The Toyota Sewing System: The Modular Manufacturing System
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Modular production system
The modular production system was first execute at company Toyota in 1978 as part of Just-in-Time and was known in the 1980s in the West as the Toyota Sewing System (TSS). The modular production system works on the principle of pull-type production systems, where the job order comes from the last step to previous steps (Subiron & Rosado 1995). Since the amount of work in process is very low, smooth working when no inventory is possible. Some of the definitions of this production system are given below:
A structured group of individuals are working together in a supportive way to complete a common goal.
A group of people achieve their individual goals efficiently and effectively at the same time achieving their…show more content… The basic principle is alike among these production systems, although the industry and execution may differ. Based on the product mix, a number of operators on a team varies between 4 and 15. The basic principle is to find out the average number of operations required for production of a particular style being produced and divide by three. Team members are cross-trained and exchangeable among tasks within the group in this type of…show more content… TSS is an improvised section with flexible work regions and cross-trained operators, who has been trained up to four different successive operations. This facilitates operators to move from one process to another process till the next operator is ready to start the work on the garment. The operator who has been released from the garment production operation will then go back to the starting point of the work zone and start the work on another new garment. This system commonly uses a 4- to-l ratio of machines to operators (Abernathy & Dunlop 1999).
Incentive reward for the team is based on group pay and additional benefits for meeting team goals for productivity as well as quality. Individual incentive reward is not suitable for team-based garments production system like this. Teams could perform all the operations or a certain segment of the sewing operations based on the organization of the module and operations required (Tyler 1992). Before an apparel industry can set up a modular production system, it must prioritize its goals and make decisions that replicate the needs of the