TOYOTA INTRODUCES NEW ASSEMBLY LINE CONTROL SYSTEM

Toyota City―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that it has introduced a new production information system on passenger car production lines at the company's Tahara Plant.
The new Assembly Line Control (ALC) system was developed to give Toyota more flexibility in its production system, while maintaining product quality.

With the new system computers are installed on the individual production lines (body, paint, assembly, etc.), allowing local control of operations and greater freedom to respond to line-specific production problems. Coordination of production is achieved through a tagging system that assigns each article or vehicle an antenna, controller, and 8 kilobyte "ID tag" which carries detailed information and instructions needed for the various production processes. By joining each item with its specific production information, the system reduces computer load and allows the complex flow of components and vehicles to be controlled more easily and accurately.

Under the previous system, computerized control of production instructions was carried out centrally by the company's head office. The new ALC system gives individual plants the autonomy to make production control decisions at the production site. Another feature of the ALC is its ability to easily interconnect and utilize different types of equipment, which permits systems to be developed without being restricted to specific computer or equipment manufacturers. The interconnection of information equipment is carried out in the plant network by adopting Manufacturing Automation Protocol, an international standard local area network (LAN) advocated by GM.

The new ALC system is currently in use at the Tahara Plant on the line producing Toyota's two new luxury sedans, the Lexus LS 400 and the Toyota Celsior. Future plans call for the system to be installed at all of Toyota's plants.