We want to start Jishuken on certification. What is certification work? What processes and what information are involved? Let's actually make a proper yardstick. A lack of communication between the two sides led to rework on what kind of tests should be conducted. Up to 1,300 pages of documents per model. Forced schedules was part of company culture, but this put pressure on the certification genba. Everyone taking part in Jishuken led us to finding out many things we didn't know. Starting to understand is a step forward.
Toyota Times News. I'm Yuta Tomikawa for Toyota Times News. Today's focus is on the certification issues within the Toyota Group. Since 2022, issues with certification tests for mass production have been discovered at Hino, Daihatsu, Toyota Industries (TICO), and Toyota. On July 31, Toyota was issued a corrective order, and submitted recurrence prevention measures to MLIT. First, please listen to President Koji Sato just after he submitted the measures.
We have realized there were many issues both in management and at the genba. Recognizing management's responsibility, I promised to take the lead in preventing a recurrence as a company. We must reflect on 2 points. First, our understanding of certification regulations, including from the UN, was insufficient. The other is how to keep evidence. In this area, while we worked hard up to submitting the evidence at the genba, in retrospect, and from the authorities' perspective, our management system was insufficient in terms of keeping it in a well-defined and understandable form when viewed by a third party. This company was unable to do things in the defined way. The company did something it should not have done, so we must reflect on that and focus on improvement. What Chairman Toyoda and I are working very hard on now is go out to the genba. I recently went to a crash test genba. While I worked in development myself, with the passing of time, there is a difference between then and now, and there are many things at the genba I thought I knew, but I didn't. It's about seeing the whole picture, knowing the previous process and what process you're passing on to and solving every question that comes up along the way. Chairman Toyoda is leading the way at the genba, answering each problem. Rather than waiting for reports in the office, we want to go to the genba, to make it easier to speak up.
We'll show you what Chairman Toyoda has been doing at the genba a little later, but first, I'd like to try and explain in simple terms, what the certification process is. First, think of the word 'certification.' It means to certify something, right? What is it certifying in a car? Say a carmaker wants to mass-produce a new car. Checking every single car out of the hundreds of thousands being built is unrealizable, as there are so many. It would be too much of a burden for inspection agencies and carmakers. If a car can meet safety and environmental standards in testing, then the government approves mass production of the same model. This is called Type Approval. In other words, a carmaker can mass-produce cars, if it can get a type approval. Now, let's look at what the problem was this time. Please look at this chart. This is the certification system for obtaining type approval. The certification system consists of government and manufacturer certification. Manufacturer's certification is where they self-check the standards to mass-produce. The authorities then purchase vehicles from the market and conduct spot checks. Government certification is split into official inspectors witnessing tests, and manufacturers performing tests which are then checked by the authorities. The issues arose after this point. The part in red where valid data from certification and development testing by the carmaker are submitted as certified data. As this process is so complex, Toyota Group companies are taking actions to prevent recurrence. That is Akio Toyoda's Juku for TPS Jishuken for Certification Work started by Chairman Akio as the Toyota Group leader. We made all processes from planning, development to mass production visible, used TPS to remove complicated or difficult work that could lead to wrongdoing, and are working on creating a system that discovers and rectifies irregularities quickly. We now invite you to take a look inside Akio Toyoda's Juku TPS Jishuken for Certification Work.
Please stand over here. Today, we welcome the managers of Hino, Daihatsu, and TICO, as well as Juku headmaster Chairman Toyoda.
A room within TICO's Hekinan Plant in Hekinan City. An opportunity was presented for the 4 companies of Toyota, TICO, Daihatsu, and Hino to share their current situations on why the certification issues occurred, and how they are looking to change. It all began following the words of Group leader Chairman Akio Toyoda.
I'm looking to start a Jishuken on certification work at the 3 companies of TICO, Daihatsu, and Hino, which were at the center of these issues. I'm starting this to create a yardstick for what certification work is, and what processes and information are involved. I think what is needed is an environment where anyone can speak up on irregularities.
3 months later in June...
As the person responsible for the Toyota Group, I would like to extend my sincere apologies to our customers, car enthusiasts, and all stakeholders for these issues following Hino, Daihatsu, and TICO. I am truly sorry.
Toyota held a press conference after it was found to have carried out testing in ways not specified by regulations.
I hadn't fully understood the certification system either, so I got the 4 companies together under the guise of Akio Toyoda's Juku for TPS Jishuken for Certification Work, in order to investigate the cause and implement measures regarding processes where reworking or issues were occurring by having kaizen teams selected from each company investigate every process related to certification from planning, development, design through to production preparation.
Toyota Production System Self-Study Group, a.k.a. Jishuken. Top management and genba workers work together to review and improve work methods with TPS. It strengthens people and the organization. At Toyota, it's being implemented at manufacturing sites and also in administrative divisions, such as accounting and development, starting in 2020. The recent consecutive certification issues also led to TPS Jishuken starting in Group companies. The aim is to create better work systems through kaizen. For example, if a defect occurs in a process, the part is returned to the previous process to be reworked. How can the occurrence of such defects be reduced? Based on Heinrich's law that behind every failure, there are a number of issues in the mechanism, they began by identifying bottlenecks and then using the material and information flow diagram to identify issues in the mechanism. In this episode, we bring you scenes from the interim report of this TPS Jishuken.
I'm Okudaira, leader of the Jishuken. When we looked into where the bottlenecks were for TICO, we found many of the defects were at the development stage of the engine ECU control unit, so we focused on that area and drew up the material and information flow diagram.
Defects here mean reworking or re-doing work. Why does this happen? We'll first unbundle this from a test planning perspective.
Test plans are first made here. The compliance officer gathers information such as numerous vehicle specs, engine constraints, temperatures, pressures, regulations, and development goals. Difference in officers' experience affects the quality of their plans. In the current flow, plans are made, evaluated, and then audited through inspection. But instructions on items to be inspected and the quality standards to be used are also ambiguous.
As there are many unclear complicated conditions and specs, extra work, or reworking was occurring at the test planning stage. In order to prevent this sort of delay, there is a need for measures to clarify standards.
Our goal is to eliminate having to re-do things by having the Functional Project GM issue the newly created 'compliance instruction kanban.' As this kanban clearly states the conditions for passing on compliant parts, like target values and test methods, as quality standards/good products, we hope it will eliminate reworking of good parts and extra tests. This is the full compliance instruction kanban. The vertical axis shows the 204 audit items. The horizontal axis also shows the same 204 audit items. The reason for this layout is because in compliance, if performance is increased in one area, it decreases in another. This can potentially happen in all 204 items. For example, if you increase torque and output, then emissions, a regulatory requirement, may get worse. To make this visible, affected items have a circle, and non-affected ones are grayed out.
How are you training new employees?
They have to learn through observing. Watch and imitate.
But that takes time, right?
Using a compliance instruction kanban, we can tell before.
Then you just have to brush up the initial reaction. Do you have to start from scratch with a new engine, or do you just find the change points?
So whether you can do the maintenance when there is some change is the key.
The compliance instruction kanban was created to eliminate re-do work. Ambiguous instructions became clearer, making work easier. In recent years, regulatory compliance is getting more complicated. This was another cause of delay.
The job of the compliance officer is to provide evidence of regulatory compliance for each item. We check the regulatory requirements, but it takes time as there are things we are unsure about, leading to it taking time to create evidence. This is after kaizen, and by adding the light blue items, it was made clearer. For example, we did things such as making it so the test method pops up when you click it on Excel, clarifying the conditions under which tests are performed, and also clicking to find out how to produce the final evidence.
It's a good step. It will take time, but this is something we should do. The person who noticed must see it through. If this generation can't do it, the next must. This is something we must see through so it's still a hard road ahead.
I've been involved in compliance work for over 30 years, but I realized there were 204 audit items, and that the auditing standards of Functional Project GMs were this ambiguous through this activity.
Now that you realized that, 30 years of accumulated knowledge might become a great weapon. I hope you can support us in many different ways.
One day, it'll become a weapon. Understanding about difficult work and problems at the genba is growing through TPS Jishuken. Next, we look at improvement examples at a compliance test genba that use test benches that run engines. We received special permission to enter the testing area. Here are three typical cases of delays. Test plan estimates are rough and deviate from actual test times. Parts and equipment aren't ready or have to be redone. The bench must stop temporarily to check data or software. Meanwhile, testing section workers are waiting.
Ideally, the compliance group testing section would be able to work to plan, without waiting. The testing section would carry out tests with three elements in place: a testing plan based on kanban and sequence tables and an engine based on the actual test materials. Like an andon or production analysis board, we need a way to check for abnormality and a system to see why a test doesn't go according to plan.
So the working status of the bench was visualized, and a system for managing abnormalities was established.
We see if bench status is normal or abnormal. By using a production analysis board, the worker enters abnormalities, so info is shared faster, and it's easier to follow up.
It's best not to try to make a perfect tool from the start. Tools are for kaizen.
If they can send out a signal, we can put in a sequencer or andon.
As you continue these actions, these tools will grow with you, and that's for the best.
Some issues in making the test plans are unique to young employees.
Before we improved it, say, here it says 'turbo specs not listed.' I joined 3 years ago, so I'm still quite new. I had been writing part numbers and thought it was enough, but while making the plan, they asked about turbo specs in testing section meetings. I had to ask, 'What's that?' I went back to my desk, fixed it, had another meeting, and repeated the process.
What do you want help with most, right now? I know you're working hard, but what could you use help with? This is your chance.
I'm still inexperienced, but I'd like to see how other companies write their plans.
Manufacturing has that interaction, but technical doesn't. Not about how things are done.
Daihatsu was saying the same thing. I'd like to see more interaction.
First, let's have more interaction here. With Hino, too.
Hino is having similar issues, so we could do it together.
We have similar problems. I want to do it.
I'm doing automotive design. I haven't been able to learn much about TPS. Honestly, as I do it, I reduce lead time and the workers' time, and add new work. At first, I was worried that the burden would increase. Through this work, I learned TPS and realized kaizen reduces waste, and helps each person do a meaningful job. That way of thinking makes things easier.
That's important. When people think about TPS and reducing lead time, they think they have to rush, or it's only about efficiency. But it's about making things easier, which is also fun. TPS is about helping people enjoy their work. Everyone here is involved in certification. I'm sure you have family and friends who are worried because you're involved in this sort of work. Right now, the kaizen team is working with other Toyota Group companies, to make a yardstick everyone can understand. You'll be able to do your work with more confidence. The kaizen team is taking the lead. This kaizen is not just for this team, nor management. It's not just for the leaders. When everyone joins in, we can solve this frustration together, so please take an interest. Wanting to learn is the important part. Trying to learn and taking an interest is the most important part of your work. I sincerely ask for your cooperation.
Next is the interim report from Hino Motors.
We had an issue that inconvenienced society at Hino. We investigated the bottleneck and found it at engine control, so we focused on this for our TPS Jishuken. It starts with the instruction creating process, then development and adaption process, certification test process, and finally the approval application process. Until now, our overall lead time was 836 days, with 64 organizations and 94 delays.
One main delay was the approval application to get production and sales permission from MLIT.
These are the documents necessary for the application. It's made up of specifications and diagrams, and it's about 1,300 pages for one model.
If there is even one mistake, it's rejected.
If there's a mistake, the application has to be replaced or redone. We even had a recall that stopped outside work, where vehicle inspection certificates had to be replaced.
Why did this happen? They drew a material and information flow diagram and found the issues in the system.
We started work before we had all the data, so we had to start over. Second, our application used an old format, and we had to start over. That's because there was no standard procedure for managing the formats.
After being asked to re-do it, they gained understanding of the MLIT guidelines, and made 3 measures for filling out the application. To clarify the ideal state, they defined quality standards and acceptable product conditions. Next, they built a system to prevent human error. And finally, they defined work standards to correctly manage and operate it.
