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How Are Hybrid Cars Made ?
Much of the Toyota's hybrid cars are made in Tsutsumi car plant, covering about 1 million square meters, being, whowever, only one of 10 plants the company has in Toyota City in the Aichi prefecture of Japan. Although at the plant different cars and engines are normally assembled on the same manufacturing line, gas cars and hybrids are assembled on different lines. The plant is highly automated, with automated floor belts moving at slow walking pace through the manufacturing process to the final inspection area, where Toyota workers look for paint scratches and check the lights. The manufacturing line has a draping white cord that hangs overhead on both sides of every production line. If a assembly line worker sees a problem, he pulls the cord, stopping his particular production line to solve the defect. According to the company, the line stoppages take about 15 to 20 minutes of a nine-hour shift, but this attention to detail is reflected in the fact that the defect rate on finished cars is close to zero. Toyota assembly line takes about 20 hours to finish the car ready for shipping to customers from the first steel body parts being assembled together. The production goal for the Tsutsumi factory is around 1,900 cars a day, and there is, above each work area, a sign that tracks the factory's daily goal. The Toyota factory places high importance on Kaizen, or continuous improvement of the manufacturing process. Most of these improvement ideas come from the employees, who submit about 600,000 ideas a year, or about 14 suggestions per employee per year. Also, the vast majority of these ideas ultimately get adopted. For getting their ideas applied, the employees receive bonuses from about 500 yen to 200,000 yen.
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