Page 86 - Toyota Under Fire

THE OIL CRISIS AND THE GREA T RECESSION

When a new plant is launched, Toyota’s practice is to dub
it an infant and assign it a mother plant to guide its growth and
development. In this case, the mother was TMMI, which had
transferred some of its best managers and group leaders to Texas.
Still, under normal circumstances, TMMTX would have been
protected from major changes for at least three to five years. The
industrywide collapse of truck sales did not allow that luxury.
When the plant started back up after the three-month shutdown,
it also had to adjust to a slower takt time.
TMMTX kept the line slow for months to reduce dealer
inventory in preparation for the 2010 Tundra model launch
(actually launched in the summer of 2009). With gas prices eas-
ing significantly and a popular new model, demand suddenly
jumped. The plant was asked to increase the line speed from 109
seconds per vehicle to 73 seconds per vehicle, the largest change
in line speed ever for any Toyota plant in North America, and
possibly any Toyota plant in the world. This change benefited
dramatically from all the training and problem solving that had
been undertaken during the shutdown. With such a large change,
a decision was made to phase in part of the change over several
weeks. Still, the plant was able to fully implement the takt change
in just four weeks, faster than the six weeks planned and a match
for TMMK.

Working with Suppliers

The productivity and profitability of a large manufacturing plant
depends on much more than what happens inside the walls, of
course. Suppliers are a major part of the equation, particularly in
lean production, where there is relatively little inventory to pro-
vide a buffer. Toyota depends on suppliers that are reliable and

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