Toyota Motors Manufacturing 1. As Doug Friesen, what would you do to address the problem? Where would you focusyour attention and solution efforts? A. If I were in Doug Friesen’s shoes, I would address seat problems. Currently, production level is decreasing due to seat problems; as a result, it leads to the increase of over-time works and lead-time. The major problem discussed in the case is improper seat quality management in KFS. According to Exhibit 7, most of the seat problems consisted of wrinkles, wrong parts, and etc.,
In addition, inspection of defective seats is going to need reinforcement, because some of defective seats are being sent out without any replacement. In order to solve such problem, a thorough training session for workers should be executed. 2. What options exist? What would you recommend? Why? B. There are few options that exist for the seat problems. First, they should be fixing bolts and hooks in a proper manner. In the case, the only problem the members could think of was occasional incidents of cross-threading, that is, when a team member shot a bolt at an angle. Team leaders, however, could fix this familiar problem on-line in 30 seconds with a re-tapping tool. C. Another solution could be that they can always be prepared with backups of the seats. Because there are a lot of problems of similar kinds arise, they should always be prepared with backup seats so they can minimize such problem during the process of installation. 3. Where, if at all, does the current routine for handling defective seats deviate from the principles of the Toyota Production System? D. The current routine for handling defective seats deviates from the two guiding principles of TMM:
First, the majority of the defective cars inventory were against the just-in-time principle, which insists on “producing only what was needed,