Toyota Case Study

Executive Summary

The automobile industry can be considered one of the most competitive industries that exists today. The production has to be flawless, the employees hardworking and the managers fully aware of their product. This case study discusses the Toyota production plant in Georgetown, Kentucky.

In July of 1988 Toyota Motor Manufacturing (TMM), USA began producing Toyota Camry sedans. Toyota implements the Toyota Production System (TPS) in their Georgetown plant, similar to all other production facilities. This system reduces cost by eliminating waste. Excess production consumes extra space and human resources to control the products. The two governing principles that Toyota modeled the TPS system after are Just-In-Time (JIT) production and Jidoka. JIT emphasizes the process of producing only what is needed when it is needed. Jidoka focuses on making any production problems instantly self-evident and production would cease when a problem arose. Toyota performs Jidoka by using andon cords to highlight with buzzers and lights the step with the non-compliance. Toyota uses these processes to outperform its competitors and deliver a high quality product.

The Georgetown production plant uses Kentucky Framed Seat (KFS) to supply the seat sets for the entire production taking place at the plant. KFS follows a JIT system of production. When the body shells are finished with the paint line the information about the car is sent to KFS. This information enables KFS to ship out the corresponding seat sets in the correct amount of time to synchronize when the car arrives at final assembly and the seat sets are needed to be installed.

In April of 1992 the Georgetown plant began to experience a decreasing run ratio....

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...ts as much as possible. Any other quick remedies to prevent seat damage, caution labels, protective packaging/coating, etc. should be instigated in the short-term.

In the long term, the costs associated with the increased delivery frequency, off-line corrective action, special packaging etc. would be prohibitive and a solution to the problem must be sought that can be monitored within the TPS. A design change to prevent damage to the seats will be found through the root cause analysis and therefore the frequency of any future seat defects will be low enough that interruptions to the production line will be tolerable. The electronic ordering system could be implemented within a year to ensure that seat orders from KFS are accurate and traceable. This system could then be expanded to include all vendor supplied components in the months following it's introduction.