4 ms·

How does Toyota do it? Their doors seem to fit.

klodolph 6y ago
There are a lot of differences in the way Toyota manufactures cars compared to, say, typical US manufacturers and the differences are extensively studied in the literature. These techniques have been adapted to other fields, even software development. If you ever heard the term “kanban board”, well, that system is based on Toyota’s manufacturing system. One of the principles of Toyota’s process is that they will stop the assembly line to fix defects. This sounds simple, but other manufacturers will keep the assembly line moving, putting pressure on workers to complete their steps faster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way One of the classic case studies is the Fremont Assembly plant in Fremont, California, which was run by GM until 1982 when it closed due to production problems. It was considered an embarrassment to the US automotive industry. Cars from the Fremont plant would come off the assembly line with major defects and they couldn’t be shipped to dealers. When I say “major defects”, think “this car can’t be shipped to a dealer, because it is missing a door.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Assembly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Assembly Toyota needed to manufacture vehicles in North America and created a joint venture with GM called NUMMI, which reopened the plant in 1984—manufacturing both GM and Toyota vehicles. The existing workforce was sent to Japan to learn Toyota’s manufacturing system. The defect rate dropped dramatically after Toyota’s involvement. GM attempted to take what they learned from Toyota and bring it to other factories in the US, but failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI For various reasons, the plant shut down in 2010. It is now a Tesla plant.
- Erlich_Bachman 6y ago
  > For various reasons, the plant shut down in 2010. It is now a Tesla plant. It probably wasn't intended that way, but that's such a beautiful irony. Similar to the dark humor of writing of Catch 22 and other books. Describe all the technological and managerial achievements and progresses of the system that is supposedly so much better than the one mentioned before (Tesla), and how it documentedly better, and produces so many good results and tolerating so many struggles, only to find out that it still was replaced by none other than Tesla. I guess they bet on the things that mattered even more.
  - philwelch 6y ago
    Except for Toyota having since become the world’s leading manufacturer of automobiles, sure.
    - tempestn 6y ago
      Although Tesla did recently pass them to become the largest car company in the world by market cap.
      - sneak 6y ago
        I don't think that market cap, an entirely fictional number (constructed by multiplying two non-fictional numbers), is a reasonable or sufficient measure of "largest $X company". TSLA is doing well, but that has little or nothing to do with Tesla the auto manufacturer, and it certainly doesn't dictate their "size".
    - beamatronic 6y ago
      Toyota/Lexus fan here. They make the worlds finest previous-generation automobiles. It kills me how close they get to the mark (ie new 2021 hybrid Sienna WITHOUT plug-in) and just don’t hit it.
      - toomuchtodo 6y ago
        Affordable, reliable, bleeding edge. Pick two.
dawnerd 6y ago
If you measure they will still have variances between doors, Toyota is just more strict with allowable tolerances.

There are a lot of differences in the way Toyota manufactures cars compared to, say, typical US manufacturers and the differences are extensively studied in the literature. These techniques have been adapted to other fields, even software development. If you ever heard the term “kanban board”, well, that system is based on Toyota’s manufacturing system. One of the principles of Toyota’s process is that they will stop the assembly line to fix defects. This sounds simple, but other manufacturers will keep the assembly line moving, putting pressure on workers to complete their steps faster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way One of the classic case studies is the Fremont Assembly plant in Fremont, California, which was run by GM until 1982 when it closed due to production problems. It was considered an embarrassment to the US automotive industry. Cars from the Fremont plant would come off the assembly line with major defects and they couldn’t be shipped to dealers. When I say “major defects”, think “this car can’t be shipped to a dealer, because it is missing a door.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Assembly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Assembly Toyota needed to manufacture vehicles in North America and created a joint venture with GM called NUMMI, which reopened the plant in 1984—manufacturing both GM and Toyota vehicles. The existing workforce was sent to Japan to learn Toyota’s manufacturing system. The defect rate dropped dramatically after Toyota’s involvement. GM attempted to take what they learned from Toyota and bring it to other factories in the US, but failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI For various reasons, the plant shut down in 2010. It is now a Tesla plant.

Erlich_Bachman 6y ago
> For various reasons, the plant shut down in 2010. It is now a Tesla plant. It probably wasn't intended that way, but that's such a beautiful irony. Similar to the dark humor of writing of Catch 22 and other books. Describe all the technological and managerial achievements and progresses of the system that is supposedly so much better than the one mentioned before (Tesla), and how it documentedly better, and produces so many good results and tolerating so many struggles, only to find out that it still was replaced by none other than Tesla. I guess they bet on the things that mattered even more.
- philwelch 6y ago
  Except for Toyota having since become the world’s leading manufacturer of automobiles, sure.
  - tempestn 6y ago
    Although Tesla did recently pass them to become the largest car company in the world by market cap.
    - sneak 6y ago
      I don't think that market cap, an entirely fictional number (constructed by multiplying two non-fictional numbers), is a reasonable or sufficient measure of "largest $X company". TSLA is doing well, but that has little or nothing to do with Tesla the auto manufacturer, and it certainly doesn't dictate their "size".
  - beamatronic 6y ago
    Toyota/Lexus fan here. They make the worlds finest previous-generation automobiles. It kills me how close they get to the mark (ie new 2021 hybrid Sienna WITHOUT plug-in) and just don’t hit it.
    - toomuchtodo 6y ago
      Affordable, reliable, bleeding edge. Pick two.

dawnerd 6y ago

If you measure they will still have variances between doors, Toyota is just more strict with allowable tolerances.