Toyota Motor Corporation

At Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Kentucky, the plant is having a problem with defective seats in its production of Toyota Camry's. The plant has had success in implementing TPS (Toyota Production System), a manufacturing system that was developed in Toyota plants in Japan and was based around the whole concept of "building in quality in the production process and condemned any deviation from value-addition as waste." Doug Friesen, assembly manager at the plant, was told of the specific problem as told in the case:

"Regarding the seat, she [Shirley Sargent, group leader] drew Friesen's

attention to an ongoing problem since the past fall: during rear side bolster

installation, a hook protruding from the back of that part was to be snapped

into the 'eye' of the body, but the hook sometimes broker off."

This is the problem Friesen needs to focus his attention on in order to solve this problem. This seat problem had tremendous consequences as production quotas were down to 85% from 95%. This meant a shortage of 45 cars per shift, which had to be made up with expensive overtime hours. If I were Mr. Friesen, this is where I would be focusing

my attention. This situation is creating exceptions in the Toyota Production System, which has served the plant so well in the past that the plant manufactures cars for worldwide markets. The three exceptions being created are: 1) assembly operators already knew of the problem; 2) it was possible to finish assembly of the car without the seat; and 3) it was the general feeling that halting the line was too expensive given how long it took to obtain the replacement seat.

There are options for Friesen to consider implementing. First, the number of suppliers needs to be increased. The problem with the seat installation seemed to occur after the number of seat variations increased from three to 18. Yet, there is still only one supplier. This doesn't seem to make sense. Kentucky Framed Seat (the seat manufacturer for the Kentucky plant) could be having trouble keeping up with orders. Another option is to consider changing the off-line process (this is where cars with defects are worked on) so that overtime hours can be decreased. Overtime hours are a huge cost to the