Toyota to cut auto parts costs by 30 percent

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: edhackett
Lexus V8s have never had titanium connecting rods. They are just cast steel.

See here: http://www.lextreme.com/Toyota-Lexus-Rods.html

I also call shenanigans on the 1 mg balanced rotating assembly. Individual components maybe.

John, you need to pass some of what you are smoking around. It must be pretty good stuff.

Ed

I would not be surprised if they were balanced to 1mg. See the antecote at the following Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming#Overview

Originally Posted By: Wikipedia
Dr. Deming's teachings and philosophy can be seen through the results they produced when they were adopted by Japanese industry, as the following example shows: Ford Motor Company was simultaneously manufacturing a car model with transmissions made in Japan and the United States. Soon after the car model was on the market, Ford customers were requesting the model with Japanese transmission over the USA-made transmission, and they were willing to wait for the Japanese model. As both transmissions were made to the same specifications, Ford engineers could not understand the customer preference for the model with Japanese transmission. Finally, Ford engineers decided to take apart the two different transmissions. The American-made car parts were all within specified tolerance levels. On the other hand, the Japanese car parts had much closer tolerances than the USA-made parts - e.g. if a part was supposed to be one foot long, plus or minus 1/8 of an inch - then the Japanese parts were within 1/16 of an inch. This made the Japanese cars run more smoothly and customers experienced fewer problems.[3]

The article is a short autobiography about the guy that brought American quality standards (pre-New Deal) to Japan, where they have been used ever since. He is supposed to be a national hero there.
 
Originally Posted By: ShiningArcanine
Originally Posted By: edhackett
Lexus V8s have never had titanium connecting rods. They are just cast steel.

See here: http://www.lextreme.com/Toyota-Lexus-Rods.html

I also call shenanigans on the 1 mg balanced rotating assembly. Individual components maybe.

John, you need to pass some of what you are smoking around. It must be pretty good stuff.

Ed

I would not be surprised if they were balanced to 1mg. See the antecote at the following Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming#Overview

Originally Posted By: Wikipedia
Dr. Deming's teachings and philosophy can be seen through the results they produced when they were adopted by Japanese industry, as the following example shows: Ford Motor Company was simultaneously manufacturing a car model with transmissions made in Japan and the United States. Soon after the car model was on the market, Ford customers were requesting the model with Japanese transmission over the USA-made transmission, and they were willing to wait for the Japanese model. As both transmissions were made to the same specifications, Ford engineers could not understand the customer preference for the model with Japanese transmission. Finally, Ford engineers decided to take apart the two different transmissions. The American-made car parts were all within specified tolerance levels. On the other hand, the Japanese car parts had much closer tolerances than the USA-made parts - e.g. if a part was supposed to be one foot long, plus or minus 1/8 of an inch - then the Japanese parts were within 1/16 of an inch. This made the Japanese cars run more smoothly and customers experienced fewer problems.[3]

The article is a short autobiography about the guy that brought American quality standards (pre-New Deal) to Japan, where they have been used ever since. He is supposed to be a national hero there.


Dr. Demming didn't bring anything to Japan. The Japanese came here to learn these philosophies. GM , Ford and Chrysler rejected his teachings.
 
LOL, I can't believe you guys are using wikipedia as your source of info. Anyone can go and edit those articles and say whatever they want. Some guy once edited an article and said that Ford V10s use plastic connecting rods, just to prove this very point.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Wikipedia is only as good as the people writing the article. When i was in college they would not accept Wikipedia as references on term papers.


Wikipedia is the Consumer Reports of the world. I don't have full faith in either one.
 
Why would Lexus use cast rods when my Camry 2AZ-FE has forged crank and rods get real. I do not smoke pot as a pilot I can be called to pee in a cup any time. I also maintain a commercial drivers licsense again pea in cup action at the drop of a dime. I did try pot once in H.S. and have to say it was a pleasant experince but not the risk of a crimanal record when beer and whine and such where legal and widely available. I seldom even drink today as in once or twice a year. I do not take any mind altering RX drugs either!

Rod Material and level of ballancing was in print add's and telavision add's when they first brought them to market. That might have changed but I doubt the marketing department made it up! That also does not change the use of sodium filled valves in the turbo 22RE's in the 1980's and the fact that the top of the line Corvette engines just got these a few years ago. I am going to go check and see what SAE papers I can find on Lexus.
 
Heck, Ford's 2.3 turbo engines got sodium filled exhaust valves around '83 also. Mind you,it was still a tractor motor :-)
Been a Ford guy all my life, but never did like the 2.3
 
who what when where? i honestly dont care whoever this guy is as i have no interest in toyota or honda products. i was just saying that Wikipedia articles werent acceptable as sources in school.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
who what when where? i honestly dont care whoever this guy is as i have no interest in toyota or honda products. i was just saying that Wikipedia articles werent acceptable as sources in school.

Note my last post. The system automatically assigns "Quick Reply" responses to the author of the last post.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
i didnt even notice i was quoted lol.

My post was aimed at comments by others regarding Deming's significance and what he did, or didn't, do. As for Wikipedia, eh, I couldn't care less...
 
Wow that Lextreme site is great. While I hate being wrong I would rather have good info then bad. I have to say though that I got that info from a commercial that used to air on Sataite for Lexus it aired for about 2 weeks then I never saw it again. It was a cool add and it was for Lexus which is where I got the info about the rod material and their ballancing it to .001 grams. It was very tutonic and almost looked like an addvetisment for a German manufacture in the way it was layed out. I woundered why I never say it again or mention of titanium rods or any of that stuff. Must have been a bad add and they pulled it. Sorry to pass bad information I thought it accurate since it was on TV and was from the manufacture I assumed it was accurate. Thanks for the site info it the best I have seen so far.

I do know though and can locate on the internet I am sure the information for the 2AZ-FE havine forged pistons,rods and crank.

I hope this is ok to post the link since it isnot oil related and not in competition with any sight sponsors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_AZ_engine

THis is not the best source but it at the very least points out the forged crankshaft and the completly ballanced rotating assembly so one would assume that the Lexus line would do close to the same?!?!? My desk top lost it's mother board so I had to replace it and install a new drive with XP to replace vista as since the CPU and Mother board are not even the same brand or type. On top of that my laptop had to be restored about a month ago and so I lost all my years of files and notes and web sites.....I only had stuff like tax's,and family photo's and such baked up.So I am counting on my memory which is not as good as it used to be!
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
who what when where? i honestly dont care whoever this guy is as i have no interest in toyota or honda products. i was just saying that Wikipedia articles werent acceptable as sources in school.


They are acceptable at my university, although this likely varies by department and context. In the Chemistry department, professors have "borrowed" material from Wikipedia for their lecture slides. In the writing department, professors only accept material that has been published in an offline source, which since Wikipedia provides sources, allows one to use Wikipedia to do research for papers. In the Computer Science department, a group of students was caught plagurizing Wikipedia and were subject to academic dishonesty procedures, however, Wikipedia's material has been used as reference material for classroom discussions on various topics.

It really varies based on the department and the context. Simply saying that it is not acceptable as a source is to oversimplify the matter. For a casual discussion like this, it is quite credible, unless you wish to go through the trouble of discrediting specific information cited from it, which is most likely more trouble than it is worth.

In addition, there is plenty of things I could cite, such as the following two articles:

http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/12/5768.ars
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/11/8296.ars

You can draw your own conclusions with regard to their content.
 
John, the smoking comment was just a figure of speech, I didn't mean to imply actual drug use.

Here's a couple of articles on balancing that talk about the levels balance that are achieved by careful hand balancing of the rotating assembly.

http://www.enginebuildermag.com/Article/1209/balancing_equipment_a_weighty_matter.aspx

http://www.enginebuildermag.com/Article/15023/balance_of_power_and_profit.aspx

It appears that the best balancing machines can only detect 10 mg of imbalance. This is enough to balance to the tenths of a gram. That is all that is necessary(and possible) for high performance 10K+ rpm engines.

Balancing is often done in the force units inch-ounces. The local machine shop shoots for 1 inch ounce for custom rebuild, and 0.25 for a high performance street engine. 0.2 is the standard for a NASCAR engine.

For perspective, one drop of oil weighs ~25 mg.

Ed
 
Originally Posted By: tenderloin

Toyota's request for a 30 percent reduction in costs -- the biggest in 10 years -- comes as the automaker is trying to sharpen its price competitiveness in emerging markets, the Asahi said.


Aye. There's the rub. Will Toyota consider the USofA an "emerging market" in 2013?
 
Originally Posted By: Augustus
Originally Posted By: tenderloin

Toyota's request for a 30 percent reduction in costs -- the biggest in 10 years -- comes as the automaker is trying to sharpen its price competitiveness in emerging markets, the Asahi said.


Aye. There's the rub. Will Toyota consider the USofA an "emerging market" in 2013?

I've got a feeling that "declining market" will be a more accurate term...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

mrsilv04
Advance Auto Parts to close 700+ stores.
7 8 9
Replies
176
Views
15K
Rust_Belt_Pete
JeffKeryk
VW to cut 60% of their models, sez Finance Chief
2 3 4
Replies
66
Views
5K
SubieRubyRoo
tired
Help with recommendation for motor oil for Toyota and Nissan daily drivers
2 3
Replies
54
Views
5K
tired
M
1 Week Review - 2025 Toyota Tacoma Hybrid Limited
3 4 5
Replies
84
Views
20K
mikeduf
M
A Case For Minimalism
4 5 6
Replies
108
Views
12K
Silverado12
Back
Top Bottom