SpecialFeature
2

Kaizen (Improvement) Activities acrossDiverse Business Domains—A Force toDrive Constant Evolution

Aozora Ichiba, a Cross-Organizational Exhibition to Globally Share Kaizen Examples
Generated in a Horizontally Aligned Manner across All Business Domains

Kaizen Embedded in Our DNA
Underpinning Aozora Ichiban Activity Approach of Each Loss Reduction Team

Since its foundation, Toyota Industries’ spirit of kaizen has been passed
down in its DNA. We have been promoting various types of kaizen
initiatives that include QC circle activities by each workplace and Toyota
Production System Jishu Kenkyu Kai (autonomous Toyota Production
System study groups) in manufacturing departments. Our Aozora Ichiba,
which is one such initiative, held its 16th exhibition in fiscal 2017.

Efficient Allocation Increasing the ratio of value-adding work throughof Personnel Loss ingenuity in production processes■ Aozora Ichiba Framework

Development of
human resources

Horizontally Aligned Activities
Exhibitionin Oct.

Reinforcement ofmanagement
platform

AozoraIchibaBusiness Divisions

VehicleQuality

Plant 1EngineOperational
Availability

Plant 2Compressor

Efficient Allocationof Personnel

Plant 3

Electronics

Horizontallyalignedactivities
from Apr.

Materials Handling
Equipment
Textile Machinery

Logistics
Skills Building &Work Training

AozoraIchibaGlobal Application

Plant 4

Materials, 3Rs andProcurement

Subsidiaries
in Japan

Subsidiaries inand outside Japan

Karakuri

Subsidiaries
outside Japan

Partner companies

CO2 Emissions

Partner companies

Die Engineering

Strengthening of
monozukuri(manufacturing)capabilities

Sharing ofBest Practices

・・・・

Sharing ofbest practices
from Nov.
to Mar.

Exhibition

Loss Reduction
Teams

Toyota Industries Report 2017

Upgrading equipment and other maintenance activities

Logistics Loss

Improving in-plant logistics flows of products and parts

Skills Building &Increasing efficiency and standardizing work training
Work Training Loss
Materials Loss

Reducing secondary materials and other costs

In addition to the above, Aozora Ichiba also exhibits examples of various topics,
including kaizen by karakuri, kaizen of business operations and sales expansion.

Aozora Ichiba, which has been evolving every year, is organized
as follows. First, heads of manufacturing departments of eachbusiness division (Materials Handling Equipment, Vehicle,Engine, Compressor, Electronics and Textile Machinery, etc.)
and the Aozora Ichiba administration office together select 10
n Numbers of Exhibited Cases and Shared Best Practices

n Number of Visitors

Aozora Ichiba started in 2002 for the purpose of reducing costs
associated with the purchasing of secondary materials used in
production activities, such as cutting tools, work gloves, hard
hats and other supplies utilized within a plant. Business divisions
gathered to compare secondary materials they had purchased
individually and successfully cut costs by switching to lessexpensive products or making bulk purchases. Later, with thelaunch of emergency profit improvement activities following
the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman
Brothers in 2008, the Aozora Ichiba project changed drastically.
Under the strong leadership of top management seeking a morerobust management platform, we expanded the area of activities
and quickly transformed it into a Group-wide initiative.

Continued Evolution of Aozora Ichiba, Becoming
a Place to Share Kaizen Ideas on a Global Basis(Number ofexhibitedcases)
459
300

718

711

746

453

(Number of shared best practices)
1,000
800863740753
600400(Persons)
5,000
4,000
3,000200

2,000

100

01,000(FY) 101112Exhibition (loss reduction)

28

Preventing both occurrence and recurrence of defects

Operational
Availability Lossto 15 members to form six loss reduction teams in the areas ofquality, operational availability, efficient allocation of personnel,logistics, skills building & work training and materials. Then, eachteam leads loss reduction efforts, which are horizontally aligned
across business divisions, in its responsible area and works togenerate kaizen ideas for a half year from April in accordancewith its annual action themes. Their efforts culminate with theannual Aozora Ichiba exhibition, which displays a number ofkaizen ideas, small ingenuities, more efficient work methods
and other initiatives at production sites. The event literally serves
as a market, in which participants from the Company as wellas our consolidated subsidiaries and business partners fromaround the world earnestly look for and bring back applicable
improvement examples toemulate in a way best suited fortheir respective workplaces andcompanies.
Tetsuji Ono, who isresponsible for the handling ofAozora Ichiba, further explains:“Each team selects its own
objectives and action themes
Tetsuji Ono
Project general manager, Operations
at the beginning of a fiscal year
Management Consulting Office, Production
under Toyota Industries’ Vision
Control Department, Production Headquarters

Starting Out as a Small Project

Building a robust, streamlined management platform is crucial for a company to survive and sustain growth in theever-changing economic environment. Just as essential is constant business evolution that allows the company
to flexibly respond to changes in customer needs and desired technologies, such as those resulting from theenforcement of more stringent environmental regulations, accelerated electrification and autonomous vehicle
operations in the fields of vehicle and materials handling equipment businesses.
This Special Feature highlights an initiative called Aozora Ichiba (“open-air market”), which aims to share kaizen
efforts globally among our consolidated subsidiaries and business partners and to reinforce the management
platform of the entire Toyota Industries Group.

Quality Loss131415

Exhibition (other)

16170(FY)1011121314151617Sharing of best practices

29Special Feature 2 Kaizen (Improvement) Activities across Diverse Business Domains—A Force to Drive Constant Evolution

2020 and works toward the Aozora Ichiba exhibition held inOctober. During the event, we present kaizen ideas throughexhibiting panels, actual items, videos and demonstrations ofmock production lines to help visitors understand how wellthese ideas work and to promote the sharing of best practices
in their respective workplaces. Presentations are conductedby persons in charge, not by managers at a higher level, which
serves to raise motivation. In recent years, we receive moreparticipants from our bases outside Japan and see more casesof best practices in Japan shared around the world. This is proof
that the initiative has been growing steadily on a global basis.”
The number of visitors attending the event has been growing
each year, exceeding 4,700 visitors in three days in fiscal 2017.
Ono continues: “We regard the event simply as a place topresent our efforts. More important is the process, in which
teams work for a year and absorb the kaizen approach andtechniques through the sharing of examples and problem
solving. One-year team activities also give members a chance
to grow as they draw inspiration from ideas and techniques thatare different from those in their respective business divisions.
These activities also present a valuable opportunity to build
relationships with colleagues from other business divisions. At
the same time, sharing both best practices and issues has taken
our Company-wide kaizen approach to a higher level.”
The following presents specific kaizen examples of theSkills Building & Work Training Loss team and Quality Lossteam from Aozora Ichiba in fiscal 2017.

Contributing to Shorter Skills Building Time andImproved Skills by Creating a Training Simulator
That Reproduces Actual Work Environment
Sayuri Ishikawa of the Engine
Division has participated in Aozora
Ichiba’s Skills Building & Work
Training Loss team ever sincefiscal 2015. She recalls: “Theexperience has been a series ofdiscoveries, while getting to know
the different ways of doing thingsin other business divisions andSayuri Ishikawa
Human Resources Development Workingplants.”
Group, Management and Development
The team conducts activities
Group, Administration Office, Manufacturingunder three loss reduction themes Department No. 1, Engine Division

Achieving Zero Defects Based on Kaizen Learned
from Another Business Division

Practical training using hand-built assembly line training simulator

every year. Koichi Kawata, who
had served as the head of theteam, explains: “The first theme
is to shorten the time required
to build skills of workers new
to manufacturing operations
so that they can work on theirown without supervision. This
will reduce lost time for bothKoichi Kawata
trainers and trainees. The second Assistant general manager, Administration
Office, Manufacturing Department No. 1,
is to prevent loss associatedEngine Division
with quality defects or industrial
accidents by acquiring good skills among workers. The third
theme involves the elimination of waste caused by redundant or
insufficient training and education.”
From fiscal 2015 to fiscal 2017, the team exhibited a
training simulator that uses an automatic guided vehicle (AGV)
to reproduce an assembly line process. The simulator has
evolved over the course of three years. “A training environmentthat closely replicates the actual work site has contributed toreducing the time required for building and improving skills,”
explains Ishikawa. Trainees have regarded the simulator
favorably, noting its ability to provide realistic, “moving” training
not possible in the conventional fixed-type training equipment.
The sharing of the practice has been proceeding well, withplants in Japan and India adopting similar training simulators.
The team holds regular meetings, and members bringissues raised in the meeting back to their respective workplaces
to generate kaizen ideas with their superiors and colleagues
for the next meeting. Ishikawa recalls: “We have been adding
improvements to the AGV training simulator every year, suchas increasing the types of work it can train. This has been ameaningful experience for me to have in-depth discussions withmembers from other business divisions about the themes we had
to tackle as a team, while incorporating views of many colleagues
in my office.” Recognizing the positive results of their activities,
Kawata adds: “We have achieved significant kaizen in terms of
on-site education and training. Besides that, I think Ms. Ishikawa
has grown since she joined the team, and communication has
become more activated within our office as well. The Aozora
Ichiba initiative has generated combined results.”

For the Aozora Ichiba exhibition
held in fiscal 2017, Tsutomu Katoof the Electronics Division served
as the head of the Quality Lossteam. He points out: “Different
business divisions manufacture
different products, but analysis
methods used to reduce andeliminate defects are the same.
Tsutomu Kato
Since divisions use theseManager, Manufacturing Section,
Manufacturing Department, Electronics Division
methods in their unique, specificways, we can learn and notice many things every time we seeother divisions’ approaches. That’s why I find activities to reduce
quality loss interesting.”
Kato continues: “Our team presented a kaizen example in

Tablet device of the Engine Division, which the Electronics Division applied to its own kaizen

Tablet devices introduced by the Electronics Division

fiscal 2017 that applied a shipping inspection method employedin the Engine Division, which uses tablet devices to checkproducts, to an assembly process of the Electronics Division.”
Conventionally, the assembly process had been conductedusing a procedure manual in paper form. The team developed
a tablet device that displays instructions linked to the progressof the work. Using these devices installed at production lines,
workers select parts and tools as instructed on the screen, andwhen that particular step is completed correctly, the system
automatically switches the screen to the next step. “We justinstalled the devices recently, but we have already achieved zero
defects in this assembly process,” adds Kato.
Another initiative in theElectronics Division alsosignificantly contributed to thereduction of quality loss in fiscal2017. Kato proudly explains:“We had been checking thequality of small printed circuitboards (PCB) both visually and
PCB inspection at the Electronics Divisionby using automatic appearance
testers, but sometimes defects
had passed through these inspections. To reduce such defects,
we started filming products with a video camera and displaying
highly magnified images on a monitor. This has helped us
increase our ability to detect defective products and reducethe inspection time to one-fourth of the time needed previously,
while also reducing workers’ eye fatigue.”
Kato also adds: “Aozora Ichiba means a lot, as its activities
actually generate positive results and serve to extend anddeepen relationships with members of other business divisions.
It offers the chance to grow, and in turn enables us to recognize
new things, and achieve better kaizen.” The team will follow
its roadmap and continue to tackle issues for the next Aozora
Ichiba exhibition in fiscal 2018.

Promoting Activities Group-Wide and Aiming for Further Growth
The Aozora Ichiba initiative has now extended its scopefrom manufacturing operations improvements to business
operations improvements and sales expansion, becoming awidespread initiative deeply rooted within Toyota Industries.
Masanori Shirahama sums up the Aozora Ichiba activities todate: “I think the entire Toyota Industries Group, promoted
under the leadership of top management, now understands
the importance of standardizing and maximizing kaizen.
Aozora Ichiba has now become a very good opportunity for us
to explore and take back ideas for the next improvements.”
Shirahama also stresses the significance of the initiative:“On a global scale, the number of participants from our bases
outside Japan has been increasing steadily. For example, ourconsolidated subsidiaries in China have jointly held their own
Aozora Ichiba, while subsidiaries engaging in the manufactureof materials handling equipment in North America and Italy
have brought back best practices of kaizen examples andadopted them. The initiative has also shown positive effects
in terms of human resources development, as it presents achance for diverse people from different business divisions towork as a team. They gain new knowledge by visiting otherdivisions’ production sites, which facilitates out-of-the-box

thinking. People, experienced andyoung employees alike, from all
departments in Toyota Industries
and from our consolidated
subsidiaries and business
partners from around the world
are now involved. As a result,the numbers of improvements
and the sharing of best practices
have been increasing every year.
Masanori Shirahama
Senior technical executive, Production Control
I believe that the Aozora Ichiba
Department, Production Headquarters
initiative has certainly raised thelevel of our monozukuri capabilities.”
Looking ahead, Shirahama explains: “We intend to
facilitate more active collaboration between production
sites and their upstream processes, which include design
and production engineering, to enhance our workplacecapabilities. By doing so, we aim to further strengthen ourmanagement platform and support the Group’s growth fromthe aspects of quality, productivity and human resources
development.”

Manufacturing staff supporting loss reduction activities

30

Toyota Industries Report 201731