Toyota Motor Manufacturing, USA, Inc Case Analysis
* Main and sub ideas of the case.
The main topic of the case was the problems caused by defective or damaged seats. TMM USA's seat problem was threefold. The first was the actual defects with the hooks and the damaged caused by cross threading by employees when installing the seats. This problem led to the second problem, which was the departure from the Toyota Production System (TPS) when dealing with the seat problem. Rather than fix the problem with the seat when it happened, they continued with the car's production and worried about the seat afterwards. And this led to the third problem, a build up of cars with seat problems in the off-line operation area.
In reading the case I noticed three subtopics. They were the use of TPS in TMM USA, the problems caused by the increase in the Camry seat options and the taking on of all the wagon productions for TMM, and relationship between TMM USA and its seat supplier Kentucky Framed Seats (KFS).
Toyota Camry photographed in Waldorf, Maryland, US...
2007-2009 Toyota Camry photographed in College Par...
2007 Toyota Camry SE photographed in USA. Category...* Toyota Motor Manufacturing (TMM), USA, Inc background.
In 1988 TMM Japan began production on a new plant located in the US. The plant was modeled after the Tsutsumi plant and was to replace the majority of the Camrys that were being imported from Japan. As part of its setup the Tsutsumi production line was copied and employees were trained in the TPS process. TPS is based on reducing costs through the elimination of waste. TPS relied on two themes Just-In-Time (JIT) and jidoka. JIT means that new parts are produced only when needed. Jidoka is the stopping of production when a problem is noticed and fixing it then and there. TMM USA implemented these methodologies throughout its operation departments. TMM USA also had...