Toyota's new virtual plant tour website offers an experience of the company's manufacturing even better than the real thing. Where did the project members focus their energies?
Dedication to three key features
The team’s year-long effort culminated in the Toyota Virtual Plant Tour. As Kita explains, the site has three defining features.
Kita
Firstly, it allows visitors to view the entire process, from materials procurement up to the car’s completion, including stamping, welding, painting, assembly, inspection, and shipment.
In our actual plant tours, we only covered the assembly process.
Second is the immersive visuals that draw you right into the production process, showing even the faces and hand movements of line workers.
For safety reasons, in-person visitors would view the work from a distance.
And the third feature is the ability to delve deeper into areas of interest.
For this project, we were meticulous about user-friendliness from the tour participant’s perspective. For example, while the full production process is very long, visitors can view it by simply scrolling through the screen.
For those who wish to know more about manufacturing, we’ve included information about topics ranging from forging and casting to TPS (Toyota Production System).
Visitors can tour the plant according to their interests, through the stories of the frontline workers and many others who underpin the various aspects of carmaking.
Today, Japan’s auto industry employs 5.5 million people. With the launch of the Toyota Virtual Plant Tour, Kita, Hayashi, and Ando hope that many more, both at home and abroad, will discover the importance and fascination of the monozukuri that lies at the industry’s heart. Their ultimate wish is that the younger generation will see a future for themselves in manufacturing.
We also hope that the project members’ commitment to carrying on the vision of Kiichiro Toyoda will enable our readers to experience Toyota’s manufacturing.