TOYOTA
Children's Web Site
Children's Question Room
  What Kind of Company is Toyota?
How Are Cars Made?
Research and Development of New Cars
Planning
Design, Planning, and Manufacture of Prototypes
Numerous Tests
Production and Sales
First Steps
Stamping
Welding
Painting
Making the Engine
Suppliers
Assembly
Inspections
Transportation
Sales
Video clip of production in action
Animations of the entire process
Comments from Workers

Making Cars that Are Environmentally-friendly
Making Cars that Are People-friendly
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How Are Cars Made?
Production and Sales
Suppliers
Cars are made with the help of many other companies.
Toyota makes cars with the help of companies located around the world.
One car has approximately 30,000 parts counting every part down to the small screws. These parts are made not only by Toyota’s factories but also by suppliers located around the world. Suppliers use their specialized knowledge and expertise to develop and improve parts.

Parts shipped from a supplier
What system is used to transport parts to Toyota?
Assembly factories (Toyota) and parts factories (suppliers) use a special system called the “kanban system” to make sure the necessary number of parts are delivered at the same speed that cars are made. This is called the “Just in Time” system. This system, which links the parts factories to the car production lines, eliminates muda (wasteful practices).

A parts factory

A car factory
What does kanban mean?
The paper attached to the box that holds parts is called a kanban. There are two kinds: a Parts Retrieval Kanban and a Production Instruction Kanban. Written on the kanban is the type and number of parts that are needed.
How kanban are used
What is special about this system?
Because the assembly factory only orders the number of parts it is using, no space is wasted in storing parts. And because the parts factory only makes the required number of parts, no materials or energy are wasted on making too many parts.
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