Aiming for continuous skills improvement

Passing on the skills baton since 2006

Since 2006, the All Toyota Boshoku Skills Competition has been held with several aims: to raise the skills level of the entire company by confirming the skills level of each plant; to create a workplace culture where people can both teach and be taught through preparations for the competition; and to pass on the skills of managers and senior personnel to future generations.
The Competition includes various categories such as Forklift Operation, Seat Assembly, Trim Assembly, and Seat Inspection. Representatives for participation in the Competition are selected in qualifying rounds in each plant and region. In 2010, members from our overseas companies participated in the Skills Competition for the first time. In this way, we are striving to improve our members’ skills globally.

Technical skills workshops at each plant during the coronavirus pandemic

In response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, in fiscal 2021, Technical Skills Workshops were held separately at each plant, instead of members gathering in Japan from around the world for the All Toyota Boshoku Skills Competition. A total of 56 contestants competed in 11 event categories to test and demonstrate their monozukuri skills. Each factory demonstrated creativity in developing competition tasks that focused on the skills important to their own production lines.

Fostering a workplace culture of teaching and being taught

The Skills Competition is an opportunity for selected highly skilled members from each plant to demonstrate their skills in a spirit of friendly competition, enhance professionalism, and pass on their skills and knowledge to other members.
While Toyota Boshoku group is promoting increased use of AI, IoT and robot technologies, we believe it is our people who put the soul into our products. For this reason, we value opportunities like this to pass on the skills of monozukuri.
Unfortunately, we were unable to hold the regular All Toyota Boshoku Skills Competition in fiscal 2021. However, in response to keen interest and to help ensure the spirit of monozukuri remains strong, we held the Koma Taisen with different locations participating remotely. In Koma Taisen, participants compete using spinning tops, called koma. We began promoting this event in fiscal 2021. While taking appropriate measures against the spread of COVID-19, members at each remote site competed on spinning time and durability using koma they had designed and fabricated using their own creativity and ingenuity.
One of the fiscal 2021 participants commented, “The Koma Taisen helped me learn more about the monozukuri spirit and increased my motivation to devote myself to my work.”