In July 2023, Toyota Motor Vietnam and the Department of Industry – Ministry of Industry and Trade signed a memorandum of understanding for a cooperation project to support domestic enterprises in the automotive support industry. This initiative aims to enhance capabilities and strengthen connections between domestic support businesses and automobile assemblers.
Toyota sent experts to suppliers to identify existing issues and provide consulting and support. Notably, two suppliers that received support in the 2022 project, Kim Sen Industrial Joint Stock Company and 75 Rubber Limited Liability Company, partnered with Toyota to share the knowledge they had acquired. This collaboration aimed to extend support to this year’s suppliers, thereby contributing to the development of the support industry as well as the Vietnamese automotive industry.
After two rounds of evaluation and selection, CNCTech Thăng Long surpassed 200 competing enterprises to be chosen as one of the seven companies to receive support from Toyota Vietnam.
After more than six months of implementation, this initiative has yielded very promising results in various activities. These include the 5S improvements (Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain), occupational safety, and Kaizen (Toyota’s continuous improvement program), such as reducing inventory and factory floor area, maximizing cost efficiency, increasing productivity, and enhancing the working environment for employees across all seven suppliers, with some notable outcomes.
We have implemented typical Kaizen practices in our production processes
1. 5S Activities
5S Activities is one of the crucial programs within Kaizen aimed at scientifically and logically rearranging the production floor to enhance the sense of responsibility and self-discipline among employees toward the enterprise. We implement Toyota’s 5 drivers with 16 evaluation criteria, divide the zone for 5S activities, train 5S evaluators, conduct rankings and evaluations, and ensure leadership closely follows the program.
a.Arranging the Racks
Arranging involves the organization of work tools, semi-finished products, raw materials, and goods in easily identifiable, accessible, and returnable locations. The general principle of S2 (Set in Order) is that every necessary item should have a designated place marked clearly. This activity is crucial and must be strictly followed.
At CNCTech, we have applied and redesigned the dimensions of shelves/racks according to the types of goods and JIGs, saving 4 square meters of factory space and reducing the number of storage racks.
Not only applied in the factory, the office at CNCTech also implements the 5S organization very seriously.
b. Creating a Safe and Friendly Work Environment
To ensure safety for employees, facilitate easier movement and observation, CNCTech has removed the large water fans in the middle and replaced them with overhead electric lines and mounted fans higher up.
2. Standard Work – WI (Work Instructions)
We have implemented clear displays of CVTC (Critical Variables to Control) steps including key points to ensure Safety, Quality, and Production Progress. The tasks set and implemented include: updating all WI, revising based on MBR (Master Batch Record) jobs, training on new WI, daily WI monitoring and verification, and filming WI comparison videos for two shifts.
- Before Improvements: CNCTech faced several issues: there were no highlighted key points and reasons for these key points regarding Safety (S), Quality (Q), and Productivity (P), and there was no timing for operations.
- After Improvements: To ensure quality and manage employee performance effectively, everything is placed in the correct position.
3. TPS Motion
TPS (Toyota Production System) operates on the principle of eliminating waste in all aspects of production to achieve the most streamlined production model. CNCTech selected 4 criteria out of 21 to address difficult and labor-intensive tasks by observing CNC operations, filming, and analyzing to identify wasteful and challenging motions.
Before improvements, foam was stored vertically in rolls, making the cutting process difficult as it required bending and twisting. After improvements, we designed a hanging rack for the foam rolls and implemented a mechanism for cutting foam.
-> The result eliminated the need to bend, saving up to 200 minutes per month in cutting time.
b. Tool Cart Design
Instead of using low, difficult-to-move tool carts as before, which required employees to lift heavy loads, bend, and expend significant labor, we have designed a tool cart that is level with the machines and racks and includes a push handle -> This helps save 4 minutes per month.
4. Material Flow Control – MFC
In material flow control, we review the overall flow of products to easily detect abnormalities in work steps, inventory, production lead time, logistics, etc. As a result, we arrange continuous production flow => No stagnation and reduce inventory. Producing in a lean manner => Reduce lead time.
In practice, we have applied and changed the layout in the printing room, cooling room, and QC to move more reasonably and save time and effort.
a. Changing the layout of the cooling and QC rooms – F1 to the line (One piece flow)
The method of arranging the cooling and QC, packaging is arranged at the end of the CNC machine line instead of concentrating at one point and spending more time moving as before. This helps CNCTech save up to 120 km of travel per month, 154 square meters of factory space, and 7 laborers to perform these tasks.
b. Arranging the production flow and moving the blank cutting machine from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor
Before the improvement, workers had to carry long and heavy aluminum bars from the raw material warehouse on the 2nd floor, consuming effort and time, approximately 3840 minutes per month ~ 60 km per month. After the improvement, we moved the cutting machine from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor, where employees cut the blanks into small pieces before transporting them to the machines. This helps reduce strenuous work, shorten labor time, and save up to 65 square meters of factory space.
c. Moving the printing room from the 1st floor to the 4th floor
This method helps reduce the distance of moving finished products after printing by 70 km per month and saves 195 square meters of factory space by moving the printing room from the 1st floor to the 4th floor next to the finished goods warehouse instead of being distant from each other as before
d. Changing the production flow in the F2 Factory
The method of continuous production from Machining -> Cooling -> Inspection -> Packaging on one assembly line, instead of previously having to inventory and spend a lot of time moving between the above steps due to dividing separate work areas.
The Mobile QC method in the plastic molding department involves QC staff directly going to the machines to inspect and package, instead of previously having to move to a separate QC area for inspection, which caused inventory and transportation time.
This improvement activity has saved CNCTech company a total area of 578m2 of factory space, 14 personnel, 6 days of WIP inventory, and 242.2 km/month of travel distance.
This is a significant program in the development and enhancement of production capacity/competitiveness for supporting industrial enterprises in Vietnam, aiming to participate in the global value chain.
