Your Toyota is My Toyota
Posted by Colin Hensley on June 14, 2010 in Quality
You may have recently seen some of our advertising that is part of our campaign called “Your Toyota is my Toyota.” It features some of the people who work at our company in manufacturing or in the retailer or the national sales companies. Each of them exclaims “My Toyota!” Our aim is to show the real commitment that each and every one of our team members has to ensure quality for our customers.
In the extended versions of the vignettes each of the members explains, in their own words, what they are doing to ensure quality is guaranteed during their part of the process of designing, engineering, producing or selling a Toyota car. I have to say I still get goose-bumps when I watch some of these videos, even though I have seen them many times. I can really feel the passion that my colleagues have for what they do, and I have a huge amount of respect for them and their absolute commitment to ensuring quality.
You might imagine it would be difficult to go into the plant and persuade people to go on camera and talk about their jobs, but it wasn’t. Once the producer had walked around and explained what they wanted to do, many of the members were keen to get involved. The reason why, I think, is actually similar to the use of the andon cord in the plant, which Bridie Tucker explains in her vignette. People recognized that there was a problem that needed to be solved, and raised their hand to do what had to be done to solve it. In this case it wasn’t a blemish or a checking for a leak it was reassuring our customers that we will continue to do everything we can to make the best cars possible.
Take a look at the rest of the vignettes and tell us what you think. Click here
RSS
Comments(1)Every day is “sun”day at the Toyota Parts Centre
Posted by Colin Hensley on April 13, 2010 in Uncategorized
I was recently lucky enough to be on vacation in the mountains. While I was riding up the mountain on the ski-lift with some friends I noticed that there seemed to be a lot fewer trees affected by acid rain as compared with my recollection of some years ago. If this is true, then I hope it has a lot to do with the wider use of electricity from renewable sources. We believe this is a very important step to take to have a more sustainable business.
It’s for precisely this reason that TME, in partnership with Blue Planet Solar NV have installed an 80,000m² solar panel array on the roof of our parts centre, TPCE, in Diest. This installation is one of the largest thin-film solar panel rooftop installations in Belgium and will produce between 15% & 20% of the annual electricity requirements of the facility, resulting in reduced CO2 emissions and huge savings on the energy bill.
On the 24th March we held an inauguration ceremony where the Flemish Minister for Energy, Ms Freya Van den Bossche symbolically pushed the button to start the collection of energy from the panels. Ms Van den Bossche also joined our partners and the other VIP guests in a trip to the roof to see the 12,800 panels. It was hugely impressive, covering the equivalent of 16 football pitches, the panels just seemed to go on and on as far as you could see. Even here in Belgium, which isn’t noted for it’s sunny climate, the panels should generate somewhere between 15% and 20% of the annual electricity needs of TPCE (the rest of the electricity also comes from renewable sources).
This also means a reduction in the CO2 emissions of about 1700 tonnes/year for TPCE. So now as well as being able to offer lower CO2 cars, we can also address emissions during the rest of the product lifecycle.
WELCOMING THE PRESIDENT TO TME
Posted by Colin Hensley on March 25, 2010 in Quality
We had a pretty extraordinary day on Tuesday. Some of you may have seen the coverage in the media already, our President, Akio Toyoda visited Belgium. He started his flying visit by dropping in at Toyota City, one of the local dealers. While Toyoda-san was there, he talked to the customers who were waiting for their cars to be serviced, or even have the modification made for the recalls. He also went down into the workshop to have a close look at how the small metal shim is being added to the accelerator pedal. I talked to some of the people working there, and they were all very proud to have been the subject of this visit.
Toyoda-san then came to our offices to address all of the members. He gave a resounding speech, where he talked about both the difficult times that we have been through recently and his expectations for the future operations in Europe. <you can read the speech here> There were also words from representatives of the dealers, the manufacturing plants and the employees. It was honestly quite moving to see the great response he received from all of my colleagues who had gathered together.
There was also a chance for a small group of our media to talk to Toyoda-san, and because of this, I needed to brief the President directly on the European media situation. I must say, Toyoda-san is both charming and attentive, listening carefully and making pertinent comments.
While it will still take a few more months until the recall campaign is completed here in Europe, this event really felt like another great step towards the future for our company. In fact, one of the things Toyoda-san said himself during the day was that he felt this was a “fresh start” for Toyota.
I can tell, from first hand experience, President Toyoda really does love cars, and wants to bring that passion for design, manufacturing and marketing of cars back into all parts of our company. I know my colleagues in TME and I are ready to take on the challenge.
“Flying” in the Toyota Way
Posted by Colin Hensley on August 07, 2009 in Uncategorized
On our recent vacation I had a lot of fun on the flying trapeze. This involves flinging yourself into space hanging on to a bar, then after executing some physical contortions to get into a specific position, letting go and being caught by the brave catcher at the other side.
As I prepared to leap, I thought about the teamwork and coordination that was required to be able to welcome a complete novice to the trapeze and an hour later have them being caught. There are four people in the team. The first is on the ground checking belts, teaching new positions and keeping things in good order. The second is at the top of the ladder; they fasten on the safety rope, and get the flyer into position, before sending them off into the void. The third is the catcher, who swings upside down waiting for the flyer to head directly at them. The fourth is basically in-charge, and controls the safety rope, and the overall timing of the activity.
Each one of the team takes responsibility for the flyer at their point in the process, and ensures that no problems are passed on to the next person. It’s a demonstration of great teamwork, combining synchronisation with complete trust in each other. Furthermore, giving the flyer the chance to repeat their position a number of times allows them to continuously improve their skill. I realised this is very like the Toyota’s “Total Quality Control” system in many ways, where you always depend on the person before you to deliver you what’s needed, and importantly take responsibility for delivering to your customer, the next person in the process. This way you can build-in quality from the start. Like so many things in our company, it’s a very logical approach to take. For me what is special is that it is formalised and spread through people’s day-to-day thinking through on-the-job training.
Thanks Andrea, Nathalie, Guillaume and Florent, it was a great experience, and a great lesson.
“Keep your eyes on them there hills… the PHV is a comin’”
Posted by Colin Hensley on May 15, 2009 in 360° approach, Green Technologies
This week is really about a few updates of previous posts. At the end of March I wrote about the Plug-in hybrids that we are testing, and the plans for enlarging this test in Europe. At the time I just mentioned the cars that will be going to Strasbourg, well things are starting to move on quite nicely. We are now in discussion to bring the cars to the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, and as you can imagine are keen to work with other countries too if we can. As a consequence, it looks like we will certainly need more than the originally planned number of 150 cars here in Europe.
This is great for us, as we will have even more data to evaluate, and more opinions and experiences of the drivers who are participating in this limited lease pilot. PHV won’t be ready for mass commercialisation for a little while, but when it is, we believe PHV will really complement the Prius, and the other full hybrids in our line-up.
I also promised to update you on the Toyota Technology Challenge in the UK. Well, the final is tomorrow at the Burnaston plant, and there will be thirteen teams competing from all across the country. The teams have already won their regional heats and are now competing for the national title in each of the categories. Seven will compete in the solar powered vehicle category and six in the PIC microcontroller category. Good luck to all of the teams, and, I will, of course, let you know who is finally triumphant
