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.
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
It was great experiencing factories that have implemented simple and effective processes in the right manner. I enjoyed the stories from each sensei on their journey of kaizen and how they implemented it within their factories. Ben, Eri and Juan were incredible hosts, the whole tour was seamless and the content was really valuable. This…
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Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
I attended the tour in 2011 and found the whole experience very useful to build on my understanding of Lean Manufacturing. For those having a reasonable understanding of Lean this tour shows in detail the gap that Australia experiences to world class productivity practices. Most interesting was the deployment of essentially the key elements of…
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
I recently had the privilege of attending the Lean Japan Tour organized by Shinka Management, and I can say it was an unforgettable experience! From start to finish, the tour was exceptionally well-managed, and I came away with a wealth of new knowledge and insights into lean manufacturing. I want to express my gratitude to…
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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Had the pleasure to accompany Ben and clients on the 2007 Lean Japan Tour. I had worked with many Japanese, ASEAN, UK and US firms and as such have participated in benchmarking assignments and tours of their operations. Some involved attending and presenting at various strategy, productivity and quality management conferences. In that context, I…
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Shanghai, China
I’d rate 100% for this trip. It fulfilled or even exceeded my expectations. Reasonable arrangement of class, practice and plant visits; and high quality service for everything during the trip.
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates
It was a fasntastic tour from the beginning to the end. It was very well-organised and informative. Sessions were followed with practical training which concentrated more on the ideas that had been explained. The factories visited were chosen in a way that allowed the participants to see a live supply chain work. Big thanks to…
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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
Interested in joining us in Japan? For additional information prior to registration please fill in the form provided or contact us.