Waste Reduction: A case study of Toyota Logistics Services (TLS)

Toyota Logistics Services (TLS),  They upgrade and customize Toyota cars and trucks straight from the factory floor. They process 400,000 vehicles a year. TLS Fremont believe that cutting waste increases efficiency and profits, so to do this, it has to increase recycling, use reusable shipping containers and eliminate waste through careful supply chain management. The first in fixing a problem is to identify that there is a problem.

Challenges:

1)Commitment to Kaizen, continuous improvement

2) Target of zero waste by 2006

3) Desire to boost productivity and cut costs

Solutions:

They came up with a PDCA model, which they brought in a group of employees to brainstorm and come up with ideas, from this meeting came the PDCA model birth.

P: Plan the project

D: Do it

C: Check to see if it’s working

A: Act to correct it if not

1)Supply chain management analysis-Reusable shipping containers

2)Waste prevention recommendations

3)Assistance to improve recycling

4) $5,000 mini-grant

The Bottom Line/ Benefits:

The long-term and short-term benefits in this project consisted of:

1)Combined annual savings of $3.5 million for all six TLS facilities ($583,333 per facility)

2)75% reduction of waste

3) Over 120 tons of resources diverted from the landfill each year

http://www.usereusables.com/downloads/toyota_Final_101205.pdf