Mark & Teri's Travels: Toyota Factory Tour

We visited the 2.2 million square foot Toyota Factory in San Antonio.

Entrance

Our first stop was at the front desk. Reservations are mandatory and must be made the week before. There are plenty of dress code and other requirements for the tour. We signed in and presented our drivers licenses to the very nice young lady at the front desk. We were confirmed for the 9:00 a.m. tour and received a shiny penny for the penny machine.

Visitor Center

The San Antonio facility is the only facility in the world that makes the Toyota Tundra. They also manufacture the Toyota Tacoma at this facility.

First Toyota Texas built Tundra.

In 1890 Sakichi Toyoda (note spelling of last name) filed a patent for his manual loom design. He became interested in improving the inefficient loom his mother used. During his life he was awarded 40 patents in Japan and 62 patents overseas.

1890 Wooden Loom

In 1929 Sakichi sold the patent for an automatic loom securing the funds needed for his son, Kiichiro Toyoda, to begin the Toyota Motor Company.

We were told the name was changed from Toyoda to Toyota because, in Japanese writing, Toyota (with a t) has 8 brush strokes whereas Toyoda (with a d) has 10. The name was changed because Kiichiro Toyoda wanted to differentiate the automobile business from the loom business and also because eight is a lucky number.

In 2003 Toyoda bought 2,678 acres of ranch land in south San Antonio. 678 acres were donated to the city to create green space along Leon Creek and the Medina River.

Before our tour started we walked around the visitor center.

1969 Land Cruiser

In 1951 the prototype for the Toyota Land Cruiser was built. In 1953, 298 vehicles were sold in Japan. In 1960 the Land Cruiser was offered in the US with only one vehicle being sold that year. By 1984 more than 1 million had been produced.

Hilux

In our travels to Central and South America the Toyota Hilux is the most common truck we see.

New employees receive training on how to perform their jobs as well as work conditioning to prepare their bodies for the line. Every day they start their shift with a 6 minute stretch.

To improve hand-eye coordination, accuracy and speed, new employees train on the Winding Rope exercise. They must wind the rope correctly within 6 seconds to meet the goal. We saw a very nice gym facility while on the tour and were told the first two weeks of training for their new jobs the employees must use the company gym two hours every day.

Mark has great hand-eye coordination!

Our tour started in the visitor center with a short, very informative, movie.

Unfortunately, cameras (also bags, purses, cell phones) are not allowed on the tour.

We were given a parking pass and told to position our car behind the truck in the parking lot. We would be driving to the factory.

We were told that if we were caught taking pictures by security, the pictures would be deleted and we would be escorted off the property.

After passing through the front gate, I put my camera away!

Entrance gate.

Our guide for the tour was Ashley. She was very good and upbeat. When we walked into the facility we met our driver (I don’t remember her name) and were told to go ahead and get in the tram. There is no walking on this tour. You ride very comfortably in a small tram and listen to Ashley through headphones. The tour takes about 90 minutes. It was a blast!

There were two areas we were not allowed. The painting area - because there is a high risk of contamination, and the pressing area - because of the use of dangerous heavy machines.

Even though I couldn’t take pictures in the plant, I have lots of pictures of the process in making a Toyota truck.

This facility has 7000 employees and produces 1000 trucks a day! It was absolutely amazing to see the trucks being built right in front of our eyes and then watching the truck being started - for the first time - and driven off the production line.

'Press' is the first step in the vehicle production process. It’s where steel sheets or “blanks” are pressed into vehicle body parts such as hoods, fenders and doors.

Each press, or die, weighs several tons. The sheets of metal undergo a quality check to ensure that vehicle production begins with the best parts right from the start.

Robots are used throughout the factory. The most extensive use is in welding. Not every process is automated. In some cases, employees work with the robots to ensure quality.

Stamped parts move from Press to Weld, where they are welded together into the body shell of the Tundra and Tacoma. At this point the cab and deck, or bed, remain separate bodies that are joined later in Assembly.

In the visitor center we got to see a robot in action. You slide a plastic block into the container then the robot picks it up and puts it at the end of the line.

Robots are fun!

We saw several of these Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) moving parts to the line. It’s a moving robot that follows a magnet strip in the floor for navigation. Sensors detect obstacles in its path. If it comes in contact with an object, it shuts down and signals an operator to clear the obstacle and restart the robot.

AGV

'Plastics' is where bumpers, instrument panels and other important components are made. Using tiny pellets of plastic they use an advanced injection molding process to shape the pellets into usable parts.

Plastic pellets

This improved process requires less materials and time and increases productivity. They produce plastic parts twice as fast as before with fewer defects.

Plastic components

Next up is the Paint Shop. Toyota offers eleven color choices. Mark had a great time playing with the paint simulator!

Get Ready

Start Painting

Check your Coverage

An Interesting pattern

We got to watch a lot of the assembly line work. The workers take a 10 minute break every two hours and then change jobs. They train for two weeks before ever getting on the assembly line.

The frame begins upside down for easier installation of specific parts and is later flipped right side up to install the engine and transmission. Each frame is assembled separately while the cab and deck are being assembled.

In 1990, Toyota debuted the three overlapping Ellipses logo on American vehicles. The Toyota Ellipses symbolize the unification of the hearts of the customer and the heart of Toyota products. The background space represents Toyota's technological advancement and the boundless opportunities ahead.