Toyota Methods and Operating Models
by Stefano Cortiglioni, Leonardo Salcerini, Danilo Verga, Andrea Petretti
Production lines
The implementation of Make To Order has surely contributed to eliminate the risk of surplus units; however, it required completely rethinking the production system, starting from the assembly lines. The orders reach the site daily, and at times are considerably different from the averages of past production, both in terms of volumes and models. It is not uncommon for weekly orders to be more than 50 per cent different from what was forecast.
For this reason, maximizing the use of assembly lines is a delicate and complex process, which forced the company to take two crucial decisions:
reduce the number of assembly lines;
reduce setup times to implement a one-piece flow production model.
Setting up the assembly lines for macro ...
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