Inside Toyota’s hybrid factory | CNET News.com:
TOYOTA CITY, Japan–While you’re touring the assembly area in Toyota’s Tsutsumi auto plant, your mind keeps telling you that you’ve been here before.
Then it hits you.
It’s a lot like the Snow White ride at Disneyland. Robotic cars filled up with wiper blades and other parts amble along a track in the floor, taking parts from the procurement department to other ends of the factory. So that workers don’t back into them, the robots emit an upbeat four-note ditty as they burble about. Overhead, chairlifts that look like they came from Disneyland’s PeopleMover bring doors from one side of the factory, where they get removed from their cars, to another, where they get reunited with their parents after getting fitted with handles and interior panels.
