Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A., Inc.

Camry seat issues at Toyota

Problems with seat erupted by early 1992 , due to model changes , which affected production and delivery of cars . The old model Camry seat had three versions in four colors . The new models for North America included eight seat variations , which was to be taken up immediately . More variations were expected for the world market , while another 10 seat variations for Europe were expected for April . Another 18 seat variations would be required for export to Japan and the Middle East Kentucky Framed Seats (KFS ) was given only

10 days to change over to the new models and 10 weeks to build full capacity for the new models Ensuring the right model and right color at the assembly point and the quality of the arrived seat were big issues . By April 27th , the run ratio was down to 85 from 95 last month , which meant a short fall of about 45 cars per shift . An high level of off-line vehicle inventory was seen on April 30th , which meant too many cars required some form of off-line operations before they could actually hit the markets

The selection of KFS for seat supply in 1986 itself was an unprecedented move in the industry . In fact it was one of those rare exceptions to the Toyota 's multi-vendor policy . KFS benefited from Toyota Motor Corporation 's (TMC ) Toyota Production System (TPS . Traditionally , all players in the industry manufactured the seats themselves , from purchased components . Perhaps if the seat manufacturing had been handled by Toyota Motor Manufacturing , USA (TMM ) itself , the problem wouldn 't have slipped out of control , as all plans would reflect seat supply . The company could have lowered seat manufacturing costs too . However it would have diluted its focus on production . With the transition to newer models , perhaps all other aspects of production would have been considered in detail . As the seats came directly to the assembly point no one considered the difficulties in seat processing . The company could have verified the plans and preparedness of KFS before hand and the problems could have been reduced . TMM could have restricted the sequential pull system to a limited number of seat models , with the other models made to deliver on basis with s given in line with seat delivery and seat fixing schedules . Probably , this too could have been reviewed later , in case KFS had any difficulty in splitting its production into two lines . In such a case , the pull system could have been suspended and KFS made to supply With pre-planned production , this should have been a feasible method particularly given the fact that there is no increase in production either at TMM or KFS

Sometimes the matching seats were defective too . Upon team leader 's approval , the defective seats were fitted and the particular car was driven to the Code 1 clinic area when it was off the line . This routine was adopted although the standard practice was to investigate the problems on the line...