Photo courtesy Toyota
Toyota’s newly opened $80 million, 235,000-square-foot Production Engineering and Manufacturing Center in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Toyota put a major piece of its “One Toyota” initiative in place on Monday with the debut of a Production Engineering and Manufacturing Center in Georgetown, Kentucky.
The Georgetown facility will employ approximately 800 people, including 600 production engineers who will focus on innovation and problem solving within Toyota’s manufacturing process. These engineers are tasked with finding the best ways to build and manufacture a vehicle once its design concept has been established and before it goes into production.
“Our production engineers are at the top of their game and help shape the future of Toyota,” said Jim Lentz, chief executive officer of Toyota Motor North America, in a statement announcing the opening. “They push the limits every day on what’s possible in manufacturing to produce ever-better vehicles. And their hard work and commitment to quality shows in the products we build in our 14 plants across North America.”
The new $80 million, 235,000-square-feet facility, which was announced three years ago, is part of a strategic plan by the Japan-based company to unify its North American and international operations. The “One Toyota” initiative also includes a new North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, as well as a research and development facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Photo courtesy Toyota
About half of the new building is devoted to collaboration spaces where team members can meet and problem solve.
Much of the new facility sports an open-concept design, with abundant natural light and shared spaces to promote collaboration and teamwork. The building also includes many features designed to reduce its environmental impact and operating costs, including solar panels, skylights, a rainwater collection system and a geothermal HVAC system.
The TILT Lab is a central feature of the new facility. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art tools like 3-D printers and is a space where engineers are encouraged to try out new ideas that may skew toward the unconventional.
Toyota also announced several donations and new programs designed to spur science and technology education throughout the state and perhaps encourage a new generation of engineers and problem solvers.
Toyota will donate approximately $400,000 to Morehead State University, in partnership with Save Our Appalachia Region, to introduce a STEM curriculum at 40 elementary schools over the next two years.
Toyota also announced a partnership with the University of Kentucky to implement an automotive production-engineering certificate. The undergraduate program will include a two-semester-long Toyota Production System senior design project in which students with work to identify and solve a current manufacturing problem.
Additionally, Toyota will donate $50,000 to the Kentucky Science Center in Louisville to create a “Robotics on the Road to Coding” program to help students across the state from kindergarten through the 10th grade learn about coding.
Earlier this year, Toyota committed to investing $10 billion in the U.S. over the next five years, adding to the $23.4 billion the automaker has invested in the past 60 years.
Photo courtesy Toyota