Feb. 02, 1989
TOYOTA INAUGURATES NEW DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
FOR OVERSEAS PARTS SUPPLY
Toyota City―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION recently introduced a new overseas replacement parts distribution system that will dramatically reduce the amount of time needed for overseas parts delivery. The new system will allow Toyota to cut 20 days, or some 40%, off the current average of 50 days required from order placement by an overseas distributor to actual delivery. Toyota hopes the new system will help cut distributor inventories and at the same time improve various information and communications services through the adoption of leased telecommunications circuits.
Introduction of the new system follows the completion of Toyota's Overseas Parts Supply Center on the premises of the company's Tobishima Distribution Center near Nagoya. The new center was built to integrate overseas parts packaging and container loading operations into a single base.
For the time being, the new system will be used only for replacement parts distribution to the U.S. Toyota, however, plans to gradually expand the number of countries covered in the future.
- Dramatically reduces lead time, or parts delivery time, by some 40%; reduces parts delivery time from the current 50 to 30 days.
- Revises parts order placement from a weekly basis to a daily basis, thus improving uniformity in order flow.
- Uses the Kanban system for delivery instructions and the placement of parts orders, allowing the timely supply of parts.
- Integrates parts delivery, packaging and container loading at the Overseas Parts Supply Center, drastically decreasing lead time in Japan (from the current 22 to 8 days).
- Adopts new technologies, such as an on-line and bar code system, to provide greater work efficiency
