Toyota discloses unprecedented details of F1 development

It’s often been acknowledged that manufacturer Formula 1 teams such as Panasonic Toyota Racing enjoy the benefits of two-way technology transfer with the road car business. Racing improves the breed, and in turn teams can take advantage of the technical resources that their parent companies have access to, such as R&D or production facilities that are beyond the scope of motor sport budgets.

It’s rather less obvious how a racing team can benefit by adopting management philosophies or techniques. What can a lean and mean, fast-reacting Formula team learn from the methods used by a global corporation? The conventional wisdom is: not a great deal. In fact, it is widely assumed that the more freedom a race team has to follow its own path, the better.

Toyota has proved that theory wrong. The introduction of Toyota Production System techniques to the racing operation in Cologne has resulted in clear benefits that can be readily quantified. Pit stops are quicker, and engine and chassis developments reach the track earlier than they did previously. The bottom line is that TF 06 will be more competitive as a direct result of TPS, and even the most sceptical race-bred veteran acknowledges that is no bad thing. In the years before the Cologne operation moved from rallying to Le Mans to Formula 1, and thus underwent rapid expansion in a matter of months, there was less need for formalised adoption of Toyota’s methods.

“Toyota Team Europe was a very small company,” says Toshikazu Chimura, current TPS Project Leader in Cologne. “And therefore work and communication was very efficient. Even if they didn’t follow the TPS or Toyota philosophy, they still worked towards one goal. They could solve problems as quickly as possible. I believe during that period the TTE members, without having any knowledge of the TPS, were using its principles.

However, after starting the F1 project we expanded very quickly and you could say there was a kind of chaos or confusion! In effect our expansion was too rapid. One day our president, Mr Fujio Cho, said we should apply TPS to the F1 project.”

The first area of focus involved perfecting pit stop techniques, which was overseen by former TPS Project Leader at Toyota Motorsport, Toshihiko Akioka. Subsequently TPS was used to improve efficiency in two key areas of the factory, namely engine production and the composite department. Those projects have proved successful, and other disciplines are currently being tackled.

Inevitably there was some initial resistance from people steeped in a background of motor racing, and used to a certain way of doing things.

“It’s still very difficult, honestly speaking,” says John Howett. “Racing people are very proud, rightly so in some ways, and Formula 1 is different. The question often is what’s in it for me? As human beings none of us like change, we’re resistant to it. The Toyota process is almost constant change, which people initially completely resist. But if you want to find more gain you almost have to change every day.

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