The Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) is a new platform that Toyota has developed to drive several key changes in quality. The TNGA was engineered to make a safer vehicle with higher performance and lower production costs. Toyota claims that the platform produces “more stylish cars that are safer and more enjoyable to drive.” The modular, optimized design allows for several models of vehicles to be produced on the chassis variants (Car Care Nut, 2021), so that Toyota streamlined 100+ sub-platform variations down to 5. This allows for faster and less expensive development and production, which will give Toyota much better margins on vehicle cost (Fernandez, 2021). Features of the TNGA platform include a lower center of gravity, less body roll, increased body rigidity, improved safety systems, lower hood height (Chen, 2015), lower engine mounting, improved suspension, more fuel efficient and more powerful drivetrains (Fernandez, 2021), and airflow panels covering the undercarriage (Car Care Nut, 2021).
Due to the profound improvements in safety, driving performance, and production efficiency (in speed and cost) while reducing base platform variations and opportunities for defects, Toyota’s TNGA is an extremely revolutionary move forward for Toyota. The Toyota Production System (TPS), established in 1948 by Taiichi Ohno, is often referred as the lean manufacturing system or just-in-time production and has been Toyota’s secret to success for the last ~75 years. The TNGA is a TPS success, improving production performance while providing Toyota the ability to achieve sustainable growth with the production cost savings (TNGA explained: engineering for the future, 2015). TNGA is an evolution of the engineering excellence that Toyota is known for to provide a next-generation platform for Toyota to grow into in the coming years.
Built out of the Toyota Production System, TNGA is highly motivated by Toyota’s drive for quality. The TNGA is driving change and improvement in Toyota’s quality strategy. As they convert manufacturing facilities to the new TNGA platform and built from scratch, Toyota is improving quality with improved and redesigned paint booths, laser screw welding (LSW), new molding machines, new production equipment, higher-quality dashboards, and a reinvented production line (TNGA explained: 10 ways Toyota is changing how cars are built, 2015). The TNGA chassis, the core of the platform, has increased quality which leads to better ride performance (Chen, 2015). TNGA has also enabled a 20% reduction in resources used in product development, and supports reinvestment in order to continue to improve quality (Development of the New Powertrain Based on Toyota New Global Architecture, 2016). TNGA is built around five domains: driving quality, comfort, user-friendliness, pride of ownership and styling, security and safety (TNGA, n.d.).
References:
Car Care Nut. (2021, June 9). Is Toyota’s New Chassis Good? A different TNGA tour [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/LGB8C3cgxaQ
Chen, D. (2015, September 15). Toyota New Global Architecture a new approach to car engineering and production. Toyota Europe Newsroom. Retrieved from https://newsroom.toyota.eu/toyota-new-global-architecture-a-new-approach-to-car-engineering-and-production/
Development of the New Powertrain Based on Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA). (2016, December 6). Toyota. Retrieved from https://global.toyota/en/powertrain/tnga/
Fernandez, D. (2021, May 17). Toyota New Gloral Architecture, Much More Than Just A Platform. Retrieved from https://www.dsf.my/2021/05/toyota-new-global-architecture-much-more-than-just-a-platform/
TNGA. (n.d.). Lean Six Sigma Definition. Retrieved from https://www.leansixsigmadefinition.com/glossary/tnga/
TNGA explained: 10 ways Toyota is changing how cars are built. (2015, April 15). Toyota Blog. Retrieved from https://mag.toyota.co.uk/tnga-explained-10-ways-toyota-is-changing-how-cars-are-built/
TNGA explained: engineering for the future. (2015). Official Blog of Toyota GB. Retrieved from: http://blog.toyota.co.uk/tnga-explained-engineering-for-the-future