Toyota Motor Corporation – Factory Tour

Corporate Information

Toyota Factory Tour – Lean Characteristics

TPS, Jidoka, Just-In-Time Production

Toyota is the home of the Toyota Production System (TPS). The lean manufacturing movement is based around the management principles, tools and culture that Toyota has been developing for over 60 years.

Supported by the two key pillars of Jidoka (a Japanese word that can be translated as “automation with a human touch”) and Just-In-Time, TPS aims to offer high quality, short delivery times, and reasonable cost through employee creativity and intense efforts to eliminate waste. It is designed so that machines and people alike stop production when there is equipment failure or any other irregularity in order for it to be immediately corrected. Also, it improves productivity without waste by manufacturing and delivering the necessary parts at the necessary time in the necessary quantity.

Shinka Management has shop floor-level access to the final assembly plant that produce the Toyota HiAce and the Toyota Coaster for Toyota Motor Corporation – facilities that are not open to the general public.

A factory visit includes access to welding (body shop), assembly and inspection lines. Unlike free public factory tours offered by Toyota (currently suspended indefinitely following the pandemic) which focus on general themes, Shinka Management tours focus on the application of the Toyota Production System and are led by one of our Sensei formerly from the Toyota Group.

The factory visit incorporates content on the two pillars of the Toyota Production System; Jidoka and Just-In-Time. The tour provides a close-up view of 5S, standard work, visual management, karakuri, poka-yoke, AGV (automated guided vehicle) and kanban application, with questions taken both on the shop floor and in a Q&A session following the visit.