NUMMI plant tour

A group of BGI folks toured the Toyota NUMMI plant on Friday. We spent much of last quarter in both our Operations and Management class learning about "The Toyota Way" - lean operations, continuous improvement, fair management, clear accountability. I highly recommend the book by Jeffrey Liker called The Toyota Way.

First of all, the tour was very well organized and scripted, as you would understand after reading The Toyota Way. We assembled in a common room and watched a video about NUMMI (starting promptly at 10:15 am, no waiting for stragglers). We got some instructions about how to behave on the tour (keep all body parts inside, wear the safety glasses at all times, etc), then proceeded to the trams. The pathway to the tram was marked in paint, like all pathways everywhere in the plant (kanbans!). Even the parking spaces in the lot were drawn as rectangles, not just lines. ("Put car here.")

They introduced a few of the key Japanese words, like kaizen (continuous improvement), muda (waste), and kanban (visual cues as a key part of the process efficiency). We were told about the management structure/help chain, with team leaders, group leaders, assistant managers, managers, etc, all receiving the same pay on a given level.

We immediately noticed the visual signals everywhere, often in the form of large flat-screen video panels displaying data, such as number of days since the last injury (45), current level of productivity (96%), and status of the line (stopped or running). Everything was labeled, including a post that said "kanban post #19." There was a little square painted on the ground for nearly every piece of equipment, every trash can, every toolbox.

The aisles at NUMMI are narrow and always humming with electric carts and three-wheeled bicycles making JIT (just-in-time) deliveries of parts to the line. There seem to be intuitively understood "rules of the road" that allow the drivers to whiz along really fast without causing accidents or traffic jams (although at one point a cart nearly cut off a pedestrian right in front of our tour tram, and the pedestrian shook his head in surprise).

The andon cords are pulled quite often, usually just for a brief time. (These stop the line when a worker finds a quality problem or otherwise cannot perform his/her task in the time allotted). They activate a light by the worker’s station and set off an auditory cue also. Sometimes it is just a ringing bell, but in some parts of the plant, different andons have different musical signals – like cell phone tunes – so they can be easily distinguished.

The takt time was 81 seconds that day, and workers seemed to be able to go about their business quite calmly – neither rushing nor standing around too much. The tour guide told us that when there is a stoppage and a worker has a few minutes, he/she is encouraged to grab a broom, mop, or paintbrush. Perhaps that is why the place was incredibly clean – no metal chips or spare screws on the floor, no dust bunnies, no sawdust.

It is really true that they have one-piece flow. The NUMMI plant makes Toyota Corollas and Tacomas, and Pontiac Vibes. The cars coming down the line were a mix of these in various colors. The only complication is that 81 seconds is not quite enough time to perform some steps for the 4-wheel drive (the Vibe), so they never have 2 Vibes in a row (we were told there was about 1 Vibe for every 6 Toyotas).

The robots were especially cool. Japan is the master of robot technology, years ahead of the US. Most of the robots were in the welding section, assembling the large parts of the chassis. We also saw computer-controlled forklifts that have no drivers! That’s a little eerie to watch.

Much of the tour emphasized how well workers are treated. The tram driver said hello to everyone we encountered (he often knew their names), wishing them a good weekend (it was Friday). He explained how the plant has 2 working shifts with 2 hours between the day and night shifts for maintenance or necessary overtime. The paint shop has 3 shifts because it’s a long step. Maintenance crew runs 24/7/365. People are screened through 8 entrance exams, and only 47% make it through their first year. But "if you work hard, you’ll be paid well and get good benefits." They offer medical, dental, education scholarships, training, 16 paid holidays, etc. Most workers are in the union, and there has never been a strike at NUMMI. About 17% of line workers are women, which sounded pretty high to me for the type of labor. I wondered if 17% of managers were also women.

The tour guide commented that at least 2 companies were among our tour – some people from Lam Research for example. Lam Research makes semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and I would suppose a NUMMI tour would help them think about ways to make their equipment more user-friendly, as well as ways they can work with their customers (like Intel and AMD) in everything from delivery to the customers’ plant operations. It seems that another group on our tour was people who might want to get jobs at the plant eventually, some sort of training or job placement program. Some of the folks talked about what they might need to do to pass those 8 tests the tour guide mentioned.

Afterward there was a chance to ask questions. We asked a few questions the guy couldn’t answer, so it seems we learned our class material well! :-)

Overall, a really great experience, and a chance for genchi genbustu (go see for ourselves)!