The morning started early today because we had to be at the plant at 10:30 am and we could not miss one train or we would have missed the tour. We had to catch a 7 am train to Kyoto station. Then from there we had to switch trains another 3 times. One of the connections gave us only 9 minutes to rush and catch a train in a station of which we had no knowledge. We made it just in time after we found out that the tickets could be purchased on the train. Once we arrived in Toyota City we then had another 15 minute walk to the Toyota Headquarters to meet our tour guide. Toyota City was very busy (not as much as Kyoto) and currently has over 400,000 residents.
We arrived at the tour entrance with time to spare. We were then surrounded by all of the new models of cars that Toyota has developed. They were in perfect condition and the showroom was quite impressive. Also, a robot would play a trumpet every 30 minutes at the entrance of the museum. The song it played for us was “Over the Rainbow” and it was perfect. It made absolutely no mistakes like a human composer. After taking pictures of the showroom we had to leave our cameras and cell phones at the museum because pictures are absolutely not allowed in the building. I can understand the reasoning but it was disappointing because the welding and assembly areas of the plant were simply astounding.
We toured the welding and assembly areas of the plant.Both areas gave us top-down views of the action below. In the welding are, 96% of the work is done by machines. The precision of the machines make it easier, faster and more efficient to assemble the vehicles. Sparks could be seen flying in the air as the machines worked with great speed. Only 24 workers were responsible for the welding shop. In the assembly area they use the doorless method (Nagamachi System) to make assembly much faster because the doors make it much tougher get in and out of the vehicle with parts. In fact, the doors are one of the last things to go on the vehicle. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the Toyota plant.
The ride back to Kyoto was not near as hectic as the ride to Toyota City. We had a much more leisurely train ride because we were not in a rush to catch an appointment. The group was exhausted on the return train as it was a long day. However, the ride back to Otsu was horrendous. It was delayed 55 minutes.