Japan Lean Tour - 2 days before the earthquake

Wednesday March 9th marked the beginning of a visit to two Nissan plants, exactly two days before the earthquake struck Japan.  Our Japan Lean Tour participants considered this day to be the "highlight", with many people giving thumbs-up to the amazing tour of the two Nissan factories. 

The visit included the Nissan Oppama factory where vehicles are built, and the Nissan Yokohama factory where the engines are built.  We were excited to see the engines of the legendary Nissan GT-R being hand-built at the site.

We were also blessed to have the chance to get a ride in Nissan's new all-electric car, Leaf.  It was a nice surprise and Nissan folks took the time to give each and everyone of us a chance to get a ride.  We were so impressed with the hospitality of Nissan members that some people said that they are going to trade-in their vehicles for a Nissan when they return to their home country!

Here are the highlights:

In the evening, we had a very special Japanese dinner at a restaurant called "En", with great views of Tokyo.  People were a bit puzzled by some of the food but they were extremely impressed by the overall quality and the authentic "Japanese setting" of the restaurant.

All the photos can be found in the link below:

Japan Wed Mar 9, 2011

Japan Lean Tour - 3 days before the earthquake

On Tuesday March 8th, our Japan Lean Tour participants continued its second day of the program with a mixture of business visits and cultural learning.  Our first order of the day was a visit to Toyota Logistics and Forklift, one of the most advanced logistics companies in the world.  Toyota L&F has capability beyond your imagination when it comes to creating, designing, and implementing a lean logistics system. They are primarily Japan-focused in terms of customers but of course they also sell and service Toyota forklifts world-wide.  We learned a variety of topics such as kanban, inventory management, and lean delivery system.

As photos were not allowed to be taken, I've provided some photos from their website below:

After the visit there, the program members had a chance to visit Tokyo museum to understand its history and culture.

The day ended with a short visit to Asakusa, where we can see the true traditions of Japanese.

The entire set of photos can be found here:

Japan Tue Mar 8, 2011