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NEWS
Toyota's Altona plant features in 'Megafactories'
National Geographic Channel airs documentary about Toyota's local car assembly facilityToyota's vehicle manufacturing plant in Altona, west of Melbourne, is the subject of a new episode of National Geographic's Megafactories TV series.
The episode in question went to air last night and will be seen again tonight on Foxtel. To date the series has focused on prestige brands or high-volume manufacturing capacity – among them Lamborghini, Caterpillar, Winnebago, Porsche, John Deere, Harley-Davidson and the Swiss Army Knife. The Altona plant – actually seven distinct facilities on a 75 hectare site – is a marvel of vertical integration in a small market, and has been established around an outward-looking (export-driven) business model.
40,000 tonnes of steel are set aside each year for the initial panel stamping, according to Toyota, and engine castings require 600kg of aluminium throughput every 30 minutes. Each of the 100,000 or so cars built each year in Altona represents a parcel of 13,000 parts and 1.7km of wiring. The 2500 workers in the plant carry out 237 separate processes to create a car from an amalgam of components – and the human workers are complemented by the 280 welding robots that call the plant home.
But what makes the Altona plant special is the place it occupies in the Toyota world, according to Chris Harrod, Toyota Australia executive director, manufacturing and purchasing.
"Australia was the first country in the western world where Toyota made an investment in manufacturing – a move that played a crucial role in Toyota becoming the world's number one carmaker," he was quoted saying in a press release.
"Building cars in Australia exposed the Japanese company to a vastly different culture and enabled it to learn many lessons that underpinned global success as it moved into the United States and Europe.
"Today, Toyota is the leading automotive company in the world and we have been the top-selling car company in Australia for the past decade.
"In addition, we are the only vehicle manufacturer in Australia building a hybrid car and late last year we opened a new engine plant at Altona, one of only five of its kind in the world.
The documentary "provides an inside view of the Toyota world most people will never see first-hand - the innovation and technology behind our Altona 'megafactory'," says Harrod.
"What's clear is the passion and the commitment of everyone involved in producing Camry, Camry Hybrid, Aurion and four-cylinder engines for local and export customers."
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