Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-10-07)

42

October 7, 2019

Edited by

Dimitra Kessenides and

David Rocks

S O L U T I O N S

By adding more popular modelstothelineup,thecarmaker

aims to bring the factorytocapacity

Toyota Remakes

Its Biggest Plant

Toyota Motor Corp.’s largest plant in the

world sits on 1,300 acres surrounded by roll-

ing fields of bluegrass in rural Kentucky. With

floor space equal to about 170 football fields,

theGeorgetownfactoryhousesmorethan

2,000industrialrobots, 6 cafeterias, 2 paint

shops, and an indoor basketball court. Walking

down crowded aisles between parts bins and

half-assembled cars, plant manager Susan

Elkington scans the facility, obsessed with

finding more open space. “I talk a lot about

space,” she says. “If you want something new,

you need space first.” Say for room to build a

RAV4 sport utility vehicle, which isn’t presently

built in Georgetown but Elkington expects will

be starting in January.

The 48-year-old engineer was tapped to

Manufacturing

LUKE SHARRETT/BLOOMBERG

runthefactorylastyear,andherfirstorder

ofbusiness has been to add the gas-electric

hybrid version of the popular SUV to one of

the plant’s three assembly lines. Retrofitting

a Camry sedan assembly line for the RAV4 is

part of a company mandate to update Toyota’s

oldest North American plant with newer tech-

nology, more efficient processes, and fresher

products. “We want to continue to be compet-

itive, and sometimes it’s very hard to compete

against newer plants,” Elkington says.

Georgetown is fighting to hold on to its

status as Toyota’s biggest plant globally as

demand for its sedans has plummeted and

the three-decade-old factory deals with high

fixed costs, falling productivity, and the rise of

a network of sibling plants in North America

Elkington at a Camry

assembly line