7/30/2019 Application of JIT in Toyota in India

1/2

Application of JIT in Toyota in India

-Prof. G K Sinha

For many years after it was founded in the year 1937, Toyota was derided as

company made up of bunch of farmers. It hired a lot of farmers to work on

its assembly lines and, in fact, the founding familys name Toyoda meant

abundant rice field in Japanese term. The word Toyota, however has no

meaning in that language. Over a period of six decades, Toyota has acquired

the most fearsome reputation in the industry for its exemplary manufacturing

system, where cost and efficiencies are pared not just every day, but every

second. During the first three months of 2007, Toyota sold more cars and

trucks around the world than any other manufacturer, surpassing General

Motors (GM) for the first time ever and ending one of the longest dominance

in all of global industry. In this first quarter, Toyotas worldwide sales ofcars and trucks reached 2.35 million as against GMs 2.26 million in the

same period.

Let us take a look at its low fat Bidadi (near Bangalore) operations- the

maximum amount of raw material at the factory at any point of time doesnt

exceed two hours production requirement; all finished cars leave the factory

within 48 hours, and no dealer is sent more than 15 days stock. So, just how

Toyota do it?

The trick lies in its famous milk run, which involves picking up small

quantities of supplies from vendor through out the day. This is how it works-

every morning small trucks leave a central stocking point (there is one each

in Pune, Delhi, and Chennai), picking up supplies from the local vendors.

These trucks then return to the hub, where the supplies are transferred to

bigger trucks, which leave for the Bidadi Plant every day. For Vendors

based in and around Bangalore, the milk runs are straight from the plant to

the vendor and back.

Transystem Logistics International, a joint venture between TravelCorporation of India and Mitsui & Co., is the sole transport and logistics

provider of Toyota to facilitate the JIT supplies for its Bidadi plant. Every

day, 261 trucks of Transystems log more than a lakh kilometers picking up

parts from Toyotas 83 vendors in 20 different states of the country, though

most of them are near Bangalore. It has three Cross-Dock facilities in

Gurgaon, Chennai, and Pune. On the 25 th of every month Toyota sends out a

7/30/2019 Application of JIT in Toyota in India

2/2

detailed schedule to all its vendors and Transystems, informing them of the

raw material requirement and production schedule. Based on this schedule,

Transystem does milk-runs at each of the four regions, aggregating the parts

at the three cross-docks. Here,, the components are loaded on to a bigger

truck, which then ferries to Bidadi. All the parts arrive just-in-time to be

assembled. Apart from delivering components, Transystems ferries built up

vehicles to all of Toyotas dealers in the country. It picks spare parts from

the vendors and send them off to the dealers and ferries imported knocked

down kits from Chennai Port to the Bidadi plant.