Toyota Plant Tours Georgetown Kentucky

Been to Mickey Mouse, amusement parks, island beaches, and I-Max movies?

Played enough golf with your in-laws?

Here's an alternative vacation attraction for anybody interested in new car quality: Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) plant tours.

US big three executives, car dealer personnel, United Auto Workers members, automotive journalists, and especially car buyers, absolutely should not miss Toyotas Camry-Avalon-Solara assembly plant tours.

The tour is free, yes, complimentary, on the house.

Georgetown Kentucky Location

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky
1001 Cherry Blossom Way
Georgetown, KY 40324

Toyota Georgetown is located on 1,300 acres just North of Lexington, KY, along Interstate 75. Georgetown is South from Cincinnati, and East from Louisville. Get off at exit 129 and go East on Cherry Blossom Way. The visitor entrance is number 5, past 1-4 all the way around the plant on the East side.

Pull up to the big security station for directions to tour parking.

My wife and I stayed at the inexpensive and clean Motel-6 at exit 129. Exit 129 is dominated by two truck stops: better four-wheeler tourist services and lodging are located three miles South at exit 126.

Hours

Monday 10:00 a.m.; Noon; 2:00 p.m.
Tuesday 10:00 a.m.; Noon; 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday 10:00 a.m.; Noon; 2:00 p.m.
Thursday 10:00 a.m.; Noon; 2:00 p.m.; 6:00 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m.; Noon; 2:00 p.m.

TMMK's Visitor Center opens Monday through Friday at 9:00 a.m.

Basics of Toyota Tour

Tour groups of all sizes must make reservations in advance through the Toyota Tour Line at 502-868-3027 or 1-800-TMM-4485.

Early bookings will receive a snail-mail confirmation letter. In the summer it might be wise to reserve a spot early. For an October 8th tour, we called one day before and were booked to the noon tour. 10:00 a.m. was filled.

Check in at the TMMK Visitor Center, photo id is required.

Cell phones that take photos, cameras, handbags, bags, briefcases, purses, and backpacks are not allowed.

Children accompanied by parents must be in 1st grade or above for the tour.

School groups are required to be forth graders and above.

Georgetown's Visitor Center has 11,500 square feet of museum exhibits, interactive displays, and cars to touch and feel. No "hands off" here.

Cutaway cars and engines, including a Camry Hybrid, are on display for those waiting for the next tour.

There are also JD Power trophies: four J.D. Power Gold Plant Quality Awards, annual industry awards recognizing the top car manufacturing plants in North America.

One exhibit offers an explanation of the Toyota Production System, the part of the tour that should interest car buyers.

Let's Take a Ride

TMMK offers a riding tram tour of the 7.9 million square foot facility. The process lasts about 1.5 hours.

Experienced tour guides (not student interns) talk to visitors through closed circuit radio head sets, there is none of the missed communication of walking group tours.

The plant produces only the number of cars that can be sold, in order.

Our guide announced the day's production, something like 2,138 cars. Not an estimate, target, or quota, the exact number.

First stop is "Stamping," where huge coils of rolled up steel are cut into panels to match the exact cars being built that day, using in-house die manufacturing.

Next, "Body Weld" where the stamped panels assembled into a car body shell. Sparks fly as teams of computer-controlled robots work unassisted.

Our guide pointed out overhead conveyors transporting tires, parts, and cars from sub-assembly areas to the Final Line. Aside from several tour trams, only a few robotic carts ran on the factory floor.

At final assembly, teams of employees worked efficiently, but with no visible signs of stress, as brightly colored Camrys moved smartly along. An innovation I wouldn't have thought of involves removing the doors while interior components are installed, speeding the job and easing the effort required.

Tour Lessons: Takin' Care of Business

The Toyota Production System (TPS) builds America's best selling car, Camry, from rolled steel coil to finished car, in just 20 hours. When I worked the assembly line, what used to be called "Taylorism," time and motion engineering, was hated by workers. Toyota has turned that around, involving the worker in the process.

Everything fits smoothly, standardized work procedures typically last 53 seconds.

Components arrive synchronously: just-in-time.

But there's no whistle up above. Workers, who are paid union-equivalent wages, have so-far resisted union attempts at organizing the plant.

Continuous improvement (kaizen) is evident everywhere, such as paint shop robots that use cannisters of paint rather than long hoses from remote tanks. This allows Toyotas to be painted in the order of assembly rather than in large batches, and dramatically reduces the use of solvents in unnecessary clean-ups.

Components are manufactured and delivered according to a "pull" system which provides the precise number of parts when and where needed, without waste. Conventional "push" systems were driven by the output of preceding processes.

Workers are empowered, expected to think, rather than receiving orders.

There is pro-active quality control, any member can pull the stop cord and halt production.When a defect is spotted, the line must stop immediately and the problem solved. Quality is in the process before it appears in the product.

Toyota team members consider the next person or department up the production line to be their customer, and are loath to convey a defective part.

Ergonomics at every work station are analyzed, stresses like repetitive leaning in are eliminated. Workers who must get under the vehicle lie on special supports rather than bending over.

After two hours, tasks are rotated, resulting in reduced employee stress. Five member teams with a redundant team leader provide the ability to manage the very low absenteeism. Nobody, including management is standing around.

On-site 24 hour childcare and college level classes for degrees sure aren't the car-industry culture I worked in.

Quality means built right the first time. There is minimal re-work, 95% of the cars roll off the line ready for market.

The Magic Bus

What impressed me most was the environmental quality inside the plant. There were few of the irritating odors, loud noises, or safety issues of the typical industrial plant. There are no forklifts ferrying parts, no parts stacked randomly, no barrels of solvents, like I have seen on US big three assembly plant tours.

I have spent my working life immersed in these health hazards. Why don't I smell the paint, plastic, exhaust from running cars, and tires?

Because Toyotas 7,000 employees don't breathe industrial quality air. The facility has state of the art air purification, including activated carbon and regenerative thermal oxidizers for toxic volatile organic compounds.

Tour participants are required to wear safety glasses, which they may keep.

The Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky assembly plant tour received the Guest Relations Association's “Best in Class Public Tour-Small Program” award.

If you want to see the Toyota Way, Georgetown, Kentucky, has the best example in the US.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky Official Tour Page