Posted on 04/24/2006 1:57:12 PM PDT by -=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-
TOYOTA, Aichi -- At a center for teaching Toyota production methods, workers from around the world learn bolt-tightening by moving dance-like to a metronome and practice paint jobs by studying videos of their performance.
"It comes from experience. The body knows how to learn," says Kazuo Hyodo, a 30-year veteran on the assembly line as he demonstrates how to stand, finger the bolts and listen to the buzz of the drill for proper bolt-tightening Toyota style. "Hear that? That sounds metallic, and you're screwing it in too tight."
At a time when Toyota Motor Corp. appears on track to overtake General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker, it's increasingly critical to correctly spread production methods that earned a global reputation for reliability and efficiency.
While the troubles of U.S. automakers have drawn much of the media attention, Toyota has been quietly doing its job right.
Toyota has boosted U.S. vehicle sales by 10 percent last year from 2004 to clinch about 13 percent American vehicle market share, up from 12 percent in 2004, leading a steady gain by Asian companies. GM's U.S. market share has been dwindling, dipping to 26 percent last year from 27 percent in 2004.
But for the first time, the Japanese automaker is passing on to overseas workers the knowledge that had been passed on silently on the job from generation to generation.
The plant-turned-school where Hyodo works opened in 2003 to maintain quality during a global expansion begun in the 1990's. Similar training centers opened in February in Georgetown, Kentucky; in Burnaston, Great Britain, in March and in Thailand in August 2005. Instructors for overseas centers are trained at the Japan facility.
All the world's automakers have training programs, but they generally aren't as systematic and pervasive as Toyota's. The steps in production are broken down so that the slowest learner will be able to build Toyota cars -- with a little practice.
Sessions lasting up to two months use demonstration videos, mock assembly lines, exercises and lectures -- often with interpreters -- to teach workers from Toyota plants and suppliers around the world. Trainees gather, like martial artists seeking a master, to become versed in "the Toyota Way."
Krishna Srinivasan, 32, who works for a Toyota supplier in India, says he has great respect for the Toyota teachers. If you do things right, you avoid not only quality shortcomings but also accidents, he said.
"It's a method of working correctly," he said. "We're very proud to be an Indian Toyota man."
Although the teaching tools are mostly visual and hands-on, designed to skirt language barriers, the key to producing quality cars is to absorb the proper movements through your body through repeated practice, much like a dance lesson, often in time to a jingling metronome, Toyota officials say.
Students practice paint jobs by spraying water in front of a one-way mirror, where a video camera on the other side detects erroneous movements. Cups are placed at the bottom, and the water that fills up in each of the cups must be even to prove the apprentice has carried out his moves accurately.
Witnessing the training sheds light on the roots of Toyota's success as well as on the challenges it faces as it grapples with translating its ways to foreign languages and cultures.
In the 1950s, when Toyota first began exporting Made-in-Japan cars to North America, it was still playing catch-up with GM.
These days, their fates couldn't be more different.
Toyota raked in 1.17 trillion yen in profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, and is on its way to another booming year when it reports earnings in a few weeks. GM lost US$10.6 billion last year.
Toyota plans to make 9.06 million vehicles this year after producing 8.25 million vehicles last year. GM, which does not give full-year vehicle production targets, produced 9.05 million vehicles in 2005.
Toyota has 52 production facilities in 27 nations and is rapidly growing, with a new plant in San Antonio, Texas, that starts running this year, and others in the works in Canada, Russia, Thailand and China. GM, which has 122 production facilities in 28 nations, is closing plants.
Shinji Kitayama, auto analyst with Shinko Securities Co., said it's important for Toyota to standardize production methods around the world to maintain the same kind of quality.
"There are risks to the undertaking," he said, adding that the extensive training system plays a key role in its growth strategy. "A lot of companies want to imitate Toyota but can't because they don't have the same kind of workers."
A separate training program for grooming management was set up in Japan in 2002, and six of the company's top executives are non-Japanese, although none of them sit on the board.
Toyota also teaches management it must provide an environment where every worker can learn, contribute and be proud of being part of the company.
"At Toyota, we have a culture that values our workers and nurtures them," said Yuichi Shibui, senior general manager at the Global Production Center.
Toyota's principles are reflected in the production methods it made famous, such as "kaizen," or "continuous pursuit of improvement," which means workers on the ground are entrusted and empowered to figure out better ways of making cars and fixing problems on the line.
Another highly praised lean production method is "just-in-time" that reduces inventory by having suppliers ship parts only as they are needed.
Ford Motor Co., which has struggled to regain profits, decided recently to bring back the spirit of a quality initiative from the 1980s called "Quality is Job One," setting up teams to oversee quality control as well as linking compensation to quality improvements.
Toyota's methods -- which the company has fostered for half a century -- are ingenious in encompassing every worker while avoiding directly rewarding individual performance by payment. Toyota vows every worker has proved trainable under its method.
"The quality gap between cars produced by Toyota and GM and Ford cars is unquestionable," says Masaaki Sato, who has authored books about the Japanese auto industry.
Sato said that GM and Ford lack a thorough production training program like Toyota's and sorely need a production expert to help lead their turnaround.
"Toyota continues to make quality cars in America, and that's proof its production methods have taken root there," he said.
Explicit training wouldn't have been needed if Toyota cars were being produced only in Japan because workers would have picked it up naturally "like air," said Executive Vice President Mitsuo Kinoshita.
"This may also apply to a U.S. company's methods, but it's impossible to state everything in a pamphlet. That's your know-how -- something that can't be expressed in words," he said. "If all it took was a manual, anyone could manage a company."
I love my Toyota
I love my Mazda. Thank goodness a hill saved the Mazda factory in Hiroshima in 1945, or today I would be driving God-knows-what
Me too. It came after my Ford expedition and the BS that caused. What was I thinking when I bought that behemoth?
My "little" Rav4 gets me everywhere rather cheaply and causes absolutely no problem. Meek and hard working little guy...although I could use less angry stares from UAW workers in this union infested area.
It's remarkable how nice Toyotas and Hondas are - nice fit, good tactile feel to the switchgear, good quality materials inside and out, smooth, reliable engines. Not just higher-end Lexuses and Acuras - the Accords and Camrys also show craftsmanship and care in construction - and they were built in the US. GM and Ford should be sending their designers, engineers, and assembly-line workers to these courses.
American executives and management will not pay for that.
If the revenue of 100,000 cars minus the cost to fix poor quality exceeds the profit of selling 100,000 cars of greater quality and fewer repairs, then GM/Ford will choose to make crappy cars every time.
There is no pride or long-term investment in quality, just a planned effort by CEOs to loot the company before it tanks completely.
I luv my Yugo!
I bought my wife a new Lexus. Last November we took it for the 2 year ~ 20,000 mile checkup and maintence.
In two years, nothing went wrong and the car needed two new windshield wipers.
Toyota apparently sent some of its top quality control people over to America to set up their new Tundra construction plant and building lines.
I have talked to people who own oil changing, tuning business, transmission business and smogging permit businesses. All of them say the Tundra is the best pickup on the market and most reliable after they are bought.
The American worker can do a great job when the unions and companies don't get in their way of doing a great job.
All the Japanese did was take the teachings of Americans, like Edward Deming, and applied them.
Most Americans have probably never even heard of Deming.
How much will you make when no one can afford your product?
Can't wait until the Chinese cars hit the US market.
You'd be driving an AshCoveredGlassmobile.
"There are risks to the undertaking," he said, adding that the extensive training system plays a key role in its growth strategy. "A lot of companies want to imitate Toyota but can't because they don't have the same kind of workers."
(not to mention Unions).......
I love my 2 Toyotas, and will be getting the new FJ in a couple years.....
that is one old car
You ain't seen nuthin' yet.
Wait 'til China starts selling cars here.
The Chicoms have the best quality control system on the planet:
If Wen Ho Wa misses a bolt, they shoot him and his family.
That's my point. And it still runs, because its a Mazda.
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