European Global Production Center

The Mission

Our European Global Production Centre is a key resource in providing training to improve the work done in our manufacturing businesses across Europe.

Its mission is to provide training and to develop solutions that are directly applicable to the work done on our production lines, transferring learning to the workplace by providing coaching.

In this way, it aims to improve organisational capability and build self-reliance in our European manufacturing companies.

The European global production centre has further solidified the "Made by TOYOTA" philosophy of manufacturing vehicles across the globe with consistent quality assurance.

The Team

The European Global Production Centre is based at Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Limited, but provides training services to all our European manufacturing operations.

The team compromises a manager and five trainers who travel to our factories to train local training teams in a wide range of disciplines, including quality control and continuous improvement (kaizen) methods, and to provide shop floor coaching for supervisors. In the course of a year they will provide more than 350 man-days of training and coaching.

Apprenticeships

Providing apprenticeship training helps equip a new generation with the skills our business, and industry in general, need to secure future growth and success. Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Limited has pioneered this training, working with a local further education college to establish an Apprenticeship Development Centre.

It provides apprenticeships not just for young people from its own workforce, but also from suppliers and other small and medium-sized businesses in the local region. The excellent quality of its work has been recognised with awards from the UK’s national skills council, SEMTA.

Quality led by Experience – Takumi Craftsmanship

Although modern, computer-controlled production processes help us produce quality that is perfect to a fraction of a millimetre, time and again, there are areas of our work where the human hand and eye remain the best tools we can use.

For example, our takumi master craftspeople are responsible for the hand-finishing and fine quality checking of our Lexus models. It takes years of experience to perfect their precision skills – talents that they pass on to new generations through teaching and coaching.

Members of Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Limited Apprentice Development Centre in 2015.

Lexus Takumi Master craftsmen at Lexus factory in Japan[LB1] 

The skills learned by Toyota’s people are regularly put to the test in national and international competition. The successes achieved by our men and women demonstrate the effectiveness of our training programmes and individual commitment to learn, improve and apply personal skills.

The World Skills International event, held every two years, brings together the world’s best apprentices from across all types of industry in friendly competition. We have a proud record of achievement having won 50 medals, including 23 golds, up to the most recent event, held in 2015 in Brazil. This success helps inspire the next group of apprentices to develop and demonstrate their own skills to the best of their abilities.

Toyota Motor Corporation wins Gold medal at the 43rd World Skills Competition in 2015 (Autobody Repair).

Toyota Motor Corporation wins Gold medal at the 43rd World Skills Competition in 2015 (Electronics).

Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Limited Apprentices success at the 2015 WorldSkills UK Skills Competition.