Report on Toyota Production System

Toyota Production System

Toyota Motor Corporation's vehicle production system is a way of "making things" that is sometimes referred to as a "lean manufacturing system" or a "Just-in-Time (JIT) system," and has come to be well known and studied worldwide.

This production control system has been established based on many years of continuous improvements, with the objective of "making the vehicles ordered by customers in the quickest and most efficient way, in order to deliver the vehicles as quickly as possible."

The Toyota Production System (TPS) was established based on two concepts: The first is called "jidoka"(which can be loosely translated as "automation with a human touch") which means that when a problem occurs, the equipment stops immediately, preventing defective products from being produced; The second is the concept of "Just-in-Time," in which each process produces only what is needed by the next process in a continuous flow.

Based on the basic philosophies of jidoka and Just-in-Time, the TPS can efficiently and quickly produce vehicles of sound quality, one at a time, that fully satisfy customer Jidoka: Jidoka means ‘Machine with human like intelligence'. It works on the principle that Quality must be built in during the manufacturing process!-

If a defective part or equipment malfunction is discovered, the machine concerned automatically stops, and operators stop work and correct the problem.

For the Just-in-Time system to function, all of the parts that are made and supplied must meet predetermined quality standards. This is achieved through jidoka.

Jidoka means that a machine safely stops when the normal processing is completed. It also means that, should a quality or equipment problem arise, the machine detects the problem on its own and stop, preventing defective products from being produced. As a result, only products satisfying the quality standards will be passed on to the next processes on the production line. Since a machine automatically stops when processing is completed or when a problem arises and is communicated via the "andon (problem display board)," operators can confidently continue performing work at another machine, as well as easily identify the problem cause and prevent its recurrence. This means that each operator can be in charge of many machines, resulting in higher productivity, while the continuous improvements lead to greater processing capacity.

Just in Time: Just in time is another key pillar of TPS. It works on the principle of making only "what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed!"

It helps produce quality products efficiently through the complete elimination of waste, inconsistencies, and unreasonable requirements on the production line.

In order to deliver a vehicle ordered by a customer as quickly as possible, the vehicle is efficiently built within the shortest possible period by adhering to the following:

When a vehicle order is received, a production instruction must be issued to the beginning of the vehicle production line as soon as possible.

The assembly line must be stocked with small numbers of all types of parts so that any kind of vehicle ordered can be assembled.

The assembly line must replace the parts used by retrieving the same number of parts from the parts-producing process (the preceding process).

The preceding process must be stocked with small numbers of all types of parts and produce only the numbers of parts that were retrieved by an operator from the next process.

Principles of just-in-time

Toyota's JIT system works on the following principles:

• HEIJUNKA

• The Pull System

• KANBAN

• Continuous flow processing

• Takt Time

• Flexible Work Force

Heijunka: Heijunka is a Japanese term which implies "Leveling". In context of Lean manufacturing and TPS (Toyota Production System), Heijunka refers to a "Production leveling" and "Production smoothing" technique generally employed for scheduling of production activities in order to control inventory, decrease lead times and produce a mix of products and in appropriate volumes as per the customer demand.

Heijunka facilitates stability in a production process particularly aiming to adopt lean manufacturing practices so as to obliterate mura (that is unevenness