Toyota Motor Corp. has already started building the second-generation Tundra at its new factory in San Antonio, but these pickups will never leave the factory.
Instead, manufacturing experts are tearing them down to make sure the workers-in-training are doing their jobs right.
It is an example of the exhaustive steps the Japanese automaker is taking to ensure the launch of the new Tundra, due on the market early next year, goes off without a hitch.
Toyota has always been known for its patient and methodical approach to manufacturing, but Gary Convis -- chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky and one of the automaker's highest-ranking U.S. executives -- told The Detroit News that the ramp-up to Tundra production in Texas is taking that to a new level.
"We're not going to rush this thing," Convis said in an interview at the auto industry's annual Management Briefing Seminars. "It's going to be done right."
Industry analysts say it has to be done right. The new Tundra represents the first serious challenge to the dominance of Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. in the full-size pickup market -- the last bastion of the American automobile industry. And it comes at a time when that segment appears to have reached its peak.
It also comes at a time when Toyota -- long regarded as the industry's quality leader -- is reeling from an embarrassing series of recalls.
"With the recalls, they're going to be as careful as they've ever been," said Ron Harbour,
Read Article