Toyota Body Seiko – Factory Tour
Toyota Body Seiko is a subsidiary of Toyota Auto Body, an integrated automotive parts manufacturer that develops, designs and manufactures a variety of auto seat parts, frames and pressed components. The company is a first-tier supplier to the Toyota Group with five factories in Japan and two overseas.
Corporate Information
- Company: Toyota Body Seiko
- Parent Company: Toyota Auto Body
- Establishment: 1992
- Location: Headquartered in Aichi Prefecture
- Main Business: Automotive parts manufacturing
Toyota Body Seiko – Lean Characteristics
TPS, Just-In-Time, Kanban, Andon Board, Visual Management, Quality Assurance
Toyota Body Seiko Kakamigahara Factory is one of a regularly visited sites on our Lean Japan Tours. The factory manufactures automotive seat rails used for not only the Toyota HiAce, but for many other popular models such as the Rav4.
The shop floor tour will give a comprehensive operator-level look at factory operations and our tour participants will experience the Toyota Production System in action with excellent examples of Just-In-Time delivery, Kanban and Andon board systems at this Toyota Group first-tier supplier.
Other highlights of the factory shop floor visit include simple but effective visual management tools, automated guided vehicles (AGV) and specific examples of inexpensive improvement ideas that have had a considerable effect on productivity.
Quality assurance is a key challenge for this factory due to the structure of its workforce. Most workers are employed from labor hire firms on short-term contracts. However, you will see how this factory has managed this situation to achieve an impressively low defect rate.
The tour group will visit the product reception and delivery staging areas as well as welding and assembly operations, with the tour and discussion led by a former factory manager.
Sao Paulo, Brazil
The Lean Japan Tour has been an exceptional learning experience, combining practical training, company visits and direct exposure to the real Japanese approach to Lean. The program helped me better understand standardized work, Kaizen, 5S, visual management, leadership at the gemba, and respect for people. What impressed me most was how discipline, culture and continuous…
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Quezon City, Manila, Philippines
Thank you, Shinka Management, for providing me with the opportunity to learn more about Kaizen. As a Quality practitioner, witnessing the evolution of Toyota and its implementation of Kaizen has been amazing. Learning how to adapt Kaizen principles from manufacturing for implementation within a hospital setting has been truly inspiring. Again, thank you Shinka Management!…
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Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Paul and Eri from Shinka Management clearly understood the brief and greatly assisted in transforming our industry tour into an enjoyable and exceptional experience immersed in Japanese culture. Without their support we would not have gained the same level of factory access, learnings and knowledge. Well done!
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Sydney, NSW, Australia
I am finishing my final day of the Lean Tour with Shinka Management, and the experience has been nothing short of transformative. For anyone serious about mastering the Toyota Production System (TPS), this tour in Japan is a must. Shinka provides a masterclass in combining detailed theoretical frameworks with hands-on practical training. Seeing the concepts…
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Sanaswadi, Maharashtra, India
I am deeply grateful to Shinka Management, and to Paul, Eri and Ichi, for an outstanding Lean Japan Tour experience. Their expertise and hospitality made the journey both educational and enjoyable. The insights gained from visiting world-class lean organizations were invaluable, and the dedication of the Shinka team to ensuring we absorbed practical knowledge was…
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Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
The training schedule is very tight and efficient, the class room training was practical and led by an experienced teacher from Toyota, and the tour visits covered a wide range of industries including car manufacturing, parts processing and healthcare.
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The Shinka Management Lean Japan Tour is a professional development program run several times annually. The program includes a mix of lean and kaizen seminars, hands-on lean training and visits to several benchmark lean companies. For further information and program dates, see the lean tour overview page.
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