Since 2013, Lean in Europe visits have looked at how European sites adapt and adopt Japanese principles of production excellence in their quests to eliminate waste, drive their activities, ensure quality and engage their people. For the final visit we went to the source of many of these tools – Toyota.

The Toyota Motor Manufacturing France (TMMF) plant in Valenciennes has the highest output of all Toyota car plants – a takt time of 58 seconds and 3 shifts means it manufactures 1200 Yaris and Yaris Cross cars a day. 
During the group discussion, the 20 participants learned the importance Toyota attaches to genchi genbutsu (going to the ‘real place’ where value is created, where interactions are happening between process and material, where engagement is happening with the people involved) and to minotake (where you are today). 

After a detailed plant introduction, the participants went to the Gemba to see the whole process from stamping, through the body shop, paint shop and assembly up to the quality booth where the car is turned on for the first time and is checked to ensure that its customer’s options are all there. In an Obeya room, participants learned how by using smartphone apps on the shopfloor to input information and a touch-sensitive big screen in the room, information can be easily accessed and shared during the meetings at the start of each production shift, between shifts and in daily ‘power meetings’ where Toyota members (staff) can raise concerns. This use of digital tools saves 20-30 minutes for group leaders who can spend longer on the shop floor. Participants also learned about Toyota’s digitalisation strategy to sustain activities, bring new value, prepare the plant for the future and up-skill members. The visit concluded with a debriefing session.

Thank you to TMMF for hosting this visit, the 33 companies that have hosted previous visits, all the 704 lean enthusiasts who have joined the visits and particularly to Richard Keegan (Adjunct Professor of Lean Operational Excellence at Trinity Business School) for leading all the visits and giving coaching and feedback to participants and hosts to help everyone on their lean journeys. Although this was the final Lean in Europe visit, the EU-Japan Centre will continue to run WCM missions in Japan.

Published: March 2024