Suzaki Industries – Factory Tour
Suzaki Industries is a SME with approximately 60 employees that produces pressed, welded and assembled components for the automotive industry. The company’s major customers are Toyota Group companies including Gifu Auto Body but it also supplies other car manufacturing companies.
Corporate Information
- Company: Suzaki Industries
- Foundation: 1953
- Location: Gifu Prefecture
- Main Business: automotive parts manufacturing
Suzaki Industries – Lean Characteristics
TPS, Kanban, Poka-Yoke, SMED
A visit to this small auto parts supplier will showcase a great example of a successful lean transformation of a company that was once on the brink of bankruptcy when Japan’s bubble economy burst. Under the leadership of former Chairman Suzaki, the company had adopted TPS and made tireless continuous efforts to eliminate waste from their processes while implementing kaizen improvement measures in order to survive and turn around their business.
The former chairman will lead us on a factory visit and discussion focusing on improvements that have been made over the years that has brought them up to the level required to be retained as a supplier to the Toyota Group.
The visit will also include a detailed explanation of the kanban system used within the factory, excellent examples of poka-yoke, a technique used in a lean manufacturing process to prevent human errors to achieve zero defect quality control as well as to implement safety measures. Demonstration of their efforts with SMED as well as an example of layout and process improvement for a production cell will also be demonstrated and discussed.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Wonderful! I truly loved how we got a chance to see multiple tiers of the Toyota supply chain, and learned the true definition of some buzz words related to TPS. Getting a chance to see it all up-close was impactful.
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Sindelfingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
The Lean Japan Tour was brilliant. It was full of activities, insights and learning. In addition, the organization and the schedule were perfect.
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Auckland, New Zealand
Paul, Eri and Ichi provided a fantastically well curated tour to the birthplace of continuous improvement. Hearing the theory, experiencing practical hands-on learning at the dojo, and then seeing the theory put into practice at a number of world class manufacturing plants was thought provoking, motivating and inspiring. Now the fun starts – putting theory…
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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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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The thing about the Lean Japan Tour by Shinka Management is that it’s not focused only on production efficiency, but also involves the lean way of managing people & reducing waste as a path to improving an organization’s quality & efficiency. We had the chance to visit different plants, and the privilege of meeting sensei…
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Gothenburg, Sweden
A great tour. Having spent over 20 years in manufacturing I now understand the true meaning of Kaizen.
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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.
Tour Inquiries
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