The e-Palette is a symbol of Toyota's transformation into a mobility company. Ahead of a public rollout, what is happening at Toyota Motor Kyushu's Miyata Plant?
The e-Palette is being developed as the first step in Toyota’s transformation into a mobility company.
As we outlined in the first part of this article, myriad trials are currently underway in various locations as the company gears up for a public rollout.
One such site is Toyota Motor Kyushu’s Miyata Plant (Miyawaka City, Fukuoka), a dedicated Lexus production hub that mainly manufactures vehicles for overseas markets. The trials here focus on exploring the role that e-Palettes can play in a vast factory space closed off from public roads.
Wide-ranging e-Palette trials
“So far, we have trialed six different services in three categories: people, goods, and services.”
“The goal is to enhance how people work and spend time at the plant, and to identify potential issues in e-Palette business development,” says Hiroyuki Kanemaru, Project Manager at Toyota Motor Kyushu’s MaaS Project Department.
Kanemaru
Beginning with the basics of mobility, we launched services for moving people.
Specifically, in September 2023, we started the a daily “commuter shuttle,” which runs regularly between 2:20 and 4:00 p.m. on a set route within the facility.
In anticipation of the automated driving era, we are working to test autonomous transport on a fixed route to iron out any issues.
The Miyata Plant site spans 113 hectares, and for some employees, getting from the locker room to their workstation can take around 15 minutes on foot.
As Kanemaru points out, the shuttle is also a way to shorten working hours and reduce the physical burden on these staff.
Kanemaru
The second type is an on-demand bus. While the site does have a shuttle bus, it runs every 15 minutes, which means a 15-minute wait if you happen to miss one.
Instead, last September we also started an on-demand bus service alongside the commuter shuttle. Users can use their phones to call for an e-Palette from their workplace stop and get off at a stop near their destination.
The third service, which we began in May, is a plant tour.
The Miyata Plant manufactures Lexus vehicles and has long organized plant tours for Lexus owners.
In the past, we used a HiAce for transport inside the facility, but by shifting to an e-Palette, we can offer customers a new experience.
These three trial services all focus on moving people. So, what outcomes and insights have been gained so far?
Changing the scenery
Let’s start with the commuter shuttle, which began with a single e-Palette. When the plant added a second car, average daily users almost tripled, to 110. Most recently, a shift to flexible operating hours that account for overtime work has brought the service up to around 150 riders per day.
As for travel times, walking from the locker room to the stamping and welding plant, for example, takes 9 minutes 13 seconds, or 10 minutes 17 seconds for the return trip.
By comparison, the shuttle cuts these times down to 2:11 (-7:02) and 2:30 (-7:47) respectively.
In its first four months, from September to December 2023, the service carried a total of 6,566 passengers, saving around 80 hours in combined travel time.
The initiative has been well received by users and is steadily transforming the site environment, by drastically reducing pedestrians around the stamping and welding plant.
When Toyota Times visited the Miyata Plant one rainy afternoon, many employees were taking advantage of the shuttle.
Rather than getting soaked outside, it was wonderful to see them chatting happily with colleagues on board the roomy vehicle.
How about the on-demand buses? In addition to ferrying people around, they also carry goods as part of a fourth service being trialed at the plant.
Kanemaru
Since the on-demand buses are called as needed, most of the time they only carry one or two passengers.
We are looking into boosting occupancy through things like ride-sharing, but this is difficult because the service is built around responding to individual calls.
On the other hand, we found that office supplies and equipment are frequently moved around the site. We figured that carrying such items would help us better utilize the space on our on-demand buses. Since last November, we’ve been working on combining cargo and passenger transport.
When Miyata Plant employees need equipment, they either visit the on-site store or place an online order, which the store staff then deliver in their work vehicles.
By using the on-demand buses for this purpose, the combined cargo-passenger trials sought to boost utilization of the e-Palette’s space and eliminate the need for delivery by other vehicles.
Kanemaru
When we ran the on-demand bus service with two e-Palettes, the average wait time was four minutes. Used by an average of 80 people each day, the service proved to be an effective way for employees to get around the site.
In terms of moving goods, we haven’t quite eliminated the need for deliveries by other vehicles, but in the first four months of combined cargo and passenger transport, from November 2023 to February 2024, the number of monthly shipments doubled from 150 to 308.
With the service currently requiring phone operators, introducing an app-based reservation system is among the issues to be addressed. Even so, Kanemaru proudly notes that these trials have yielded valuable expertise for using the e-Palette to roll out similar combined services in public.
The plant tours have also been largely well received, with participants enjoying novel experiences such as viewing tour-related videos projected inside the vehicle as it travels.
Moving forward, Kanemaru and his team hope to continue trialing new travel experiences that would appeal to customers, such as using scents on board the vehicle.