Toyota manufacturing group uses Dynamics 365 mixed reality to boost operational efficiency and scalability

Embracing technological change

As part of the global Toyota family, Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) subscribes to The Toyota Way as a guiding principle of its business. TMNA team members use Japanese terms like kaizen and kaikaku to describe the philosophies that anchor the company’s work and provide the starting point for efficient processes designed to maximize quality and customer satisfaction while also respecting and honoring the skills and work of the company’s team members.

Kaizen refers to incremental change, and it is fundamental to Toyota working style—taking an existing product or process and iteratively improving on it to drive greater success. And while ongoing, incremental change is the Toyota standard, occasionally the time is right for kaikaku, which is a breakthrough or major innovation to a process or system that fundamentally changes things.

As companies have increasingly embraced the cloud as a next-level computing platform, TMNA and other companies have gained access to a wide range of new technologies that offer possibilities for kaikaku. To explore these possibilities, TMNA created the TILT Lab at its Production Engineering & Manufacturing Center in Kentucky, where engineers and product specialists work with emerging technologies to determine whether they are a good fit for the company. The TILT Lab supports the production engineering and manufacturing divisions to facilitate a culture of innovation.

“The TILT Lab is a makerspace where team members can rapidly test and trial our projects,” says Zach Reeder, Technology Development Engineer at Toyota Motor North America. “Our motto is that if we’re going to fail, we’ll fail fast and cheap and move quickly on to the next thing. Our goals are efficiency and innovation, and we develop proof of concept deployments to identify the value of new technologies and isolate any barriers that must be overcome to make them enterprise ready.”

Mixed reality is one area of exploration for TMNA. The TILT Lab has been working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides on Microsoft HoloLens 2 to explore how using them can help increase the efficiency of training and better prepare both new and existing team members for work on the production line.

“Toyota experimented with mixed reality training in the past, but the systems we looked at were too complex and nearly required a computer science degree to get them working,” says Reeder. “They just weren’t scalable or practical. With Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2, we have a solution that we can deploy quickly and that empowers our trainers to develop and deliver the content themselves.”

Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 also carries advantages over other solutions. “Virtual reality isolates the wearer from the world around them, but with mixed reality, we can provide additional information to a team member on the shop floor while they’re doing their job,” explains John Tierney, Manager – TILT Lab at Toyota Motor North America. “The potential impact for our plants is huge.”

Delivering training efficiently and on demand

With 14 manufacturing facilities in North America and tens of thousands of team members producing more than a million vehicles each year in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, TMNA depends on solid training programs to ensure that every car is built according to precise specifications.

Traditionally, trainers worked one-on-one with team members, demonstrating a process and then watching them replicate it. This could lead to bottlenecks if a wave of new team members joined the plant at the same time or if numerous team members needed to be trained on a new procedure or a new vehicle. With Dynamics 365 Guides, trainers can create training materials and then let team members work with them independently, letting one trainer supervise multiple trainees at the same time.

“If we go from one trainer per trainee to two, that doubles our efficiency right there,” says Reeder. “The more we increase that ratio, the more efficient our trainings become.”

A key benefit for TMNA has been how quickly trainers have become proficient with Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2. “Because the products are so easy to use, our subject matter experts can create training materials themselves, quickly and without relying on IT support,” says Reeder. “They may think it’s complicated at first, but 8 or 10 hours later, they’ve become experts at it and are building their own courses. It’s really eye opening for them.”

For trainees, learning a new procedure includes understanding the steps involved and repeating any necessary motions numerous times to develop muscle memory. Using Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2, team members can repeat a training as often as necessary to feel proficient. And they can return to a training program any time they feel the need for a refresher course.

“For this kind of work, repetition is key—the more often you do something the same way, the faster you get,” says Roger Fultz, Production Offline Support at Toyota Motor North America. “HoloLens 2 is fantastic for delivering this kind of information without the slowdowns we’d see if someone were trying to learn this in a live production situation.”

TMNA also relies on HoloLens 2 to help ensure consistency and repeatability of trainings. Once subject matter experts create the materials, every team member receives the exact same materials in the same order and delivered the same way. So, TMNA doesn’t need to worry that team members are receiving a different quantity or quality of information. This was crucial for TMNA while COVID-19 affected the ability of team members to work onsite in close proximity—trainers no longer need to be standing over trainees’ shoulders, watching their progress, because HoloLens 2 takes care of that for them.

Mixed reality training also simplifies the physical requirements for training setup. “To train a team member in a conventional manner, we need to have all of the parts and a vehicle available for them to work on,” says Tierney. “With Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2, we can train in a smaller area and simplify a lot of the preparation.”

Tracking movement and tracking results

TMNA makes use of premade assets, spatial triggers, and branching capabilities within Dynamics 365 Guides to simplify the training process. “When a trainee completes a particular action, like picking up a bolt, the spatial trigger activates and automatically takes them to the next step without the need for the trainee to stop and advance the lesson,” explains Fultz. “It makes training more efficient and more realistic.”

Trainers can use branching to set up quizzes within a training to help ensure that trainees are retaining what they’re learning. And trainers can use premade assets—like graphics of hands or arms—to make it easy to visually demonstrate an activity or setup without words. TMNA also uses the easy coordination between the mixed reality tools and Microsoft Power BI to track how well trainees are doing.

“Power BI is our fundamental business intelligence tool within TMNA,” says Tierney. “The ability to easily import data from Dynamics 365 Guides into a Power BI dashboard or report makes it much quicker for trainers to see what sort of progress a team member has made. That data can also be aggregated across all trainers and facilities to better see where we’re having problems and where things are working well. It leads to data-driven decisions, rather than subjective evaluations.”

Bringing efficiency and enthusiasm to the workplace

TMNA has already found additional uses for Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 beyond just training. The company has used the mixed reality capabilities to help with layout planning for new factory equipment. By virtually putting the new piece of equipment into place on the busy factory floor, team members can immediately see whether the placement conflicts with neighboring machinery and whether the setup is ergonomically efficient. Maintenance staff can use Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 for hands-free instructions on how to repair a particular piece of equipment.

Connecting with remote experts in real time anytime, anywhere

TMNA team members can also use Dynamics 365 Remote Assist to quickly connect with a colleague for assistance in real time, even if the colleague is located miles away. Via Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, frontline workers can see 3D annotations from their colleagues right within their real-world work environment. Plus, if team members need their hands free to work, they have the flexibility to use Dynamics 365 Remote Assist on HoloLens 2 or through their iOS and Android mobile devices.

Using mixed reality in student outreach programs

The company has used its Microsoft mixed reality tools as part of its outreach to high schools to give potential new team members a taste of what work at TMNA is like. These efforts are particularly important as long-time team members retire and TMNA looks to replace them. “Our new recruits tend to be more and more technology savvy now that digital devices have become an indispensable part of many people’s lives,” says Tierney. “Being able to expose the recruits to exciting products like HoloLens 2 can make TMNA a more desirable place to work and help us attract better talent.”

The new solution has additional benefits. “Working with technology as cutting edge as Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 is not just effective for delivering training, it’s a lot of fun,” says Fultz. “There are endless possibilities for us to grow and innovate due to the way the solution is built.”

Adds Reeder, “We’ve been doing trials comparing training delivered the old way and training delivered with Microsoft mixed reality tools. So far, the results have been definitive—our training efficiency is increased, trainers and trainees are receptive to the technology, and they rank Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 as their preferred way to learn.”

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