Toyota makes room for suppliers at expanded R&D center

YORK TOWNSHIP, Mich.—Toyota Motor North America's newest research and development investment makes room for suppliers to work alongside its own engineers.

The $154 million expansion to the Japanese automaker's R&D facilities near Ann Arbor, Mich., consolidates much of its own product development in North America into one campus.

That makes it easier and more efficient for Toyota to work on new vehicles, since it no longer will need to send prototypes to various sites in the U.S., but also pulls ahead its supplier collaboration work into the its advanced development arm, said Ryan Grimm, a purchasing manager for Toyota during an opening event for the R&D site.

"Our design and manufacturing supply chain is all linked on one campus," he said.

The investment includes a $28 million expansion to its powertrain research facility just north of Ann Arbor and another $126 million at its 700-acre campus south of Ann Arbor in York Township.

The investment moved purchasing and supplier engineering development from Erlanger, Ky., and vehicle development and powertrain from California to southeast Michigan.

The York Township facility, which hosted an opening celebration drawing Toyota executives and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, covers 350,000 square feet with a new 135,000-sq.-ft. supplier center and a 290,000-sq.-ft. prototype development center—including in-house 3D printing.

Toyota can even mock up a production line, with help from its suppliers, said Deb Schroeder, who oversees interior and exterior parts purchasing and made the move to Ann Arbor from Kentucky as part of the project.

While most of the North American auto supply chain already has a presence in Michigan—because the region is home to the U.S. auto industry—Toyota wanted to make it even easier to work with its key suppliers, Schroeder said.

The supplier center has co-working facilities and cubicles for its suppliers on site, she pointed out.

Suppliers already have taken part in vehicle "tear downs" in the 22,000-sq.-ft. benchmarking facility in York Township, Grimm said. While a tear down can involve taking apart a competitor's vehicle to examine each part, currently the benchmarking facility is being used to closely check out a customer's pickup truck that had hit the 1 million mile point.

"This is where we get our hands dirty," he said.

The benchmarking lab has enough rack space to house the parts from eight different vehicles at once to make it easier to compare parts.

Close relationships with suppliers, especially interior suppliers, will be even more important as the auto industry moves toward an expected increase in autonomous and driver-assisted technology, Schroeder noted.

Carmakers and suppliers need to integrate more electronics in vehicles, while also adapting interiors for the potential that drivers may not always need to have their hands on the steering wheel. That will mean a lot of changes to the way cars look, feel and operate, she said.

"The interior experience is changing," she said.