I visited the Toyota plant and now I walk very carefully
You can’t quite be prepared for the attention to detail and process-orientation at Toyota. Unless you’ve already worked there
As I stared down at my feet, at the painted sign on the cement floor of three fingers pointing straight ahead and to either side, I thought to myself, “this is some next level of crazy”. The sign was preceded and followed by arrows, indicating where one should walk on the specifically textured, painted cement floor — no doubt also detailed minutely in some manual somewhere. We were in the thick of a Toyota plant visit. Within the massive flowchart that is the Toyota way. I was fighting sleep deprivation, but it could also have been information overload. I remembered feeling like this before. In college. It didn’t end well.
To say that the Toyota company is process-driven is an extreme understatement. Like saying traditional media is facing difficulties. Or that my commissioning editor is late with payments. In the roughly 20 hours I spent with our gracious hosts, I met a great many company officials and associates. Each one greeted us in the same way, explained things with a specific flow and cadence, using identical whiteboards, pointy-antenna-things and laser pointers. It was uncanny. We’re in 2019 — the year Blade Runner was set in. If anyone can figure out how to make synthetic humans, Toyota can. They may already have.
A former colleague recently asked on Twitter, what would one choose between the Maruti Suzuki Baleno and the Toyota Glanza — which the former company supplies to the latter. My answer was an unequivocal “Toyota”, and chances are many people you’re likely to ask would say the same. Just ask any fleet or radio cab driver, and they’ll be all praise for the company and their service. And it all stems from the commitment to “QDR” — Quality, Durability, Reliability.
On our first evening with Toyota, we had a rather unique introduction to their approach to customers and service quality. Demonstrated by a group of their personnel, we used little toy cars to serve as customer vehicles, and point out the deficiencies of a traditional service setup. It involved taking a vehicle in for service, parking it until service was scheduled, completing tasks, parking again and finally delivery. Toyota’s way eliminates some personnel from the chain, ensuring that every resource knows his/her task. Despite being an artificial demonstration within a conference room in a hotel, it was immediately apparent that their way works. Customers (journalists) waited less, and got delivery on time more often.
Day 2 meant an early start for a long-ish bus ride to the TKM plant in Bidadi, South-West of Bengaluru. A short visit to their manpower development centre, and we were informed of TKMs efforts to educate and skill local rural folk so that they may be ready for potential jobs at the plant. This was followed by a blur of presentations on identical whiteboards, with identically-dressed personnel who all greeted us identically. Then there were many words and nodding. Or in my case, often nodding off. More interesting was the tour of the spare parts centre, which is the primary location for TKM’s national spares network. It’s quite a feat! Toyota ships out thousands of products daily to 238 dealers, nation-wide. They maintain a 99% parts supply rate with 26 days of stock. Keeping things on time and lean means clockwork operations by 400 people across 58,000 square metres of warehouses across India. This did not surprise me at all, as I continued walking along the specified painted lines on the shop-floor, while stopping, looking left and right and then moving on at each intersection.
It’s difficult to envision the scale of this operation, really, even if you see it in person. Suppliers send 9500 different products to the central warehouse, from where 210 dedicated trucks take the material to 238 dealers, covering 62,000km every single day. And for the metro dealers, deliveries are made twice daily. Parts are delivered within 24 hours for any dealer in the country. I’m actually curious about whether any Toyota customer has ever received a “part unavailable” excuse for their vehicle.
Our final stop for the day was Viva Toyota, a large dealer close to the airport. It is here that I went all facepalm emoji on our hosts. The same lines on the floor. The same infographics. Identically-dressed dealer staff, greeting us identically, presenting their individual departments on identical whiteboards. At this point, I would have found it hard to believe that anyone could have a complaint with Toyota service. We got to see the 60, 90 and 120-minute committed service packages in action — specialised tools for quick turnaround, cleanroom-efficiency, comfortable seating while you wait. Toyota is also exceptional in that they provide customers with a “Repair/Refurbish/Replace” choice on certain items, which would otherwise simply be replaced at significant cost. It’s the sort of choice I think Indian customers would greatly appreciate, and it makes sense why fleet operators and drivers appreciate running Toyotas.
After seeing the “Toyota Way” in action, I came out thinking once again of the Glanza launch — a car that TKM, effectively, does not make. But rolling off the dealership floor is just the beginning of a car’s ownership experience. Toyota’s tour has me convinced that one is more likely to be satisfied with a Toyota experience than not. I also find myself stopping, looking left and right and then proceeding at intersections.
