Toyota’s Advantages with the TNGA

                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

Published by Art Ocain

I am a DevOps advocate, not because I am a developer (I’m not), but because of the cultural shift it represents and the agility it gains. I am also a fan of the theory of constraints and applying constraint management to all areas of business: sales, finance, planning, billing, and all areas of operations. My speaking: I have done a lot of public speaking in my various roles over the years, including presentations at SBDC (Small Business Development Center) and Central PA Chamber of Commerce events as well as events that I have organized at MePush. My writing: I write a lot. Blog articles on the MePush site, press-releases for upcoming events to media contracts, posts on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/artocain/), presentations on Slideshare (https://www.slideshare.net/ArtOcain), posts on the Microsoft Tech Community, articles on Medium (https://medium.com/@artocain/), and posts on Quora (https://www.quora.com/profile/Art-Ocain-1). I am always looking for new places to write, as well. My certifications: ISACA Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Web Application Security Professional (CWASP), Certified Data Privacy Practitioner (CDPP), Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), VMware Certified Professional (VCP-DCV), Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE), Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE), Microsoft 365 Security Administrator, Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrator, Azure Administrator, Azure Security Administrator, Azure Architect, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+, ITIL v4 Foundations, Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Product Owner, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner See certification badges on Acclaim here: https://www.youracclaim.com/users/art-ocain/badges My experience: I have a lot of experience from developing a great company with great people and culture to spinning up an impressive DevOps practice and designing impressive solutions. I have been a project manager, a President, a COO, a CTO, and an incident response coordinator. From architecting cloud solutions down to the nitty-gritty of replacing hardware, I have done it all. When it comes to technical leadership, I am the go-to for many companies. I have grown businesses and built brands. I have been a coach and a mentor, developing the skills and careers of those in my company. I have formed and managed teams, and developed strong leaders and replaced myself within the company time and again as I evolved. See my experience on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artocain/

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