Toyota Motor Manufacturing

(TMM)
Topics of Discussion

TPS Philosophy TPS Tools & Practices

JIT

Breakdown of “Pull”System
 Issues

• Focus of attention

• Options & Solution

• The breakdown point

• The real problem

 Current Approach

• Cars leave overflow area too slowly

– Revise replacement order mechanism

• Too many Cars with defective seats are

arriving at overflow area
– Fix the problem where it arises

The real issue is the cause of the problem is not

addressed….. WHY?
•Batch mode of solving vs real time
•Batch size
 TPS Philosophy

• Integrated system
• Pragmatic and robust but need constant attention
 TPS Tools & Practices

• Standardised work and processes that

are repeatable, reliable and stable
• Processes are made capable and kept in
control through
– Cleanliness
– Worksheets and Manuals
– Standard operating Procedures
– Standardise,do,check, act
– Jidoka : simplify, mistake free, highlight
deviations
 TPS Tools & Practices

• Problems are opportunities to learn

– Understand the root cause and countermeasure
– Make problem visible
– 5 Whys framework
– Andon & Jidoka to highlight the problem areas
– Kaizen
 TPS Tools & Practices

• Optimisation of whole system

– Small batch size
– Kanban-smooth information flow
– Inventory Management : JIT
– Kaizen for improvement
 TPS Tools & Practices

• Heijunka: connect total value chain from

customer’s to supplier
– Pull system
– Minimise set up and change over time
– Even out order requests
– Clear rules of order processing
– Supplier policies
 TPS Tools & Practices

• Human Infrastructure
– Patience
– Is it Lean?
– Worker-Team Leader-Group Leader-Asst Mgr.
– Learning environment
 TPS Tools & Practices

• Why TPS is pragmatic?

– Inventory Buffers
– Andon and work stoppage
– The workers focus on quality and managers
worried about production (counterintuitive?)

Important question is….

If you allow workers to stop production how will you
compensate the losses?
 Economics of ANDON

• Each team member : 12 pulls per shift

• Total = 4236 (4000) for 353 stations
• Final 1: 30 members : 360 pulls
• Stoppage in Final 1 : 30 per shift
• I.e one line stoppage every 15 minutes
• But run ratio is 0.85-0.95 I.e stoppage is 0.75 to 2.25 min/stoppage
• Stoppage of 57seconds : 1 car : $18,500 *0.17 = $3415
• Labour cost loss : $0.269/cycle
• But as lost prodn is made by overtime the lab.cost is $0.404
• If only one line stops then it is 40x0.404 = $16.16/cycle
• IF adjacent line stops (plant stops) :4000x0.404= $1616/cycle
• What are the effects of NOT stopping?
• NOT STOPPING THE LINE RISKS OVERPRODUCTION?
• COMPARE THIS WITH COST OF STOPPAGE?
– Snowball effect
 Seats: Breakdown of Pull System?

• Changes in overflow area

– Reorder form (exhibit9) : handwritten
– Computer based order placement streamlining
– Fixing the error is cumbersome with many cars
• An area for seat-defect cars?

• Are we treating the real cause?

 Seats: Breakdown of Pull System?

• Changes in assembly line

– Installation
• Job rotation: is it okay?
• TPS philosophy on Job rotation
– hook design
• Engineering change request?
• Is QC willing to make change? $50,000 is worth investing
• If problem is 1/shift and model life is 4 years it can occur 1x2shifts/day x 250 days x4
yrs = 2000 occurrences I.e cost per broken hook is only $25: Is it worth investing
• Is there a stand off between QC and Assembly?
– Should we stop the line?
• Seat Inventory?
• Should we eliminate heijunka
• What will we get if we stop the line completely

– Who is responsible?
• KFS or TMM?
• Is seat quality root cause of seat defects?
 Seats: REAL PROBLEM

• Group leaders have either not-detected the seat defects or have

failed to ACT
• Managers have learned about the problem quite late
• This shows that there is a flaw in TPS implementation
– 2 problems: seats & why it has gone unrecognised
• The cause problems are not known
• Symptoms and Causes

• COUNTERMEASURES
– Alert people about defects
– Isolate the possible causes
– Contain the ill effects
 Next Steps
• Seat order form was revised
• KFS put own QC engineers to survey incoming seats for defects
• KFS Altered lighting in their inspection area
• A specific portion of the overflow area was taped off for seat-
defect cars
• This area was 8 defective slots with Bulletin Boards
• Frequent 1/5 meetings
• Results : Problem fell from 40-20 by month end
• Even though variety increased to 100,defects were quickly
identified and corrected
Thank You
 Quiz 3
1. What are the differences between “pragmatic” and
“romantic” view of JIT. Do you agree with Zipkin’s
argument that radical nature of romantic view of JIT was
responsible for its failure? Illustrate with examples
2. What is JIT II
3. The HV motor company produces three models of sports
bikes Gold, Lux and Tiger. The master production
schedule plans the manufacture of 54 Gold,42 Lux and 30
Tigers per 7 hour shift. What average cycle time is
required for the assembly line to achieve this production
quota? If mixed model scheduling is used, how many of
each model will be produced before the production cycle
is repeated?