Our Toyota Plant visit was organised as an integral part of the curriculum for our Operations course. The field visit was an interesting and memorable experience, especially for those who have always respected Toyota’s commitment to quality and aspire to be in the driving seat of a Lexus.
The Cambridge facility is the only Toyota plant outside Japan that assembles vehicles for the company’s luxury Lexus franchise. It is one of the three plants that tied in the J.D. Power and Associates annual survey of initial quality. The Cambridge plant shared the platinum award with a Lexus plant in Japan and a Honda Motor Co. Ltd. plant in Greensburg, Ind., which turned out vehicles with the fewest defects and malfunctions.
The day started off early for us as it was almost an hour long commute to the Cambridge plant. The Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) plant at Cambridge is spread over an area of 3 million square feet and is divided into two plants (North and South). Corolla and Matrix are built in the North plant and the Lexus RX 350 is built in the South Plant.
Our tour started with a quick introduction and welcome. The Toyota Team gave a headphone to each of the visitors, who were divided in two teams and seated on a battery powered open coach. Our first visit was to the North Plant, where the Toyota Corolla is built. We were shown the auto assembly line, which rolls out a brand new Corolla every minute. The entire plant is automated with industrial robots, which do everything from complex stamping, moulding and welding to installation and assembly. Towards the end of the tour, we saw workers installing seats and doors. This was the penultimate stage of the assembly line, after which, the car was transferred for final quality inspection. This assembly line had a very interesting network of overhead Andon Lines that a worker could pull in case of an issue to start flashing a yellow light at the station to attract the attention of his or her group leader. Another feature that struck me was that the floor of the assembly line could also be adjusted according to the height of the worker to maintain an ergonomically correct posture. Toyota’s principle of Just-In-Time process, strong emphasis on waste reduction (Kaizen) and inventory management gave the maintenance staff just 9 minutes to fix a robot or an assembly line issue before it started impacting their production targets.
When our coach entered the Lexus plant, it was similar yet different. A huge banner of Lexus RX 350 welcomed us. At the Lexus plant, the degree of automation was even higher with a lot of emphasis on Quality and Inspection. At the Lexus plant, the inspectors audit 293 items and every Lexus vehicle is test driven on a Lexus-exclusive track to ensure perfection. In less than 4 minutes, a brand new Lexus RX 350 rolls out of the plant. The coach took us through a path parallel to the robots and we were lucky to see the complete stamping process of one of the rear doors. After almost an hour, when our tour operator brought the coach to a halt; I marvelled at the synchronisation and effortless operation of a multi-tier automotive plant that works with a total commitment to environment, to it’s workers’ safety and most importantly, to it’s valued customers who trust Toyota to keep their family safe.
On our return to Spencer, I looked at my shining silver Toyota Camry not as a car but as a marvel of engineering and went on a long drive with an aspiration to upgrade my car to a Lexus……after I pay off my student loan.
Gaurav has an Electrical Engineering degree from Delhi University (India). Prior to Ivey, he was working at Research In Motion in the Engineering Product Lifecycle Management team and wishes to leverage his experience and transition into Management Consulting. At Ivey, he is the Founder and President of the Operations and Supply Chain Management Club. In his spare time, he likes to spend time with his family and catch up on sports.