A Free Guide for Toyota Suppliers on Meeting Compliance

What is Toyota’s real-time shipping compliance mandate?

Recently, Toyota introduced a new system to streamline supply chain operations among its suppliers. The compliance mandate (aka Toyota Shipping Confirmation System) requires a two-part shipping confirmation process for Toyota suppliers:

• Skid manifest to OneWay Kanban labels
• Trailer confirmation of those skid manifests to orders

What does this mean to Toyota suppliers?

This mandate requires Toyota suppliers to implement a real-time shipping confirmation system that verifies order contents, pallet and skid contents, truck load, destination, driver and trailer number before allowing the truck to leave the dock. Clean advanced shipping notices (ASN) are guaranteed using this system.

Toyota has provided the tools necessary for use by suppliers to support this mandate. Toyota allows access to the Toyota Shipping Confirmation System (TSCS) manually using a web portal or Android application but also provides a comprehensive RESTful API for direct connection within suppliers’ current shipping systems.

Your options in connecting to the TSCS – what’s the best fit for you?

Toyota allows three ways to comply with their process:

1. Mobile phone app.
   • How does it work?
     This process uses a cell phone and web address to scan a shipping document, submitting that data through the mobile app, then, on confirmation: ship.
   • Is this option for me?
     This option is best for suppliers that ship simple, one part per skid or one skid per order only one or two times a day. This is a good option for those with limited IT support or very low volume demand.
2. TSCS web portal.
   • How does it work?
     This process involves scanning shipment information, sending that data through the TSCS web portal to initiate shipment.
   • Is this option for me?
     This option is for suppliers that ship many pallets, skids, and orders per day, but have hands-on production control resources (i.e. people) to manage the process and who are in close physical proximity to the dock to manage shipments.
3. Toyota API.
   • How does it work?
     This process involves leveraging Toyota’s shipping confirmation RESTful API to automate the data scanning, validation, and confirmation process.
   • Is this option for me?
     For suppliers that manufacture and ship Toyota parts in very high volume and high complexity of orders, using the TSCS API reduces the people involvement by automating each step in the control process. While an initial investment is required, this option ultimately reduces human errors and time spent on tedious work, while increasing speed and reliability.

A HULFT use case: How we helped one of Toyota’s largest suppliers

Every supplier is different. How you set up your system to meet Toyota’s real-time shipping confirmation requirement depends on a variety of factors that include (but are not limited to) your current IT infrastructure and environment, what systems are managing your data, the volume and complexity of your goods and shipments, how your plant and factory floors are configured, and the level of technology experience and workload of your IT staff. 

The top “pain point” we hear from customers is this: Meeting compliance is critical, but we can’t let new projects disrupt our critical production support especially with the limited IT resources to make this happen.

HULFT specializes in this exact scenario. We will create a turn-key solution that will not disrupt the flow of business. Here’s a brief explanation of how we did it for one of Toyota’s largest suppliers.

The situation

Like you, this major Toyota supplier was among the first wave of onboarding to the new system. Each day, this supplier produces over 20 tons of product whose shipping process is complicated by multiple TEMA destinations and multiple trucks per day.

 We worked with them to build a solution involving two major components:

• An application that works in conjunction with a team member’s portable barcode scanner to read label data and repackage that into a REST invocation using JSON over HTTP
• A HULFT Integrate project that receives the JSON-ized label scan data, queries appropriate data from DB2 running on AS/400, and repackages the queried data into a JSON payload to dispatch to the new TSCS system. The response from the TSCS system is received and propagated back to the team member’s scanner as success or fail.

The new Toyota system exposes two main APIs

Pallet build

Within this customer’s workflow, this API is invoked during the skid packaging phase (based on discussions with our customer, this was determined to be the most appropriate point to invoke the Toyota API to easily fit within their workflow – this may differ for other Toyota suppliers’ optimum workflows). 

• A skid is a collection of pallets stacked together with appropriate manifest labels attached. Every skid has the same number of pallets.  A pallet is a single layer of a skid, containing a collection of Kanban bins.  Some bins contain parts, other bins may be empty if there are not enough parts ordered to fill a pallet.  A pallet always contains the same number of bins so that stacking of pallets is sturdy – what varies is how many of those bins contain parts.
• The API is invoked for each scanned manifest label attached to a skid. The purpose of this API is to notify Toyota that parts which have been previously ordered are packed and ready for shipment.  The API also has the ability to notify Toyota of exceptions, such as an order may be “short” of a particular part because there are not enough manufactured parts currently available to ship.

Shipment load

A skid is the smallest unit that gets physically loaded onto a trailer.  The purpose of this API is to inform Toyota that the collection of skids associated with a date, time and route (destination) have been loaded onto a specific trailer, and the tractor/trailer is assigned a specific driver.  Toyota compares the collection of skids with the information gathered during pallet build, and rejects submission if any errors or discrepancies are identified.

The result

This Toyota supplier was able to comply with the TSCS requirement with the minimum disruption to both the current operation and the current operating MES and Financial systems.

The HULFT team worked to not only achieve the goal at hand, but to do so in a way that was least disruptive. We did this in two ways:

• Current operation and operating MES financial systems. Some of these hard-coded operating procedures had been in place for many years and the supplier had very understandable trepidation whenever discussions of changing one of those venerable systems arose.
• Current shipping process to both Toyota and the customer’s other suppliers. The customer also ships part s to at least a dozen other suppliers every day

HULFT worked with the minimal IT staff to create a parallel, automatic system that avoided any disruption, minimized the changes needed to production floor team members standard operating systems, and easily integrated the new flow into the shipping process.

The customer is now is able to manage the TSCS with 1000s of line items on 700 orders loaded on to more than 10 trucks per day automatically confirming each pallet load, skid load and tracter/trailer assignment.

The HULFT implementation process – what does it look like?

In general, the HULFT implementation involves four phases, which covers both the system and procedures needed to comply with the TSCS. As a reminder, every customer scenario is different – the purpose of this is to provide a broad roadmap for those who are unfamiliar with this process. Each implementation project is always customized for each customer.

Phase 1:  Scoping

During this phase, we work with you to understand how the TSCS will impact your particular manufacturing flow.  Answering the questions we’ve laid out in the Data Check List section will open up discussions about the possible options for integrating TSCS.

Customer deliverables:  Answers to detailed questions about current production and shipping flow, exception handling, staffing available for implementation and any special requirements.

HULFT deliverables:  A timeline estimate, list of known holes in the information, rough estimate of cost and project staffing.

Phase 2: Exploration

This is an important phase, especially if an API structure will be used. The HULFT team will determine the required data structures for the orders, parts, pallets, skids in the various MES and finance systems. Various scenarios for exceptions, expedites, and complicated transactions unique to you will be examined and understood. Implementation location, hardware, and software will be identified.  Any differences between original scope and more detailed scope will also be identified.

Customer deliverables:  Access to data structures, team members, and IT people who know where and how data flows in the manufacturing process.

HULFT deliverables:  A detailed project plan and implementation process.  Revised timeline and list of known holes in the information or production flow.

Phase 3:  Prototype

At least half of the overall effort will go into the prototype implementation of the project. HULFT will build a logical flow, combination of data from different sources, implement checks and validation logic, and run a test of the various combinations of customer flows including all of the exceptions planned out.

Customer Deliverables:  Access to the data and people to answer questions for clarification; final test suite of possible production flows; and any new operating procedures for production floor team members.

HULFT Deliverables: Prototype software implementation providing basic function of the TSCS system. Exception handling included will be all of the ones identified in the earlier steps plus any that are identified caused by new operating procedures.

Phase 4: Production cutover

When sufficient testing has passed (including the TSCS test suite), production release will be monitored and managed by HULFT and your IT team for one month.  Any bugs found or problems with the flow will be immediately corrected.  Any new exceptions will be scoped and implemented as mutually agreed.

Customer deliverables: Production and IT personnel to monitor and adopt the new procedures

HULFT deliverables:  We deliver a working system in line with the SOW, bug fixes, and scoping for expansion projects.

Data check list questions – how to get started

Again, while every supplier is different, below is a list of the type of data-related questions the HULFT team will work with you to resolve. From there, we will create a turn-key solution that meets your exact requirements.

1. How many orders, parts, trucks do you load every day to ship to Toyota facilities? How many different Toyota facilities are targets for each day’s deliveries?
2. How is the Toyota order input into your manufacturing and finance systems? Eg: arrives over EDI, email, Toyota Web Portal?
3. How is the order allocated to production or the picking process? What tracking is recorded for a particular part, order, Kanban?
4. After a part is picked for an order, how and where does that part get packed (on pallet or equivalent)? How and where is that data recorded?  Eg: barcode scanner or hand entered?
5. What database (data base software, machine, languages, etc) stores the information needed to ship an order?
6. What methods are already in place to verify order/pallet/truck load is correct?
7. How many kinds of shipment methods are required by customers other than Toyota?
8. What kinds of systems are used on the production floor/dock today that must be preserved in the new flow? Eg: barcode scanners, data entry terminals
9. How do you manage exceptions today? Eg: short ship, expedites, etc
10. When you complete the TSCS process, what new data do you want to keep as a record of complying with the TSCS?

Commonly Asked Questions

As a vendor to one of Toyota’s largest suppliers, we’ve been getting a lot of questions from other suppliers within the ecosystem around Toyota’s recent Shipping Confirmation System mandate to achieve real-time automation. We’d like to address some of the common questions that are being asked, and hopefully provide clarity and assurance to those who are faced with this issue.

We have orders to fill and can’t afford interruptions. Will the process of meeting compliance disrupt my day-to-day manufacturing operations?

No, it doesn’t have to. We understand your customers can’t wait for orders to be filled. We do all the heavy lifting that’s behind-the-scenes in order to offer a seamless solution for you that’s easy to implement and won’t disrupt your current process.

I don’t have an IT team. I don’t have anyone on staff who can code or knows computer science. Can I still achieve compliance?

Yes. Our team will work with you to create a turnkey solution because that is how HULFT is designed. You don’t need to know CS, you don’t need a team of programmers. You just need to understand logic and your production process and we will create an automation system easily and cost-effectively.

After that, can it be managed by anyone?

It can be managed by anyone.

What types of systems do you work with?

We can connect to over 300,000 disparate systems. Whether you’re on SAP, AS400, Mainframes, symbol scanners, we handle it all.

Are you certified by Toyota?

Yes, we are a certified Toyota software vendor.

What specifically have you done for your customers?

• We’ve created a response to TSCS that is certified by Toyota. 
• We’ve created a response that is seamless to their manufacturing process.
• Our response is a no-code response thus it can be managed by anyone who understands logic
• Our solution does proper exception handling with pallet build and trailer load