This was our tour around the factory at the Yajima Plant outside Ota City, Gunma.
Thanks to some local help this tour was arranged for us. Although it is open to anyone you do have to call the Subaru Visitors centre to book so i don't suppose many visiting people get to do this.
The Visitors Centre is located at the Yajima Plant, the centre looks to be a new ish facility, the Yajima Plant as a whole looks like it has been there for a long time. A sprawling area with large buildings housing the various production sections, complete with overhead interconnecting power and pipework.
The centre introduced the tour in a large presentation room capable of sitting probably couple of hundred people. We were shown a short video which although was all in Japanese, its surprising what details you can pick up from just visuals! It detailed the history of Subaru. How cars are made and the environmental and car safety efforts of the company. These was complete, with of course animated characters. Anime is everywhere in Japan.
The tour took a group of about 12 people around several parts of the plant via high level walkways looking down on to the shop floor. It was hot when we were there in late July, air-con ducts were there to help with the heat. The walkways seemed to be just for the tour as all the important people and work was on the shop floor and various manga style drawings showed various processes you were looking at.
First the sheet metal cutting and stamping facility where the rolls of metal are lifted, placed onto the beginning of the line to be cut into sizeable prices. The sheet metal was then stamped and pressed in further stages to produce the final panels. The flat metal sheet was pressed into form using large presses (as in around 7 meters high). These were stored in the next section of the building awaiting assembly.
Panels like the door sections are then handled and spot welded together into complete doors by sections of robotic bays, workers would place panels onto the start of the process where the robots will pick them up rotate and pass them through several stages of welding using maybe 7 robots. There were several bays like this making different door designs. All looked similar but there was a difference in the process between them.
It was at this point i noticed that there was far less regard to visitor safety then we had experienced when we visited the Toyota engine plant in Deeside (south Wales, UK) where we were required to wear ear, eye and head protection. I noted that we were only a few meters from the robot arms. There was protection from flying sparks from the spot welding robots by a plastic sheet in front of the walkway but was still very close.
The next section detailed assembly of the main body, panels were loaded and sent through the beginning of the main assembly line where robots again spot welded panels together. This section was on multiple levels and was much closer to the walkway.
We did not see body dipping or painting processes.
The next sections were interior assembly and final testing. We took more interest in the final testing where one guy would first check the engine, start and drive the car onto a test platform and run the car to as fast as i could see close to the rev limiter in either first or second gear while they tested all the electrical features like lights, indicators, windscreen washer/wipers and interior controls. It was then sent onto a inspection area to check the underneath.
The final part of the tour was a small museum section showing several old and new Subarus. Of note was a WRC car driven by Richard Burns along with their trophies.
Although we had wanted to see the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT86 line which are made in the Main Plant just a few kilometres away the tour was very enjoyable.
