TOYOTA MOTOR

MANUFACTURE
USA
SYNDICATE 7 – BLEMBA 28
 GENERAL PROBLEMS

1 Line Utilization rate below the projected target

2 Defective seat in cars.

3 Cars without seats.

Dough Friesen
Manager of assembly for Toyota’s
Georgetown, Kentucky, Plant
 SEATS PROBLEM
Supplier Kentucky Framed Seat (KFS)
Sole supplier of Seats
Pieces 1. Front left and right assemblies
2. Rear seat bench and backrests;
3. Rear side bolsters.
Challenger • It was a soft part prone to damage;
• The bulkiest of all the installed parts.
QC PoV • Safety item;
• Standards for the car’s crash performance.
Feature • Seat was a sensory item because the feel of its surface finish had to
satisfy customers. (no precise standards in this area)
• Most expensive of all the purchased parts (740 USD) with fabric
accounting for almost half of the figure (+ 370 USD).
SIGNS OF PROBLEM (Page 9/22)
 PROCESS
No. TMM (Cars) KFS (Seats)
1 Body shells emerged from the paint line. Received manifest information to their printers. It
appears in real time, in the exact sequence in
which cars entered the trim line.
2 Cars travelled assembly line Trigger seat production much like a Kanban of lot
size one.
3 Seat travelled down seat assembly.
4 At the end of the line, matching pieces then
merged at the end of the KFS lines, 100%
inspected, loaded onto trailer.
5 58 seats sets go to TMM, duration 30 minutes.
6 Seats waited for unloading to staging line.
Sequence in accordance to manifest printouts.
7 Car arrived at Final 1 Seat reached the seat loading work station,
assembly line segment called Final 1.
8 Car received front seat Front seat is bolted at front seat assemblies
9 Car with front seat installed goes to Final 2. Rear seat reached Final 2.
 SEATS PROBLEM

ONGOING PROBLEM
1. During rear side bolster installation, a hook protruding from the back of that
part was to be snapped into the "eye" of the body". Hook sometimes broke off.
2. Curious about the status of an engineering change request she had filed
several months ago: Cremeens had blamed the design of the 1992 Camry for
the hook problem, noting that the hook had been changed from metal to
plastic.
3. Sharp edge made it brittle;

THREE FACTS

1. Modifying the relevant tooling for the hook would cost KFS about 50,000 USD;
2. Tsutsumi, using identical engineering drawings for the part, had not reported
the problem;
3. Hook breakage frequency had gone down from about seven occurrences per
shift at the new model introduction to one per shift by April
 CREEMENS: SEATS PROBLEM DATA

• Cars dated 27/04 should already leave the parking area with retrofit seats assemblies within
the same or the following shift.
• Cremeens inform they already faxed KFS for reorder form.
• KFS responded with a special delivery of replacements twice a day.
• KFS sometimes sent the wrong seat assemblies.
CREEMENS: SEATS PROBLEM DATA

Wrong Part

Missing Part
Material Flaw
As Doug Friesen:
1. What would you do to address the seat problem?
2. Where would you focus your attention and solution efforts?
1. Find the actual reason behind the existence of the problem
2. Undertake the option of gathering the cross-functional team of KFS and TMM employees from several disciplines
3. Keep the attention and the solution efforts on the rear seat installation station

What option exist? What would you recommend? Why?

1. [Answer]
Where does the current routine for handling defective seats from the principles of the
Toyota Production System?

1. [Answer]

What is the real problem facing Doug Friesen?

The assembly team is getting used to the seat defects in factory. They looked increasingly puzzled
when seat defects problem being questioned.