The guided tour of the manufacturing plant was fascinating
but, don't look for a photo link as no cameras or cell
phones are allowed in the plant. Tour transportation
was by a multicar tram, which was necessary in order to
complete the tour of the 1.5 million square facility in an
hour. At the on start, we were provided a hard hat,
safety goggles and a headset. The hard hat and safety
goggles were mandatory but, the headset was optional (no
need for it unless you wanted to hear what the tour guide
was saying).
There were many fascinating aspect of everything we saw but what stood out most was the high efficiency of the production line, which was a combination of robots and people and, since most parts manufacturing plants are located on Toyota site, the costs and time associated with offsite transportation is almost eliminated.