Toyota Automobile Factory, Toyota City, June 17

We visited the Toyota car factory while staying in Nagoya (it was a busy day there!)  We were interested to learn that the company began as a loom manufacturer.  In 1929, financed by the sale of the patent on their loom, the company began to develop automobile engines.  In 1937 they founded the motor company.  We didn't see anything noting that their first major contract was for building trucks for the military when Japan attacked China.  We visited the Tsutsumi Plant, which had 6,000 workers total.  They manufactured several models in this plant, however the day we were there, it was almost entirely Priuses (Prii?  Prius?  Prion?) which fits with the company's goal to make themselves "eco-friendly" (more on that later.)

Photographs in the plant are not allowed, but in the gallery exhibition hall where the tour begins, you can take pictures.  Here is a rather silly robot that impressively plays Disney music and other tunes on the horn.  It fits with the Toyota philosophy of automation, as we learned that over 90% of the factory is run by robots.  Robots cost an average of  Y4,000,000 per, and last 8 to 10 years.  At roughly $40,000 for a robot, a company that is hell-bent on efficiency makes the obvious choice to automate.  To be honest, from what we observed, there were still a few humans that could have been replaced along the assembly line...
This is the Toyota IQ.  Steve hopes it is sold in America soon, as it will be his next car.  It was like a SmartCar, except it felt safe.

Fun observations/questions we had answered for us:

There are two shifts for employees:  6:40a ~ 3:40p and 4:00p ~ 1a.  The way the line is designed, the entire line must shut down for lunches and breaks.  Everyone eats lunch on the morning shift at 10:45.  They have a 10 minute break every two hours.  The team basically eats, works, and poops together.  When something has gone wrong on the manufacturing line, a worker pulls a lever and the entire line shuts down.  We actually saw this happen, and everyone works feverishly to solve the problem (for us it lasted no more than 15 seconds.)  

The plant is committed to zero landfill waste, and energy-efficient lighting (a refractory system, so that they didn't have to use too many bulbs,) and design.  They even had "photocatalytic paint" on the exterior of the building, which helped turn CO2 into oxygen.  We kept our comments to ourselves, but we thought it interesting that while they took pride in the manufacturing process and its environmentally-friendly set-up, they neglected to mention the environmental impact of raw resource acquisition as well as the sheer fact that 8,500,000 automobiles that are made will sit in landfills at some point.  Negative externalities are very easy to sweep under the rug...