By Dan Shaw, Evansville Courier & Press
When Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana told about 2,000 of its Princeton employees they would stop producing vehicles for about three months and instead undergo training, many greeted the news with skepticism.
Though happy to know they would keep their jobs, they didn't see how attending classes on subjects such as corporate ideals and building techniques would benefit their employer.
"They thought it was a waste of time," said Stacy Gallucci, a manager of human resource organization development.
Toyota, like most automobile makers, has been struggling with a falling demand for large vehicles. In August, Toyota plants in Princeton, Ind., Texas and Alabama ceased making both the Tundra pickup truck and the Sequoia sport utility vehicle.
The Tundra line has since been concentrated in Toyota's factory in San Antonio, while the production of the Sequoia is scheduled to resume Nov. 10.
Over the past few months, the enthusiasm of those employees who are undergoing training - about half of those in the Princeton plant continue to make Sienna minivans - has improved markedly, plant officials say. The down time has not been spent idly but rather in finding ways to make various work processes more efficient - sometimes by Toyota's following suggestions made by employees themselves.
And the company's history has led to expectations of greater returns. In 2001 Toyota suspended production at one of its plants in Turkey for 10 months, putting the workers there through similar training programs. Not long after it was reopened, the factory began to earn some of the best quality and productivity ratings in the company.
Princeton executives hope to see the same. Toyota tries to gauge its performance using a number of measures. They include: the number of vehicles being produced, the number of parts discarded because of defects and the number of injury claims.
Signs the training is working are already beginning to appear, Gallucci said. Recent test scores suggest that employees' knowledge of their work and its related responsibilities has improved by 30 percent. The performance of certain skills has improved by 40 percent, she said.
Meanwhile, the employees have undergone a daily regimen of exercise, intended to keep them limber for their return to the assembly line. Though much work in the factory is done with the help of robots, it can still be dangerous to those who are out of practice.
As for the instruction, much of it has been to instill one of Toyota's chief principles. Kaizen is a Japanese word that Toyota translates as "continuous improvement."
It is the idea that any work process in the factory, no matter how efficient, falls short of perfection. Toyota employees are asked to not only come to work prepared to do their job but thinking how they can do it better.
During times of normal production, new hires learn about Kaizen through an orientation course, lasting about two weeks. Most step onto the factory floor with only a taste of the business principle.
Along with Kaizen, the suspension has allowed the company to demonstrate another of its principles: respect for people. Even though the company's West plant has produced no vehicles for the past three months, none of its employees have been laid off.
The contrast with the Big Three automobile companies in Detroit is stark. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have all cut employees to deal with the flagging demand for the large vehicles. The loyalty is not lost on employees, said Rick Williams.
Williams has been a Toyota "team member," as the company calls its workers, for about 8 1/2 years. "The fact that we are still working is what separates us from any other, American company," Williams said. "What usually happens when a company stops producing something? You get laid off."
Other employers in the area have likewise shown that they must lay off employees to stay afloat throughout the current troubles. On Thursday, Alcoa announced it would cut about 100 workers at its Warrick Operation. And several suppliers of parts used on the Tundra and Sequoia have been unable to avoid staff reductions.
Toyota instead deals with fluctuating demand by hiring and letting go temporary workers. It parted ways with about 370 of them in 2007, when high gas prices began to diminish the popularity of the Tundra and Sequoia. It has also allowed workers to take "dispatch" assignments, or temporary positions at other factories.
By last week, about 28 employees were working at the Subaru plant near Lafayette, Ind., where Toyota makes the Camry. And another 157 have taken assignments at Toyota's plant in Georgetown, Ky.
Kelly Dillon, a Toyota spokeswoman, said the Princeton plant will resume production of the Sequoia SUV by Nov. 10, even though demand for large vehicles remains tepid in the United States.
Trying to gain an additional market, Toyota has made plans to ship Sequoias and Tundras overseas. About 15,000 will go to the Middle East a year. Latin America will receive 150 Sequoias and 1,000 Tundras a year.
The Princeton plant will return to having two work shifts, as it had scheduled before the suspension.
But employees won't spend all of their time working on vehicles. The training programs will continue for a time until demand improves.
Also keeping the Princeton employees busy will be the arrival of equipment needed to build the Highlander SUV, a vehicle scheduled to begin rolling off the plant's assembly lines by fall 2009.
"We should be prepared to come back even stronger as a company," Dillon said.