Toyota's West Virginia Engine Plant Wins Harbour Award For Most Productive Engine Plant

BUFFALO, W.Va., Sept. 28 -- Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia Inc.'s 4-cylinder engine line at Buffalo, W.Va., won Harbour Consulting's award for best engine plant productivity for the third consecutive year among 29 engine manufacturing operations evaluated in The Harbour Report North America 2005.

Measured by the number of labor hours required to assemble one engine, Toyota's 1.8-liter 4-cylinder line scored 1.88 hours per engine (HPE) in 2004, improving from 1.94 HPE in 2003 and only the second time The Harbour Report found any engine plant requiring less than 2 hours per engine. TMMWV also produces 3.3-liter V-6 overhead cam engines. That line achieved 3.00 hours per engine in 2004, according to The Harbour Report, leading all plants in the 6-cylinder overhead cam segment.

"Toyota remains the benchmark in engine productivity and the Buffalo plant was a major reason," said Ron Harbour, president of Harbour Consulting. "Toyota's 4-cylinder line here was again the report's most productive engine operation for the third consecutive year."

Harbour presented the award to David Copenhaver, vice president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia Inc., and team members from the 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder engine lines.

Harbour's evaluation found that continuous improvement activities contributed significantly to the industry-leading performance at TMMWV. For example, the Harbour team noticed that a process change enabling the production control group to load raw material in the engine block machining line helped reduce downtime. In addition, the plant replaced a manual conveyor with an automated one. Three robots were added in the connecting rod line to replace less reliable conveyors.

The 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine is used in the Corolla, Matrix and Pontiac Vibe models. The 3.3-liter V-6 engine powers the Sienna minivan and Lexus RX330.

The two engine lines in the Buffalo plant operated at 103% of capacity in 2004 and their combined productivity was 2.44 HPE, a 4.9% improvement from 2003.

The Harbour Report North America is an annual productivity study created and published by Harbour Consulting, a Troy, Mich.-based manufacturing and management consulting and automotive research firm. It is considered the authoritative guide to automotive manufacturing in North America, and is a leading competitive analysis tool used by automakers and suppliers to benchmark performance, develop strategies and improve operations. More information about the report and Harbour Consulting is available on the company's website, http://www.harbourinc.com/ .