Toyota plant tour

Today was car day, but we made the trip there by train.  Four trains actually, plus a little walking. But we finally made it to the Toyota plant tour in Toyota City.  Here's the gang in front of the Toyota Kaiken Museum, where the tour started.  We were invited to tour the museum first, which included the current line up of Toyota cars, all shined and sparkling.

As an added bonus, the museum features a trumpet-playing robot who performs a very decent rendition of "Somewhere over the Rainbow." Shortly after the song, we noticed a celebrity in our midst.  The Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived with a delegation to talk about increased minority participation in Toyota factories and as suppliers.  You can see the photo op being organized below.

Can you spot Rev. Jesse Jackson? 

 So, after that bit of excitement, the tour group boarded a bus and were whisked off to the Motomachi plant, one of twelve Toyota plants in Japan (there are 52 plants worldwide).  At this point, we were informed we couldn't take food, cameras or cell phones on the tour with us.  So no more pictures folks. I can tell you that this particular plant can produce over one hundred cars a day, operating with two shifts of workers each day. If my memory serves me correctly, there are 1400 employees at the plant, though only 135 are women (hmm...maybe Jesse Jackson should say something about that too.).  We started with the non-human staff first, watching a long line of robots welding car parts together, as if in some kind of synchronized dance. There were even robots vacuuming up welding dust.  Robots perform more than 90% of all welding required. We then moved on to the assembly line, which is operated by humans.  The cars roll slowly by on huge conveyor belts while Toyota workers add this part and that part with stunning efficiency. If there is a problem, a worker has a duty to stop the line and fix it before production resumes. It is all part of a highly developed production system that has been emulated all over the world.    

The tour is free, but does require reservations. .