Toyota TPS training reshapes factory work in Thailand, cutting delivery waits and improving shop-floor flow

Toyota says a training push built around the Toyota Production System is changing not only how products move through plants, but how people feel about their work. In Thailand, Siam Cement Group (SCG) worked with Toyota beginning in 1987, when the two parties established Siam Toyota Manufacturing, an engine maker, and later sent employees to Toyota Motor Corporation’s headquarters for TPS education.

According to a Toyota Global Newsroom feature carried by Toyota Times, SCG’s move into TPS training came after its CEO, Thammasak Sethaudom, received a firsthand explanation of the production system from Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda. SCG employees then completed a six-week program at Toyota’s headquarters focused on the operating principles behind TPS.

One of the most visible outcomes described in the report was logistics performance. After adopting TPS, SCG reduced mixer truck wait times by half, an operational shift that matters in industrial environments where materials and timing are tightly coupled. Fewer delays at the “front door” of a plant can also reduce congestion inside, because queues and unstable schedules often feed back into production work.

The company says the TPS training also changed the day-to-day rhythm of employees on the shop floor. In the report, SCG is described as using the program to reduce waste, inconsistencies, and overburden in the workplace, while raising efficiency and product quality. The account emphasizes a practical target that goes beyond throughput: making work easier for employees at the facilities that adopted TPS.

The feature adds that people-related effects were part of the goal and part of the result. It includes a reflective quote describing what trainees observed at TPS-adopting facilities: work becoming easier, and employees seeing “more smiles,” tied to the idea that improved conditions and happiness at work support longer-term sustainability.

Toyota Motor Thailand’s own Gateway Plant, which produces models including the Yaris, Camry, and Corolla, is presented in the same story as it continues to extend TPS practices further. The plant is highlighted with a 2026 Good Factory Award, described as recognizing outstanding production and business facilities operated by Japanese companies in Japan and across Asia.

The report frames the plant’s operating culture around a keyword, “Ajito,” meaning hideout, and points viewers to how the team has sought “dramatic improvements” in both production and logistics. In Toyota’s TPS language, that pairing reflects the system’s broader approach: controlling variation in work processes while also tightening flows so upstream and downstream steps are aligned.

What is not fully spelled out in the Toyota Times feature is the specific measurement method used to define and calculate the “wait times cut in half,” or the precise baseline and follow-up periods for SCG’s results. The story also does not provide detailed operational metrics, such as defect rates, yield improvements, or quantified reductions in overtime or workload. For readers, the takeaway is directional and described through outcomes rather than a fully transparent data package.

Looking ahead, the company’s next test will likely be sustaining TPS improvements beyond the initial training window and scaling them across more processes and locations. For the Thai manufacturing ecosystem, the immediate watch items are whether logistics gains like reduced mixer truck waiting remain stable, and whether plant-level recognition like the Good Factory Award continues to track with measurable shop-floor standardization and employee experience improvements.