'I felt I was looking at a Toyota manufacturing plant': Toyota Tundra's Aussie remanufacturing process achieves 'Made in Japan' status as it prepares to battle the Ford F-150, Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado

Toyota has revealed the extraordinary pressure to ensure the quality of the new Tundra, as production of the US-built but Australian remanufactured full-sized truck ramps up in Melbourne, ahead of its November release.

According to Toyota Motor Company Australia (TMCA) Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley, achieving ‘Made in Japan’ standards has been the bare minimum required with partner Walkinshaw Group prior to receiving the green light to launch.

This is to avoid the types of problems that have inflicted other North American-made vehicles that have been remanufactured in Australia since the middle of last decade, including the ground-breaking Ram 1500 that kick-started the whole big-truck segment locally, as well as the Ford F-150 truck that is considered the Tundra’s strongest competitor.

“When (TMCA) engaged with Walkinshaw, we've done this very differently than any car we've launched,” said Hanley.

“So, there are a lot of new things happening here, around how we've done this.”

Choosing his words extremely carefully, Hanley hinted that failure to meet expectations was not going to fly back up in Toyota City in Aichi.

“Toyota Japan was … very … definite about the quality control requirements that that vehicle would have to go through before they would authorise any sale,” he said.

“Two reasons. One, it's the first time we've ever taken a donor car into a distributor, wholly and solely owned by Toyota, which is TMCA, and then gone to a third party to do a conversion. We've never done that in the world. So this is actually a world first … from a Toyota-controlled perspective.

“(And, secondly), we've partnered with Walkinshaw, and it was really important that we put the Toyota production system processes in place in Walkinshaw,” said Hanley.

Hanley believes that three quarters of a century of Australian vehicle manufacturing experience has also come into play with Tundra, since staff who were previously employed locally by Holden, Ford, Toyota and others are now employed by TMCA and the Walkinshaw Group at the Clayton site.

“I will never say it was a good thing that plants closed in Australia, whether they'd be Holden, Ford or Toyota – and I'll never say that because it was an incredibly sad day,” he said.

“However, if there's one positive to come out of that, it is that a lot of the knowhow of those plants has moved into, for example, for one example, Walkinshaw, so therefore there's a lot of Toyota Production System knowledge in that facility, in that operation.

“And then with our updated training that we work with them, we're supremely confident that we'll put out a Tundra that is of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) standard and quality, so therefore negating any issues of this conversion.”

Hanley admitted some problems had come up during what is believed to have been a six-year process in getting the Tundra remanufactured in Australia, but they have since been ironed out.

“The reason we put it out with customers for 12 months … is because we wanted to unearth any issues,” he revealed.

“And the good news is, whilst we've unearthed some issues, they're tiny. They're minor, what we call of a minor nature, and we will, and we've taken the corrective action within our processes to get that right.

“Some of those are from the donor car. Some of those are through the conversion.”

Hanley added that he could not be more pleased with the final product.

“I can tell you, yesterday, I was out at Walkinshaw, and I spent a good couple of hours out there looking at the build, looking at the process of build, looking at the quality controls that Walkinshaw has in place,” he said.

“And essentially, when I went out there, I felt I was looking at a Toyota manufacturing plant … I take my hat off to Walkinshaw Automotive, they've really done a nice job on the quality and the build and conversion of Tundra.

“So, when we launched this car, we're launching it supremely confident. You're getting OEM quality … there are four hours of double quality checks before it leaves their facility, and then it's quality checked again by our dealers and then by the customers.”