Toyota is a company that has been quite open about its pride in its manufacturing practices, and for good reason. The Toyota Production System pioneered and popularized many lean manufacturing principles, which have since been adopted by many companies in and outside the auto industry. These companies include, but are not limited to, Ford, John Deere, Nike, and Amazon.
To say the least, Toyota takes manufacturing seriously, and a microcosm of it has been exposed in a viral hand-eye coordination test that potential plant workers apparently have to pass. It involves wrapping a rope in the correct order and direction around a series of six pegs fixed to the wall within six seconds. Watching clips of people doing it, it’s definitely one of those challenges that looks much easier than it is.
We contacted Toyota for more information about the “Rope Twist” training challenge, and a spokesperson said it’s one of the company’s traditional “dojo training tools,” and the example in the video looks like it’s located at its Kentucky Experience Center.
Toyota shows how much they value fast hands
The creator also sent footage of something he calls a “flip and place” challenge. It is based on minnesota proficiency test And it aims to improve muscle memory. Workers and prospective employees would presumably have to use both hands to turn 10 pairs of small discs, such as hockey pucks, within a set time limit. The automaker says the average person does it in 20 seconds, but the average worker at a Toyota plant can do it in 14 seconds.
According to Toyota, both the Rope Twist and Flip and Place challenges “improve dexterity and hand-eye coordination, which are part of Toyota production ergonomics”. “These training techniques prepare team members to work on the ground level. We also found them to be a great way to engage experience center visitors and help educate our customers on plant processes. In short, it helps tell the story of how we invest in and train team members.”
On the surface, these physical challenges may seem a bit unnecessary and silly. Still, if they’ve helped Toyota build a reputation for getting quality right the first time and crafting cars that go 200,000 miles and beyond, we say flip.
