something called the i-Unit which is an individual motor vehicle that is pretty funny looking. I can’t imagine trying to explain it so I will have to rely on the photo. The most fun was watching the outer lighting change colors based on the color of the necklace of the driver. It really was top notch Asian melodrama at its finest showing off this futuristic mobile unit. The picture shows the i-unit upright but it can also become a four wheeler so you can take it out on the highways and really show everyone just how cool you are with your color coded robotic arm chair.
We had lunch and a Q & A at the Toyota Headquarters. The food was a little different than I personally would have ordered, but it was interesting hearing from the business executives at Toyota. I was surprised at how some of the questions from our group seemed to be rather confrontational in nature. I hope that along the way we don't offend any of these executives we have come to pay homage to.
After Toyota we took a bullet train from there up to Tokyo. Tokyo is absolutely amazing. It has the tall buildings of somewhere like New York but is also completely clean and has next to no crime. Tokyo was fairly well destroyed back at the end of the war and so everything is pretty new. 
Right after checking into the hotel a few of us went looking for food. I felt extremely fortunate when I saw a sign for a Taiwan restaurant. I really enjoyed the food, having not eaten Taiwanese food for many years. The group I was with also really enjoyed the food and one of the other guys was also a returned missionary from Taiwan. He served in Taipei about the same time I did. We have already begun plotting the fun we will be able to have speaking Chinese to the people we run into in Beijing.
Right after checking into the hotel a few of us went looking for food. I felt extremely fortunate when I saw a sign for a Taiwan restaurant. I really enjoyed the food, having not eaten Taiwanese food for many years. The group I was with also really enjoyed the food and one of the other guys was also a returned missionary from Taiwan. He served in Taipei about the same time I did. We have already begun plotting the fun we will be able to have speaking Chinese to the people we run into in Beijing.
2 comments:
Kent,
It sounds like you are having a lot of really cool experiences and I wish I were there to share in the fun. Thanks for the blog. It's really fun to read. Tyler kept making me show him the picture of the robot over and over again. He misses you and is having a hard time with your absence. We love and miss you.
Jamie
Sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun. We miss you and can't wait to hear more about your adventures, even if it makes us moms at home jealous.
Love, Miranda
Post a Comment