Immersive Manufacturing Journey: Exploring Toyota's Virtual Factory via Plant Tour
In the heart of Toyota City, Aichi, the Toyota Kaikan Museum has launched a new initiative - the Toyota Virtual Plant Tour. This innovative platform aims to convey the expertise and ingenuity of the people who work at Toyota's plants, while offering an immersive experience of the company's genba (manufacturing plants) to a global audience.
The idea for the virtual tour was born out of necessity, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the auto industry, causing plant shutdowns due to delays in parts procurement and logistics. With in-person tours suspended since July 2021, the team behind the Toyota Kaikan Museum sought a solution that would keep the spirit of Toyota's plant tours alive.
The project was developed by the same team that has been guiding the plant tours for over six decades, with the guidelines personally drawn up by Kiichiro Toyoda. The team constantly sought input from those on the frontlines during the construction of the website, interviewing over 40 people for the Virtual Plant Tour project.
Toyota's Virtual Plant Tour site is designed around "human-centered monzukuri." This philosophy emphasizes craftsmanship that values the human element at the core of manufacturing. It combines a relentless commitment to quality, creativity, and imagination with a focus on expanding the possibilities for people, companies, and society.
The human-centric approach prioritizes workers' skills, creativity, and ownership of their work, rather than just automation or standardization. Toyota views monozukuri not simply as mechanical production but as a human-centered process involving continuous improvement (kaizen), invention, and collaboration.
This extends to fostering employee involvement in suggesting improvements and making work engaging and meaningful. The approach merges traditional craftsmanship with modern challenges in digital transformation and AI, respecting the analog heritage while evolving to incorporate advanced technologies carefully without losing the human craftsmanship spirit.
Akiko Kita leads the Toyota Virtual Plant Tour project as Group Manager. The website offers online visitors an experience of Toyota's manufacturing plants, including visits to Motomachi, Takaoka, and Tsutsumi plants. The first Toyota plant tour was conducted in 1939 at the company's first automotive plant in Koromo.
The virtual plant tour reflects Toyota's continuous pursuit of improvement, which is at the heart of its manufacturing evolution. Oyaji Kawai, a Toyota executive, stated that Toyota's strength lies in evolution through kaizen. The company's philosophy of "making manufacturing about people first" is highlighted throughout their internal culture, employee engagement systems, and external communications, including the virtual plant tour experience.
Prior to the pandemic, Toyota welcomed approximately 130,000 domestic and foreign visitors a year, with over 13.3 million people having toured their plants. The suspension of in-person tours during the pandemic led to an outpouring of messages from customers wishing to visit again. The Toyota Virtual Plant Tour website has been launched to meet this demand, offering a safe and accessible way for people to explore Toyota's plants from the comfort of their own homes.
[1] Toyota's Human-Centered Monozukuri Philosophy: https://www.toyota-global.com/what/philosophy/monozukuri/ [2] Toyota Virtual Plant Tour: https://www.toyota.co.jp/kaikan/virtual/ [3] Toyota's Plant Tours: A Journey Through Innovation and Craftsmanship: https://www.toyota.co.jp/kaikan/tour/ [4] Toyota's Sustainability Initiatives: https://global.toyota/en/sustainability/index.html
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