Toyota discloses unprecedented details of F1 development

Activity started in the composite area in 2003, and focussed initially on the monocoque, the single most complex item made by the department.

“Composites is the last step before the F1 workshop where the final assembly takes place for the next race or test,” explains TPS Senior Co-ordinator Andrea Schmidt. “So composites can’t afford to be late, because the workshop has to build the car afterwards, and then there’s a race. So composites keeping the delivery date was the most important thing. However, it was similar to engine production, really. We couldn’t keep the delivery times, we had long lead times, and a lot of scrapping of parts, so there were a lot of quality problems.

We wanted to shorten the time to give design more time to develop things. The more time the designers have to test in the wind tunnel, the more improvements we can have. The aim was to replace parts within two weeks, so that for every second event, we could have the parts required. We needed to be quicker.” The difference this time was that Andrea did not have the same level of back up from a Japanese TPS specialist. Having absorbed the principles of TPS, it was now her responsibility to pass on the message to others in the company – a perfect example of the Toyota Way in operation.

As with engines, the first step was to observe and understand the processes involved in the department.

“For the first three months we just watched and observed, and tried to get the trust of the people. It was much harder in composites, because there are 12 different nationalities in this one department alone! They needed to believe it was not about reducing the head count, it was about improving the process itself, and using the capacity for something else, even improving their own work environment.

We tried to do a similar thing to engine production, find out what the process was for the monocoque. It’s a very, very complex part, and it took a long time. The problem is that we only produce about eight or nine per year in a six month period, so you don’t have the opportunity like you do with cylinder heads, where every day you can check. All we could do was analyse the TF 03 monocoques, and then improve things for the TF 04 the following year. So there was a time factor.”

"The whole exercise was about time and quality. Again, there was a clear target to be met."

“When we started, it took weeks to make the first monocoque for a new car. We looked at the process, at the theoretical lead time, and agreed that the target for the first one should be minus 20%. And from the third one onwards, because then you have stabilised things and you have solved the problems with the first prototype, it should be minus 25%.”

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