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Toyota Cut Last-Minute Production Inventories
Toyota Motor Corp. is rolling out a technique in Japan that can reduce 90% of supplier inventory space needed to adjust for last-minute changes in final assembly schedules, The Nikkei reports.
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Toyota Motor Corp. is rolling out a technique in Japan that can reduce 90% of supplier inventory space needed to adjust for last-minute changes in final assembly schedules, The Nikkei reports.
The streamlining aims to reduce manufacturing costs. The report says Toyota factories are normally supplied just-in-time according to schedules a few days ahead of production. But the final sequencing isn’t locked in until two hours before actual assembly, thereby allowing adjustments for unexpected production snags. Local suppliers have been carrying extra inventory to cover these potential last-minute changes.
The new system simply finalizes the schedule about four days ahead of production. In a pilot test at Toyota’s assembly plant in Iwate, suppliers were able to slash inventory space for backup parts by as much as 90%. The factory’s own storage requirements for extra parts shrank 60%.
Toyota is now applying the new system at its factory in Miyagi and will take similar steps at the company’s Yaris small-car plant in France, according to The Nikkei.
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