Quote:
Originally Posted by GT-86
don't overthink it.
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I can't help it. I'm an engineer; I like to analyze things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GT-86
manufacturing already has all the needed supplies (eg: metal, colors, engine and transmission parts, etc...) they have what's known as a build supply.
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According to the
Toyota Production System (TPS) or
lean manufacturing, car makers stock a couple weeks of parts at most and order more as needed. Hoarding 3 months of parts costs millions in overhead because of the real estate it occupies (bad practice by the Big Three in the '70s til they adopted Toyota's method). Just some things I remember as a TPS-certified manufacturing engineer co-op at a Toyota plant. Also, recent press releases still show production prototypes. They were pilot run through the assembly line with minor parts not yet finalized (missing wheel well/underbody linings, interior bits seem inconsistent in publications). Production can’t start til these minor nuisances are sorted out. With the prototype done, Toyota just about wrapped up its complete parts list; now its suppliers need a couple months lead time to prep for the big production run. It takes a
lot longer to prep for manufacturing than to manufacture the car itself. When the redesigned Tacoma launched, production at the plant started under
2 months before its launch. Considering the Tacoma is a
much higher volume vehicle than the 86, the 86 would require
less lead time. It takes a couple days to fill the assembly line from start to end. Once the line was full we'd build out 1 car (Tacoma, Corolla, Vibe) per minute (24 hours a day, 5 days a week). This approximates to a hypothetical
3.5 week turnaround time for 20,000 FR-Ss.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GT-86
the car will be available in your market in less than 3 months
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Manufacturing for all 3 makes should start late March/April assuming the BRZ launches in May;
the car should be in our market in 5 months.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GT-86
they've already decided what % will be manuals vs. automatic for every market (global), same goes for colors (they don't have paint cans sitting at the factory). build supply can change every 6 months if a particular color isn't selling or if they need to change transmission % breakdown.
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I worked in the paint department; we definitely did NOT store paint in cans lol. Dealers around the world don’t need 6 months to order configurations (colors, transmissions, etc.). Thanks to TPS, Toyota receives needed parts overnight (usually same day) since suppliers tend to cluster around any given Toyota plant. Orders from the customer (the dealerships) are taken around a month in advance and parts are stocked at the factory 2 weeks before they're assembled in a complete car. This is why Toyota beat the Big Three; they responded to demand faster and better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GT-86
they already know which market or in your cases states and cities that sell scions well. i would think the warmer areas or areas known for having a huge car culture will be the ones that will get more of the GT86. i'm also sure they have regional breakdowns for allocations. meaning new york city is in a different region than say los angeles and will have different allocation of trim, transmission, colors based on the region.
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If production starts in late March, Scion has quite some time to figure out what configurations to order. They’d be stupid not to use the First 86 data to help with that, especially since configuration preference appeared on the First 86 order form. BTW since it was done online, the 8 hour 6 minute time window is actually 11 hours 6 minutes considering Eastern/Pacific time zones; more if you include Alaska/Hawaii.