Toyota started in the late 1940\'s creating the pillars of what later would be t

Question

Toyota started in the late 1940's creating the pillars of what later would be the Toyota Production System (TPS) or has become known globally as Lean Manufacturing System. This approach has been widely implemented in many industries driving profound changes within the operations context. Recently, Toyota has announced some details about the TPS development that is intended to revolutionize manufacturing systems – Toyota New Global Architecture (TGNA).

Read the article “TNGA explained: engineering for the future” from http://blog.toyota.co.uk/tnga-explained-engineering-for-the-future

- Do you think this system is indeed revolutionary? Why or Why not?

- Do you think this new approach for manufacturing is driving a change of the quality strategy of the company?

- If that is the case, what do you think are the key changes?

Explanation / Answer

I think this is a revolutionary strategy because it goes to the basics of design and helps in efficiency across time span and thus in sustainability.

The just-in-time principle lays emphasis on efficiency but in a different way. It is about reducing excess inventory. Here supply is aligned with production and demand so that suppliers supply only to the level of production avoiding excess. Suppose a company has twenty different assembly lines in different locations each hosting different platforms, everything is supplied in according to the production need. Production runs remain short,

Toyota’s customization efforts led to numerous platforms and a wide range of components. This made it hard to improve on individual models. Sharing one part with another platform is not possible. Different cars need different platforms and hence result in the need for different components. Also, future models require a different range of components and new investments. This method requires accurate forecasting.

There is no link between designing and production

Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA)

Here the efficiency is achieved through harmonizing planning and design .there will be more focus on standardization of parts and components across locations and also across Time. The Company aims at future and tries to create standardized components and designs that last for years. This means even if there are twenty different assembly lines in different locations, the number of platforms is minimal, resulting in more efficiency. Even if there is an excess in one platform this can be shifted to other platform or it can be stored for future use. There can be sharing of parts

Under this TNGA, Toyota is focusing on the joint development of vehicle and creates unified designs. Same-model vehicles are produced across multiple plants. This helps in use of even the smallest surpluses in inventory and capacity. This also helps in reducing investment needed to produce a new model. Even if forecasting is not accurate parts can be used later for other models which use the same components due to standardized platforms

I do think this may drive a change in the quality strategy of Toyota because now quality is more focused on the durability of components and not just performance. Now sustainability is inbuilt into quality. The key changes would be

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