Toyota just announced a revamped manufacturing process—built on sharing components among vehicles—that the world’s best-selling auto maker says will produce half its vehicles by 2020 and slash costs. But its unveiling follows a path blazed in recent years by German rival VW—a reversal for the Japanese pioneer, whose production system was for decades seen as the gold standard, giving the world such manufacturing concepts as “just-in-time inventory” and “continuous improvement.”
As Toyota developed its new manufacturing process, it found itself chasing Volkswagen, which in 2012 launched vehicles built on its own new global manufacturing platform, reports The Wall Street Journal (March 27, 2015). VW’s effort to lower the huge development costs for 9 car brands produced a building-block system that allows it to develop platforms on which multiple brands can be built in the same factory and often on the same production line, a savings over designs that often required one factory per model. “It used to be: one plant, one line, one model,” said VW’s CEO. The system sets specifications for the basic underpinning of a vehicle and for attaching components from brakes and powertrains to engines.
The effort will save Toyota 30% of the upfront development costs of a new vehicle. Its so-called MQB platform allows multiple models, body styles and brands to be built in the same factory, reducing costs in several ways. The introduction of smaller manufacturing lines, for instance, is expected to reduce initial plant investment by approximately 40%. And the company’s new production process is built on much more expansive component sharing than its existing platform-sharing strategies. Toyota said it plans to increase the use of same or similar components, regardless of vehicle size and styles, allowing it to order parts in bulk and save costs through greater economies of scale.
Classroom discussion questions:
1. Why is the modular design so important?
2. What is the MQB platform?
