Visiting Toyota Motor East Japan (TMEJ)

Today together with prof. Tetsuo Abo and members of Japanese Multinational Enterprise Study Group we visited Toyota Motor East Japan (TMEJ). TMEJ is the 3^rd regional manufacturing subsidiary of the Toyota group in Japan (after Toyota HQ in Nagoya and Toyota Kyushu). Company was created in July 2012 as a result of merger of Kanto Auto Works Ltd, Central Motor Co. Ltd and Toyota Motor Tohoku Corporation. The decision to merge the companies and develop car manufacturing in Tohoku was taken after the Great Earthquake in 2011 as way to support rebuilding of local community and industry in the Tohoku region. The new company focussed on developing and manufacturing compact cars, engines and other components. Currently it produces 3 models: SIENTA, AQUA and CH-R in the near future it will be responsible for manufacturing JPN Taxi – a new model of taxi designed for the 2020 Olympics.

 

The production facilities are as always in the the case of Toyota - impressive. It is hard to imagine but each car on the line is produced to the concrete specifications of individual client who ordered it... The new keyword is karakuri or karakuri kaizen, these are incremental improvements made by the shop floor employees, which focus on improving flow of parts so that the employee do not have move or pay attention to these processes. These may include automatic slides, carts or feeders and other simple devices. Word karakuri originates from karakuri dolls, which are automatic puppets produced by Japanese artisans in the 18th century. 

In the afternoon of the same day we visited ITIM (Industrial Technology Institute of the Miyagi Prefectural Government). It is a regional government institution responsible for support and technological development of local companies. Institute is very well equipped in a number of advanced measuring equipment which is quite cheaply accessible to local companies and industry. It is also closely cooperating with Toyota in development of local suppliers for the automotive industry. Since 2016 Institute launched a training course in digital engineering focused on 3D printing.