Section 7. The Functions that Supported Globalization

Item 3. Further Improvement of Monozukuri

Reform of the development process - BR-AD

In January 2001 TMC launched the BR-AD (Advanced Development) project, aiming to create new vehicle development methods using IT tools. The project was run as part of the company-wide BR initiatives by the various fields, such as engineering, production engineering, manufacturing, procurement and information. The project aimed to shorten the overall development period by utilizing digital engineering technology and to devote the resources saved to advanced development in such areas as product planning and design. In addition to improvement in quality and reduction in development and manufacturing costs, the project aimed to develop attractive products in a timely manner.

In order to streamline the development process, the project gathered the company's monozukuri (conscientious manufacturing) experience and knowledge that was scattered across various forms of documentation to create a formal "design template" system. BR-AD development was trialed on the Sienta Japanese-market compact model from 2003, and subsequently expanded to the Mark X Japanese-market sedan.

As a result, the time taken from design selection through to mass production declined markedly, despite the increase in new-model development projects at the time. However, at the same time it became apparent that better employee training was needed to fully reap the efficiency improvements that digital data use could offer. To address this concern, TMC also placed emphasis on revising employee development through improvements in on-the-job training, such as by introducing the practice of studying drawn and actual objects simultaneously.

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