Toyota Assembly Plant Ban Pho Observation

Toyota Assembly plant Ban Pho Observation Summary

       As we have visited Toyota Plant Ban Pho on Oct 2, 2017 I have received a lot of information and new experience which I haven’t seen before. During the presentation and walking around the factory, I have noticed a high technology of Toyota using to produce their cars. At Each step they use a technology to help human resources to work smoother and more accurately. Furthermore I have researched more about Toyota form the online resources which is Toyota will keep their cycle inventory only a few hours of production between the factory and most of their suppliers. Also, they allocates very little space in the factory to inventory.

        At Toyota Ban Pho, it is one of the Toyota assembly plant located in Ban Pho, Chachoensao. It is not far from Bangkok so it is easy to supplies their car to dealers and also to export. At this plant, it assembly the cars for two models which are Hilux and Fortuner. Also, they assembly the car for export. From my understanding in the assembly shop there are seven stations which separate each job to assemble one cars. In each stations take 80 second to finish. If the staff cannot finish in 80 seconds, there will be the signal light alert overhead abroad which specify the area that has problem. The signal separate in four colors green, white, yellow and red. The green light mean that the job is completed. The white means standby mode and the components are loading. The yellow means something wrong in the station. And red light it will alert when the production is stopped.  After the signal light have been noticed the team leader will go and help the staff to fix the problem. The system that Toyota has called TPS or Toyota Product System. They start to assembly each components together. Then next station is to assembly underbody. After the following parts are completed they will let the Quality checkers test the readiness of the car such as water leakage test, wax spray, airbag test and check underbody to see that every knots are tight. Then they will followed by test driving before distribute the car to their customers. One car take 23 hours to finish. During each stations they still includes most human resources to their process. It is because they believe that human has a skill that is more accurate than some machines or technologies. As I mention in the first paragraph that they will keep their cycle inventory only few hours then they will distribute to dealers and for the export cars they will be sent to Lamchabang Port. The cars in each assembly shop are all made to order. Before each car will go out to the market, they need to make a research the demand in each market. The assembly will receive the order two month before hand. They need to forecast the demand and also their competitors. For the after-sale service Toyota will store the customer’s information 11 years. Another interesting production system of Toyota is Andon Rope. Andon rope means permitted to stop the production line if they spot something that is a threat to their vehicle quality. Another system that I have learnt is Poka-yoke. The purpose is to eliminate defects by preventing, correcting, or highlighting errors as they occur. Mistake-proofing is a part of the continuous improvement philosophy, or Kaizen. Kaizen means continuous improvement.