This Wednesday, I went out with a bunch of exchange students on a free field trip sponsored by Nanzan. We went out to Toyota City to visit Motomachi plant, Toyota’s first and still operating car production plant. Sadly, we weren’t able to take pictures inside the actual factory, but we definitely learned a lot.

It was my first time in a car factory, but here’s what I basically learned: Nagoya and Aichi prefecture is basically the main center of car production. In Toyota City alone, there are 12 factories, all working together, shipping each other various parts for the cars and making different models. They’ve started spreading out factories all over the world as well, but all production eventually comes from Japan. At the moment, however, production overseas has actually surpassed production in Japan.

The system they have in place for creating cars is super efficient, super neat, and typically Japanese. Motomachi Plant has five basic stations. Stamping, where steel sheets are cut and stamped for form body parts. Welding, where only robots weld about 400 body parts to form a car, painting, where 3 coats are applied to the body with water-based, environmentally friendly paint, assembly, and safety checks. We got to see what assembly looked like.

The assembly lines are run under strict systems. We got to tour it from above on suspended walkways, so it was very easy to see. First, parts are sorted into various boxes and driven around to be parked in numbers, easy to find and deliver lanes. The cars themselves come in on a conveyer belt, first being fitted with the engine from below, then the rest of the parts are all put in by hand until the doors are put on last. Every single assembly station is on a non-stop conveyer belt as well, with set times for each car being completed.

Since all Toyota cars are customizable, they have a green light/red light system. Boxes are set up with all the available parts of a car (what kind of windows, what kind of tail lights, etc.) As each car frame passes through, the identity number of the car is automatically scanned in and the appropriate boxes with the right parts light up with green. The worker then knows which parts he has to use and as he takes each one, the lights go back to red.

In terms of keeping track, everything is electronic. There is actually an electric ligjt board that monitors production, whether they are on track with how many models were put out that day. When we came, they are about 10 units behind and a little light had been lit up saying that they had to work 30 minutes overtime at that point. Lights also lit up for certain sections of the assembly line when the line had to stop in that area due to a mistake or need for correction. Through all of the sections, as well, cords ran along the side that, if pulled, would bring in help to correct problems, mix-ups, faulty equipment, etc. Whenever a cord was pulled, music would begin to play and of course, the light board would also light up to display where the cord had been pulled.

Everything had really been put down to a science. Even on the conveyer belt, the wagons that held their tools actually rolled with the cars and were able to be moved at the assembler’s discretion. Apparently, a lot of the innovative stuff had been submitted by workers themselves to improve quality and work flow.

Toyota has two shifts, each about 8 hours, one in the morning starting at six, and another that runs until 1:00 AM. Thankfully, overtime work is paid with a slightly higher wage, but the work they do seems repetitive, hard, and taxing mentally. The assembly factory was stuffy and noisy. I got a headache from walking around for half an hour, I cannot imagine being trapped there for 8 hours.

We also went to the Toyota Museum, which was more of a place for their innovative and up and coming stuff. They had a functioning i-unit that had a demonstration, as well as a robot that could play the trumpet. Also, varieties of cars, hybrid cars, potential designs for future cars and the like. All in all, for a trip that was free, it was super informative and interesting. It also really reflected on how Japanese society works, how hard they… work… and yet how they also take pride in what they do.

Location: Motomachi Plant, Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan