The Prius That Shook.. - VFAQ Prius Site

technology and production preparation divisions in design
and development.
Two types of concurrent engineering had been
introduced. The first was called "horizontal consolidation" in
which departments develop parts simultaneously as they
monitor the developmental progress of other parts. The
second was called "vertical consolidation" in which the
development division and the production division jointly
discuss for optimal completion. The prototype division also
had adopted these methods.
If this simultaneous development policy functioned
properly in this case, the engineers should have noticed that
the figures conflicted when they programmed the numerical
control (NC) computer for processing cast parts. The purpose
of concurrent engineering is to allow these engineers to
notice design errors and to promptly take measures to fix
them.
The design error, however, was finally discovered at the
final assembly phase.
Tagami thought, "Needless to say, the design group is
responsible. However, the processing group also could have
found the errors. It is pointless to blame one person for this.
The concurrent engineering system is still far from fully
functioning."
Executive Vice President Takahashi admonished the group
saying, "It is not Toyota's style to simply build goods out of a
design plan. Mutual feedback between the manufacturing
processes from design to production is
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