168 THETOYOTAWAYFIELDBOOK
number of senior engineers, the program ramps up to a peak and then
comes back down to a relatively small number of engineers through
launch. Again, this is based on the stability Toyota has in the process.
Many of its competitors send an army of people to the plant when they
launch. Toyota has such a well-planned process and does enough
high-quality engineering in the concept stage that its launches are
smooth and most engineers are on to another program.
Fourth, Toyota takes care of the peak of the program by drawing on
its affiliates. This includes closely linked contract firms that provide
technicians and computer-aided design specialists at peak times. It
also includes affiliated companies like suppliers and Toyota Auto Body,
which send engineers at the peaks. This allows Toyota to keep the core
engineers on staff and bring in the rest flexibly. Standardized design
processes and designs help Toyota engineers and affiliates come in and
out of the program and contribute seamlessly.
Fifth, Toyota staggers the release of a lot of engineering information. For
example, its competitors often provide a batch of all body data released
at once to die engineers who then process all of this data into the design
of stamping dies. Toyota releases body data as parts are developed and
released directly to die design, which releases data as it goes to die mak-
ing. There is a clear understanding of what body parts can be released
early, before the rest are complete. This creates something like a one-
piece flow and is much more level than releasing large batches of part
designs.
Reflect and Learn from the Process
Basic leveling of production volume and model mix is necessary
to establish process stability and continuous flow. Using your
current state value stream map as a guide, identify the operations
that continue to struggle with meeting the expectation.
1. Are these operations being affected by external customer
variation?
a. Does the daily requirement change?
b. Determine the extent of the fluctuation (show the daily
demand on a line graph). Va riation of greater than 10 per-
cent must be reduced.
c. Identify current methods for aligning resources (people,
material, machines) to these fluctuations, and your effec-
tiveness in meeting the requirement (measurements of
efficiency and customer delivery).
