by Tom Berry, UCHS Vocational Instructor
In March, twenty-eight UCHS students from Mr. Tom Berry’s manufacturing classes attended a tour of the Toyota Manufacturing Plant in Princeton, Indiana. The first part of the tour was self-guided where students were able to use a stamp press and make a door to keep. The students also participated in an assembly process. During this process, students had 43 seconds to assemble parts on a doorframe like the workers at Toyota would do on a daily basis.
When the guided tour began, the students were shown the first automatic loom created in 1920 by the founder of what is soon to be known as Toyota. The students then boarded two trolleys that took them around the plant, allowing them to see the process of making a Toyota Sequoia from beginning to end. This caught the eye of many of the students. “Toyota is one of the most teamwork based factory I have ever seen,” said Travis Morris, 10th grade student. Senior Jamie Guthrie was also impressed with the work environment stating that, “Toyota is one of the most worker friendly plants that I have seen.”
Toyota uses a Just-In-Time process for their manufacturing and conveyance of “what is needed, when it is needed, and the amount needed.” “The plant is very well organized,” said Senior Rob Rich. The Just-In-Time process is built upon three basic principles: the pull system, continuous flow processing and takt time. Kanban is a small sign that is the key control of the Just-In-Time production-- it serves as instruction for production and conveyance, a visual control tool to check for over production and detection of irregular processing speeds, and as tool to perform Kaizen. Kaizen is a system of continuous improvement in which instances of waste are eliminated one-by-one at minimal cost. This is performed by all employees rather than by specialists.
Mr. Berry stated, “One of my goals as the manufacturing teacher is to expose as many students as possible to the workforce. There are some students who will not attend college and need to experience and see what the environment of manufacturing facilities consist of.”
Students attending the tour were: Daniel Bell, Ronnie Duvall, Colin Jackson, Justin Ainslie, Amber Brady, Robert Hardacre, Travis Morse, Courtney Waddell, David Wolfe, Jamie Guthrie, Courtney Jones, Kimberly Sales, Zach Green, Nick Berry, Jamie Gordon, Elijah Greene, James Mann, Bryce McGuire, Josiah McGuire, William Potts, Victor Thomas, Eli Greenwell, Jonathan Shockley, Billy Joe Eaton, Caleb Ladd, Robert Rich, Chris Collins, Ali Cruse.
