GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- In order to translate Lexus principles, such as expert craftsmanship (or takumi), to its first U.S. factory, the Toyota luxury brand tapped deeply into its workers' feelings.
Pride in a job well done, yes. Satisfaction in bringing joy to customers, sure. But also the feelings that come from the thousands of nerve endings in every finger.
Those nerves, along with sight and sound, are tuned to discover the slightest anomaly in a vehicle as it moves down the factory line. Any imperfection must be fixed before the ES 350 sedan gets to wear the big "L" badge.
Whether a Lexus is made in Japan, at the RX plant in Canada or at the new $360 million ES factory line here, customers expect near perfection in appearance and quality, say executives. And the factory floor is where that has to happen.
You won't find Toyota executives apologizing for the Camrys streaming out of the other line in Georgetown. They are also fine cars, they say, but a Lexus needs some extra doting on before it gets to leave the factory gates.
And so the workers, most of whom migrated from the Toyota side of the factory, must pass Lexus 101 before they can help assemble one.
"Our team members' natural sense was that we can build a good car, and they do, they build a great car" in the Camry, said Wilbert James, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, during an April plant tour. "But Lexus is an exceptional car. And having the opportunity to understand the difference between great and exceptional, it's not something that you can just explain verbally. You have to show it."
The view from the factory floor looks like a lot of touching: hands with white gloves sweeping over hoods, wrapping around taillights, briefly pausing at panel gaps, caressing around the bumpers.
Alongside the assembly line are offline workstations for training, freshening skills, whatever the worker needs to achieve the right touch.
Adam Parker, production group leader in the stamping department, demonstrates a training test that involves applying a minimal amount of external pressure to one area of a body panel. As the pressure is reduced to tiny tolerances, the worker must be able to sense that change.
"Something as thin as a human hair can create a defect that is unacceptable," said Brad Turner, a skilled group leader in stamping.
On the line, workers are given help in meeting these tolerances. Special overhead lighting helps point out imperfections. A single worker follows a vehicle through several body-assembly stages, where he or she "owns" that car.
Overall build time is lengthened. A Camry rolls off the line every 54 seconds, the company said. For the Lexus, it's one every four and a half minutes.
At the end of the Lexus assembly line is a test track, where each ES gets a quick drive with a final sensory checklist.
But before that happens, the American-made ES has to pass by a Japanese-made counterpart with full confidence that the vehicles are essentially, identically Lexus.
