Toyota's new factory idea for small-batch production

TOYOTA CITY, Japan — In its quest to build ever-better cars, Toyota says it also needs ever-better factories. That is the thinking behind the newly christened GR Factory that celebrated its first vehicle line-off last week here near Toyota Motor Corp.'s global headquarters.

The boutique workshop occupies a corner of Toyota's Motomachi assembly plant campus and is dedicated to churning out low-batch, high-performance vehicles for the Gazoo Racing line.

The enterprise, which makes the GR Yaris "super hot hatch," is an integral part of Toyota's effort to deliver on President Akio Toyoda's promise to earn fun-to-drive street cred.

Automotive News was the first international media outlet allowed to visit the new factory, which entered production this year. The GR Factory draws inspiration from the carmaker's Gazoo Racing team with a dedicated line producing sports cars for the company's GR performance subbrand.

The factory employs numerous new manufacturing technologies for low-volume output of niche vehicles, without losing money. It relies on a rare mix of high-skilled human labor and high-tech automation.

"We have a mission to make excellent specialized vehicles," Toyoda said at the ceremony, where he drove a new hot rod Yaris through a particleboard wall in a stunt to the strains of Deep Purple's "Highway Star" performed by an employee rock band.

Key is the use of work cells, instead of a conveyor-driven line. The cells can be increased or decreased as demand fluctuates. Veteran workers assigned to each cell handle multiple processes in quick succession more efficiently than on a mass-volume line.

Cars are shuffled between stations by workers pulling them on dollies or by automated guided vehicles.

Production focuses on delivering ultra-rigid bodies with exacting precision — an extra 11 meters (36 feet) of glue is added to stiffen the body, while an additional 250 spot welds are made by hand. Some 314 workers swarm the pint-size factory.

Toyota scouted its best assembly line workers from other plants for the job. These so-called takumi master craftspeople lend an extra touch of quality and efficiency.

The GR Yaris is a 268-hp subcompact developed from Gazoo Racing's entry in the World Rally Championship series. It will be sold in Japan, Australia and certain European nations and has 7,000 preorders. But the GR Yaris was deemed too small for the U.S. market.

Toyoda said other GR offerings eventually will land stateside, but he declined to elaborate. The GR moniker has been applied to Toyota's top-tier sports car in the U.S., the GR Supra. Toyota also has hinted at possible GR treatment for the Corolla.

Toyota traditionally took street cars and adapted them to professional racing, Toyoda said. But the GR Yaris was conceived with racing in mind first.

Toyoda, the company's "master driver," still straps in for the track. He even kicked off a new racing team with his son Daisuke, called Rookie Racing in honor of the family's pet terrier, the unofficial Gazoo mascot. Toyoda, now 64, will pilot a GR Yaris around Fuji Speedway in a 24-hour endurance race in September.