Video: Toyota Mississippi Produces 500,000 Corollas In Three Years

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BLUE SPRINGS, MISS. (WCBI) –  It is a milestone for the Toyota plant in Blue Springs. Today, the 500 thousandth Corolla came off the assembly line and executives invited media for the big occasion.

For a brief moment, a handful of Toyota Mississippi team members crowded around a red Corolla, for a quick photo.

This Corolla was the 500 thousandth built at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi.

“It is a big deal, a point of pride for the company,” said Vice President of Manufacturing Fred Volf.

The 2 million square foot plant opened in October 2011. Two shifts daily produce about 700 Corollas. Each vehicle is made to order, for example, the 500 thousandth Corolla is headed to a customer in Mexico.

“Our core philosophy is every car we build has a customer attached to it somewhere. And so that’s the only way we will build cars, we are fortunate, we have a top selling vehicle, Corolla is really on fire in the world right now,” Volf said.

When this plant opened three years ago, a new Corolla came off the line every 86 seconds, now a new Corolla comes off the line every 73 seconds, and it truly is a team effort.

“It’s not a one person operation, everybody kicks in and everybody does their part, and hey, we’ve been able to make a success out of the entire operation,” said TMMMS Team Member Percy Johnson.

Two thousand team members produced 180 thousand Corollas last year. Safety, quality and efficiency are stressed, it’s all part of the Toyota Way; that means no inventory, parts arriving just in time for the assembly line and detailed inspections throughout the process.

“We want zero defects always, we strive for that, that’s the reason we look over the cars so much, so we can find anything that’s wrong with it and fix it, we want a defect free vehicle,” said TMMMS Team Member Toni Fulk.

Supervisors say that attitude and dedication means more opportunities for team members.

“A lot of people keep asking, when are you going to do the expansion? Expansion is not the objective, it is developing our people, developing our own personal capability in the building, making sure we can be self reliant, if we can demonstrate those types of things, that means we are competitive within the Toyota ranks, we’re competitive within the auto industry,” Volf said.

And that translates into security and stability for team members who make the best selling car in the world.