[Report] "Reducing Production Errors to Zero (0)"... A Visit to Toyota High-Performance GR Factory

High-Performance GR Production Line at Toyota Mother Factory
3D Cameras Measure Component and Body Deviations
Recommend Optimal Component Combinations... Deviations Converge to '0'
Increased Welding Points and High-Strength Adhesives Enhance Rigidity

On the 25th, at the GR Factory located within the Motomachi plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, a robotic arm equipped with a 3D camera is continuously taking photos of every corner of the vehicle during the body process. The 3D measurement data collected by this robotic arm is stored in an analysis system. Based on the design blueprint, the data analysis system selects the most suitable combination of parts and instructs the process operations.

Even for the same parts, production errors of millimeter units are inevitable. If each part has an error of 1 mm, the final error of a car made up of tens of thousands of parts becomes enormous. To reduce this to 'zero (0)', the Toyota GR Factory measures the errors between parts and the body using 3D cameras and selects the combination of parts that fit each car for assembly. Because of this, while a typical automobile factory takes about 30 seconds per process, the GR Factory takes up to 9 minutes to complete one process.

Toyota workers are assembling parts at the GR Factory inside the Motomachi Plant in Toyota City, Japan. Photo by Toyota

Toyota increased the number of welding points and the use of high-strength adhesives to enhance the rigidity of GR high-performance vehicles. The representative high-performance vehicle, the GR Yaris, is a compact car with a total length of only 4 meters, but the length of the areas using adhesives reaches an impressive 35 meters. Additionally, specialized welding is applied to points that need reinforcement, increasing the welding points from about 3,700 to recently 4,500.

On this day, the process of joining the body and the undercarriage was also observed. Four workers wearing light blue safety helmets, arm sleeves, protective glasses, and safety shoes were working closely on one vehicle. Usually, in other factories, a large machine lifts the body, and the underframe meets from below, joining instantly. However, at the GR Factory, while advanced equipment is used, most of the work undergoes a final human touch. Because of this, the production volume of the GR Factory, which produces three models?GR Yaris, GR Corolla, and LBX Morizo RR?is limited to about 100 units per day.

Toyota workers are installing suspensions at the GR Factory inside the Motomachi Plant in Toyota City, Japan. Photo by Toyota

We observed the wheel alignment process at the final inspection stage. After all assembly and exterior inspections are completed, the vehicle is placed on a round turntable to rotate its direction, minimizing steering wheel misalignment before shipment. When the vehicle is on the wheel alignment device, a person manually adjusts it from underneath the vehicle. Numbers indicating the alignment status of the four wheels appear as decimals on the monitor, and when the alignment is completed within the error range, the numbers turn green.

After all inspections, the high-performance vehicles undergo test driving on an outdoor test drive course. While only some vehicles of regular mass-produced cars are tested, all high-performance cars are test-driven before shipment. A professional test driver checks about 20 items while driving around a 6 km round-trip course surrounding the factory. A Toyota official said, "The GR Factory was built as a dedicated plant to produce sports cars with high-rigidity bodies and high-precision undercarriages," adding, "Since there is no conveyor belt, the production line can be changed anytime regardless of the model, production volume, or production technology."

A Toyota vehicle undergoing an exterior inspection at the GR Factory inside the Motomachi Plant in Toyota City, Japan. Photo by Toyota

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