Introduction– our vision

The TPCA Company has reached very high standards in all main in allkey areas of itsactivities, such asPeople, Production, Cost and the Environment. Inline with the corporateprinciple ofKaizen-continuous improvement-the company wants toraisethose standardsevenfurtherandconfirmits positionamong the topindustrial companiesin the country.

1
People

The strategicgoal is to be anattractive andcaringemployer, whichcreates conditionsfor long-termemployment of localpeople.Intoday'sera of highcompetitionin the labour market itis not enough to only offer competitivewages, butit is necessaryto ensurecareer growthprospects, attractivebenefits, housing, healthcare, leisure activitiesandmore.The mottoof the company is"The Company’s success dependsonemployee satisfaction. 

Facts

By the endof 2007,TPCAemployeda total of3564people.The proportion of womenin productionrepresents morethana fifth tothe totalnumber of employees.The average ageis around27 years.The ratioof agency workersisaroundtenpercent.The vastmajorityof regularemployeesarecitizens of theCzechRepublic. 

1.1 – Employee development    

The main principle ofthe Toyota Production Systemis the fact thatincreasing the quality andimproving productionprocesses is notonly a matter ofengineers andspecialists, but a matter for all employees. TPCAhastwo tools for the systematic involvement ofworkerstoimproveproduction.The first isKaizen- a systemfor reportingimprovements,andthe second arequality circles, solving more complexproblems. 

Kaizen

TPCA employees submit suggestions,which are dividedinto fourmain categories:Safety, Environment, Quality andCost.An employee whoinventsan improvement proposal, called Kaizen, registers it with hissupervisor. The received proposalsare evaluated andiftheimprovement proposal isimplementedand its benefits aredemonstrated, its inventor isrewarded.In the past year 3198Kaizenswere registeredandtheir inventors received 1,080,747CZK. 

Quality circles

Quality circlesare voluntaryteamsof workerswho choose theirproblem from production and under the supervisionof experiencedconsultantssolveits removaland proposecorrectivemeasures. Quality circles have worked in all Toyota factoriesand last year theyhave been introducedat TPCA. Duringthe first year ofthe project,53teams participatedandthe best wentto present their resultsat theinternational congressof qualitycirclesinJapan.This year225 employees have registered forming 50 teams.

Training

TPCA employees participate in numeroustrainingandcontinuallyincreasing their qualifications. Frombasicjob skillstraining, mandatory courses, whichincludewelding, crane course, or forklift course to computerorlanguage courses all the way to specializedtraining based on theknow-how of the Toyota Production System. Last year over 200 employees took computer courses.

1.2 – Career growth          

TPCAoffers its employeeslong-term growth. The strategy ofthe company isto occupyleadingpositions by employees from lowerpositions.Many workersworked their way upto theposition of mastersandjust last year over 800 employees were promoted. The largestshiftsoccurred in the blue-collar positions.

1.3 – Rewards

TPCAis one of themostrewardingindustrial firmsin the Czech Republic. "We want to keep this position in the future," saysHR directorVadimPetrov. This year salaries willincreaseby sevenpercent.The averagewagein manufacturingwill risefrom the current23,100to26,200crowns.Another changeis to increase themaximum corporatebonus limit from the current fiveto eightpercent."We want tomotivateemployeesto meetcommonbusiness goals," explained VadimPetrov on the reasons foran increase inthe variable componentof remuneration.

1.4 – Benefits

Last year the companyintroduced a flexibleemployee benefitssystem calledZ-Account, whichrapidly gainedin popularity. The Z-account is a virtualaccount, for which the companysendsa certain number ofpoints a monthand the employee himself shall determinewhat to use the benefits for. Onepoint is worthone crown and evenfor the lowestworkingpositionthe employeereceivesabout three thousandpoints, which isthreethousandcrownsa month.The companygivesoverCZK150 millionto theZ-account a year and employees can pay pensions, savings, rents inurban apartments, mortgages andleasing by these accounts.Justlast year employees bought​​about threehundred newvehicles.Based on employees’ suggestions, this year the number of benefits using the Z-account has even been extended.

1.5 – Health

TPCAsupports employees’ healthylifestyles.In addition toprevention, such as vaccinationagainst influenza, vision andhearingtests, and consultationsrelated to measuringBMI, itis focusedon the active recreation of employees.TPCA has alsostarted along-term campaigntostop smoking, andin the preparatoryphase is the project ofsuperior medicalcare.

1.6 – Housing

The focus ofthe TPCA social programareurbanapartmentsin Kolin, designed for employees of the car factory. Last year, the citycompletedand handedusall the 850 plannedapartmentsand even thanks to thatthe numberof employeeslivingwithin 30 km ofthe plant increased to 70percent.The companyallows you topay for part ofthe rent from the benefit program Z-accountoruse itto financetheir own housingthroughmortgage.For temporaryhousing TPCAhas contractualhostels.

1.7 – Extracurricular activities

TPCAsupportssportingactivities for employeeswhether the events are organizeddirectly by the car manufacturing companyor if they financevarious tournamentsorganized byemployees, such asfootball, chess, darts, volleyball tournaments andmore. The first categoryincludes theEkidenrelay racein which theTPCAwomen's teammade ​​it to theworld finalsheldin Japan,where they finishedin a strongseventh place.

Sponsorship of employees is used to promotesports, butalsoother social activities. It is aprogramthrough whichemployeesaskfor a contribution to an event taking place in their place ofresidence.The company distributes50,000crowns eachmonth to this project.

1.8 – Trade Union relations

The trade union OS KOVO operates at TPCA. It was foundedshortlyafterthe company was founded,in November2004."We consider good relations with the trade unionorganization to beone of themain tasks of theHR department. The existingco-operationhas been verysuccessful," saysHR directorVadimPetrov on the relationshipwith the union.

2
Production and cost control
 
Production at TPCAis based onthe Toyota ProductionSystem, whichis synonymous with efficiencyin the automotive industry."In production we are workingon continuousquality improvement.We wanteveryemployeetofeeltheir responsibilitytowards the customer," says Yasuhiro Takahashi, president of TPCA. In 2007,TPCAhas produceda total of308,478cars.Even this year, the company wants to achieve a similar result. 

2.1 – Continuous improvement of production

It isthe continuous improvement ofproduction processes, especially increasingautomationand reducingdowntime that has enabled over 300,000vehicles to be produced. InApril of last year, TPCA produced the half-millionthcar. "We expect to exceed a millionvehicles producedfromthe start of productionin February2005.An importantmilestone in ourhistory will come in the fall, "saidJiří Černý,vice president ofTPCAfor production.

2.2 – Workplace environment

Activitiesonimproving the workplace environmenthead to the following areas: improving rest areas,reducingnoise and dust, injury prevention andergonomics. Last year,for example,30,000trees were plantedon the premises andseveral outdoorrecreationalareaswith treesandbenches were created.A reflectivecoatingonthe roof of thefactory buildingsreducesheatduring operation, the loudestsoundmachines were adjusted to decrease sound,and a winter garden was created foremployees at the paint shop.

2.3 – Financial results
In 2005,revenuereached18 billioncrowns.A yearlater, it reached 49.4 billioncrowns.According to preliminaryunaudited resultsof 2007, TPCA had revenue of51.3 billioncrowns."This yearwe will focus onimprovements in the systemof controlling and reducingcosts in order tomaintain ourhigh competitiveness," said NicolasGuibert, executive vice president ofTPCA.

3
Environmental protection

ToyotaandPSAPeugeotCitroenare companies thatensureenvironmental protection. It is part oftheirglobalphilosophy, which they meet in the Czech RepublicthroughTPCA. An importantmilestone for the protectionof the environmentin addition to environmentally-friendly production is employee trainingin the principles ofwaste reduction andrecycling or reducing energyand water consumption.

3.1 – Activities for environmental protection

The improvement of the year was a reduction in the production ofsewagesludge at the company’s cleaning stationby adding anothercleaning processand the subsequent processing of sludge in thefilter press, which contributed to a reduction inwaste produced. Anothermajor project is therecyclingof discardedplasticparts for a specialpulp, which in turnis used to makeplasticbins. Thanks to these andother projects,the company has achievedsignificantmeasures in all areas: the amount of waste producedper vehicle dropped from15.6 kgto12.9 kg, the energy consumptionpervehicledeclinedby almosteightpercentandwater consumptionby as much asa tenth.Emissionsof volatileorganic compoundsdecreased from24 g/ m 2to 13.8g /m2.

3.2 – Projects for the year 2008

In 2008,TPCA shallfocus onconservationthrough the dispersion of ecological thinking. One of the priorityareas for the grant projects “Partnership for the Kolín region” is forbeingenvironmentally friendly. However, there are activities that are being prepared onfactory premises. "We would like to applyphoto catalyticcoatings to selected buildings which by achemicalreactionbased on titanium dioxide(TiO2) shall clean the dirt out of theair," said of theupcomingprojectsJiříČerný, the vice president of TPCAfor production. The first solar panels, which will be used to heat water, shall appear onthe roof of the factory.