Rx900

Do those of you who own an Rx330 made in Japan or Canada? I know that the first batch of those 330s are made in Japan. Hopefully Lexus would keep up with their quality in their first time Canada made Rx330.

lexuslover

mine's from Japan. I think the Canadian plant won't be ready for a few more months.

Lexterious

All RX330s will be made in Japan until maybe Aug. Then *some* versions will be made in Canada with some continuing to be built in Japan.

The factory in Canada was the one that was building the Toyota Solara, so it's not an altogether new operation and thus should have most bugs worked out of the process of building good cars.

xsfo

Doesn't the paint process differ between the Japanese and Canadian plants?

The Japanese paint process results in a more durable finish but is more environmentally unfriendly while the Canadian paint process is more environmentally friendly but results in a less durable paint.

Anyone have information to this?

xsfo

Check out this article from the Toronto Star

Keep those mitts off this Lexus

TONY VAN ALPHEN
BUSINESS REPORTER

CAMBRIDGE—Workers are learning to touch the luxury car as little as possible when they start building it at the Toyota assembly plant here this fall.

That's because Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. wants to eliminate any chance of a scratch on its prize baby, the Lexus RX 330 sport utility vehicle.

It might seem like an impossible task, but the local builders of the first Toyota luxury vehicle outside of Japan are trying to put themselves in a manufacturing league of their own.
To demonstrate the point, Toyota has taken the "no touch" policy beyond the exterior and interior of the car. The company doesn't want workers to touch the underbody parts either in a way that could scratch them.

It's clear Toyota is spending $650 million for this project on a lot more than steel girders and welding robots. Toyota, which already builds the popular Corolla and Matrix compact cars at its sprawling operations here, is not only building another vehicle. It's building a mindset.

"The point is to evoke a mindset within every single team member here that the customer is king and the car we build for that customer is perfect," says Greig Mordue, the plant's manager of corporate planning.

"The emphasis is more on craftmanship than production."

He also stressed the plant can't afford to make mistakes because it will have a negative impact on a brand that has significant prestige in the international marketplace.

And there seems to be no end to the attention to detail and adhering to the company mantra of "the passionate pursuit of perfection" in the months before the first 2004 Lexus rolls off the assembly line for sale.

A plant in Japan started delivering the model to North American dealers this month.

But later this year, the bulk of vehicles will come from Cambridge.

Toyota's suggested retail price will range from $49,900 to more than $60,000 for a fully loaded model.

On the production line, the company has devised strict rules to minimize any dust or dirt getting into the interior of the car.

Over in the spanking new paint shop, the company has posted a bulletin that tells workers not to wear deodorant because it might trigger a defect.

In a meeting room on another floor, instructors are putting workers through a rigorous certification program and understanding of principles such as kaizen (continuous improvement), yokoten (sharing best practices), jidoka (systems to flag problems), heijunka (continuous and even workloads) and muda (waste).

Workers will learn their specific jobs inside out, the history of the luxury Lexus brand and that they are building something special.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada officials, including president Ray Tanguay, say the mindset in the plant involves a focus on improving Toyota's legendary quality and exceeding customer expectations.

They say the customer drives everything.

That goal and mindset to achieve it will actually start before workers even lace up their boots at the Lexus section of the plant.

Toyota is spending $1 million on a special entrance at the southwest end of the plant so workers get what Tanguay calls a feeling of passion that will help them meet the challenge of building a Lexus.

It will include a gleaming exterior that is somewhat unusual for a factory. The inside walls will have a wood finish. Workers will walk on ceramic floors and see displays of their product.

Inside, there is considerable evidence of the no-touch policy beyond workers wearing gloves and covers on watches.

For example, an automated device will fit the complete instrument panel into the vehicle. A worker simply drives the final screws and nuts, minimizing the risk of scratching.

Furthermore, there is a special piece of equipment that will install the driveshaft assembly, which protects it from scratching.

Avoiding scratches is also important for other reasons. The wood trim in each vehicle will come from one piece of the same tree to ensure a match in grain and colour. If something scratches one piece, its means replacement of the entire set.

Workers who have duties inside the engine compartment won't have responsibility for any interior installations in efforts to stop the migration of dirt.

After the installation of the carpet, any workers who have jobs in the interior must wear white-soled shoes to minimize scuff marks.

Workers will vacuum the carpet at the end of the line and clean all the glass even though it has never been used.

"The entire assembly environment is designed to suggest to team members that the area in which they are working is as much like a lab as it is a production facility," Mordue said.

In pursuit of the perfect paint job, the plant has built glass walls between each zone in its new shop to reduce migration of dust and make cleaning it easier. The shop also has numerous monitors to measure dust levels and other devices to eliminate it.

"Our approach is touchless, dirtless and scratchless," Mordue added.

The company won't discuss the level of Canadian parts content in the Lexus, but Mordue said officials have worked closely with several local suppliers through Toyota's "genchi-genbutsu" approach (go and see) to resolve problems and meet Lexus standards.

He noted the process will help parts makers compete better against other auto suppliers in getting new business.

The original Toyota assembly plant, which opened in 1988, already has a superior reputation among auto operations in North America. It has won seven J.D. Power awards for initial quality.

The Lexus operation will employ about 700 workers on two shifts who will come primarily from the existing Corolla and Matrix sections where they have accumulated extensive experience.

During the last year, more than 100 workers have travelled to the Toyota plant in Japan that builds the Lexus RX 330.

The Japanese plant has sent some complete frames and bodies to Cambridge so workers gain experience in assembling the vehicle since the welding shop is still under construction.

They have assembled 10 complete pilot vehicles to date, making sure parts fit correctly and there are no paint imperfections. They have driven the models, which won't be sold, on the plant's test track and put them in a truck freezer to see how they react to a Canadian winter.

In the next few months, the plant will assemble several dozen more vehicles before a gradual ramp-up starting in mid-September.

Production will increase from about 125 to 250 day by early November with annual capacity of 60,000.

Toyota built the original plant in a former farm field in the city's north end. In 1997, it expanded the plant from 1 million square feet to 2.8 million square feet. The site also includes an engine assembly plant.

Employment has jumped from 500 workers when the plant opened to 3,900 this year, including 700 more because of the arrival of the Lexus.

Production started at 50,000 Corollas in 1988. Last year, the plant produced 218,011 Corolla, Matrix and Solara models. The company moved production of the Solara to Georgetown, Ky., to make room for the Lexus.