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Cost Planning, Mass Planning, Standardization of Parts

History of cost planning, mass planning, and parts standardization in engineering fields

History of cost planning, mass planning, and parts standardization in engineering fields

Cost Planning

When conducting new product development, a budget is determined in the product planning stage and new product development is conducted within that budget in order to provide high-quality vehicles at low cost to customers. These activities are referred to as cost planning.

Year
Month
Events
Further details
1960
 
Value engineering (VE) activities reinforced during the 1960s to achieve cost targets
Further details
1966
February
Cost functions in engineering fields launched;
- VE management functions in engineering divisions organized for the first time and ongoing VE activities implemented; VE Investigation Committee meetings held to analyze and display Toyota vehicles and vehicles of other companies side by side as a special project
 
1971
 
Cost Planning Manual prepared in the Engineering Division
 
1974
September
Cost Planning Committee established;
- Committee aims to enhance engineering-based investigations in the initial stages and monitor achievement of cost planning targets in a timely manner
 
1975
February
Specialized cost organization established in the Engineering Division;
- established in response to the deterioration of company income immediately following the 1973 oil crisis to improve the costs of prototype vehicles
 
1986
 
Since 1986, the focus of cost planning has expanded from improving the costs of prototype vehicles and moved forward to activities in the conceptual stages to include diagram preparation
 
1991
 
Number of cost planning personnel greatly increased
 
1992
 
Cost improvement activities implemented as an emergency income improving measure
 
1994
June
VE Center opens
 
September
BR-VE Department established;
- Department established to reinforce unit and component cost planning
 
1996
January
NBC Committee established;
- Committee sought to greatly reduce costs and enhance product competitiveness during development of the first Generation Vitz
 
1998
October
Cost Planning Division established at Toyota Technical Center-Ann Arbor (TTC-AA);
- the cost function organization of the local engineering division spun off as an independent organization in conjunction with local development of North American production vehicles
 
November
EQ activities started;
- in order to increase profitability of the Corolla, "no sacred cows" activities, "large room" activities, and "tripartite integration" activities implemented as new measures that go beyond the boundaries of earlier activities
 
2000
February
Cost Competitiveness Construction 21 activities started;
- Medium- and long-term activities started on the individual part-level with the aim of achieving the world's lowest prices in 2006
 
2002
 
Break Through TOYOTA (BT2) activities started to reform awareness in engineering divisions in 2002
 
2003
June
EQ Planning & Development Division established;
- Cost planning functions divided among individual centers and divisions consolidated to make new advances in division missions based on three pillars: I. Creation of cost functions, II. Cost reform, and III. Work process reform
 
2004
January
New VE Center opened in the Gijutsu Honkan (Main Building of Technical Center)
 
August
Cost planning education in engineering fields commenced
 
2005
April
Companywide Value Innovation (VI) activities commenced
 
July
Hybrid Vehicle Cost and Development Expense Reduction Committee established
 
2006
January
Cost planning function established at Toyota Motor Europe-R&D Manufacturing (TME-RDM)
 
 
'Cost Planning Concepts and Rules' issued after it becomes necessary to prepare cost planning standard schedules adapted to schedules for new development due to increasingly complex cost planning structures and harder-to-understand processes causing the frequent occurrence of communication problems with relevant divisions;
- large-scale process reforms involving 25 divisions started in 2006; results compiled as the Cost Planning Concepts and Rules
 
2008
April
Emergency VA Activities commenced
 
August
A-EQ Committee established;
- companywide initiatives to dramatically reduce costs of compact cars implemented
 
October
Constituent Component Investigation Committee reestablished
 
2009
February
BR-VI Department established;
- Value Innovation functions for the EQ Promotion Division spun off as a new organization
 
December
Ryohin-Renka Cost Innovation (RR-CI) activities start;
- in a fight for survival, Toyota seeks to rebuild the world's top competitiveness on the vehicle and supplier parts-level in every region of the world
 
2010
April
Companywide Value Analysis (VA) activities (name changed from Emergency VA Activities) commenced
Further details
2011
January
Cost planning function established at Toyota Motor Asia Pacific Engineering & Manufacturing (TMAP-EM)
 
January
Value Analysis Development Division established;
- Value Analysis activities propagated throughout the entire company with the BR-VI Department, established as a permanent function, as the driving organization
 

Mass Planning

When developing new products, the planned mass that is the premise for development of the various functions is determined and the new product is developed based on this in order to provide environmentally friendly vehicles with outstanding performance to customers. The various activities for doing this are referred to as mass planning.

Year
Month
Events
Further details
1973
 
Desire to design vehicles and parts to be lighter from the planning stages arise against a background of an increase in the number of parts in conjunction with stricter emissions and safety regulations, resource conservation, and rising user preference for high fuel efficiency; investigation of management techniques began under the name "mass planning"
 
1974
 
'Mass Planning Design Guidelines' issued
 
1975
February
Specialized mass planning organization created in the Engineering Division;
- staff activities concerning mass investigations by designers reinforced
 
1979
 
'Mass Planning Manual' adopted
 
1980
March
Mass Reduction Subcommittee established;
- the Subcommittee, a subsidiary organization of the Fuel Efficiency Specialists Committee, conducts weight-reduction activities from the time of prototype production through design, production engineering, and manufacturing techniques
 
1986
December
Mass planning organization reviewed and working group established; the group establishes methods to invigorate weight reduction activities and increase the efficiency of operations; methods implemented starting in 1987
 
1989
February
Mass planning organization in the Engineering Division reinforced;
- Weight Reduction Promotion Committee established to oversee engineering divisions and vehicle weight planning guidelines adopted and implemented due to necessity to implement aggressive weight-reducing measures to improve fuel efficiency in response to fierce competition, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations in the United States, and other factors
 
2001
October
ME10 Committee established;
- weight-reduction activities in conjunction with technology development started in response to European fuel efficiency regulations requiring carbon dioxide emissions of no more than 140 g/km
 
2007
August
Mass planning organizations reinforced;
- in response to European fuel efficiency regulations requiring carbon dioxide emissions of no more than 120 g/km starting in 2012, the ME10 Committee established in 2001 with personnel mainly from the Engineering Division is promoted to the Mass Innovation Committee to support companywide activities; at the same time, the EQ Promotion Division is reorganized as a mass organization with the aim of integrating costs and mass on a higher level
 

Standardization of Parts

Parts with good design elements can be used for long periods in numerous vehicles. These activities make it possible to reduce development resources, cut costs, stabilize quality, reduce plant space, and reduce the number of spare parts.

Year
Month
Events
Further details
1993
April
Parts reduction activities started;
- to reduce the number of particularly numerous parts in response to the issue of procuring many different types of parts from suppliers
 
1999
August
Common parts promotion activities started;
- in order to control indiscriminate development of new parts, parts that can be shared among different vehicles and used for different purposes are identified and their use on new vehicles is supported
 
2002
January
Parts standardization activities started;
- periodic reviews conducted to support the capabilities of recommended parts and the name changed to support the use of parts on numerous vehicle series for extended periods
 
2004
August
Parts number guidelines prepared for each vehicle series for key parts with numerous types and measures taken to limit parts to that extent for new development vehicles
 
2009
January
Periodic reviews of reduction of the number of recommended parts strongly promoted in response to a severe business environment
 

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