This week we headed out to Toyota to learn what has made them the best car manufacturer in the world and how they have built their success on Lean foundations and to get a firsthand view of Toyota’s relentless pursuit in delivering customer’s what they want, when they want it and where they want it…. all the while always trying to improve quality, reduce waste and improve service. Toyota is a learning organisation through relentless reflection and continuous improvement.
Right from the very start, it was evident that Lean was embedded in the Toyota culture and we were surprised and delighted that within a few seconds, the presenter incorporated Lean language, for example Muda (waste), and TAKT time to describe what they measure.
The tour consisted of walking around their stamping plant, highly automated body and paint shop while finally going through the vehicle assembly line where we saw how the cars (Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion) get put together using the Kanban system which is used to improve manufacturing efficiency.
The two-and-a-half-hour tour was a fantastic opportunity for us to see how effective Lean can be used in a workplace to improve quality, reduce waste and enhance the customer experience.
Key take always that relate to our very own Bupa Lean and Continuous Improvement journey included: –
Continuous Improvement (Kaizen) Circles – each team has their own, they then compete by factory and then by region. The plant builds in time for all levels of the organisation to consider Continuous Improvement (CI), and the production line teams of 4 are created to review their own areas/process looking for ways to improve. Some improvements progress whilst others do not however this is more about building a CI culture and learning through
- Go and see for yourself and understand the situation
- Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options then implementing decisions rapidly,
- Be a learning organisation through relentless reflection and continuous improvement
Sometimes the simple things work best, when we were shown some of the ideas that people came up with, they were simple and do the job well without spending too much money on automation etc. One idea focussed on using gravity/slope to move a part from one side to another. It was great to see that the ideas came from the team members doing the job, not the managers.
Automation – As Bupa Aus NZ begins its journey with RPA it was amazing to see what Toyota has done to automate their process through robotics with 82% of the factory automated. Robots helped the company to standardise the way they build cars – providing consistent, quality outputs. The Robots replicate the physical capabilities of humans only to a certain point. When it came to doing quality checks, completing the finer details of cars and pulling all the components into the final product – there was no substitute for human knowledge.
Visual Management Boards complimented with daily stand ups to go through production challenges and how to correct were a great ‘live’ example of how to ensure visibility of performance and acknowledge where a problem is and what is being done to correct/amend.
The importance of Quality and how it is not only built into processes but also present at the end of each production line. Toyota has developed multiple techniques to ensure quality for their customers whether it be sight checks, testing or even feel and touch to ensure quality outcomes for the end customer…. Incredibly they teach all new starters muscle memory – so when they are completing quality checks employees just need to run their hand over the gaps – they worked out that this was more accurate than getting out a measuring tape!
Throughout the entire tour It was made clear that things are never 100% perfect even though Toyota is striving for 100% just in time processing. They happily acknowledged this and that there is always room for improvements.
