The Texas Bucket List - Toyota Manufacturing Plant in San Antonio

Howdy and welcome back to the Texas Bucket List. I have a confession to make. I love our Tundra. It's a fantastic vehicle and we are blessed to be able to traverse Texas in it as well as our Sequoia. Now what makes these motor vehicles so amazing isn't just the dependability or the comfort, it's the fact that they're made right here in the Lone Star State. When it comes to putting together a TV show dedicated to all the incredible things there are to experience in the Lone Star State, it takes quite a bit. Our most important tools to tell these stories include our cameras, microphones, tripods and of course our vehicle. For the past few years we've been sponsored by Toyota and that means traversing Texas in our luxurious Capstone Sequoia or Platinum Edition Tundra and let me tell you it's been a major upgrade. I love the wrap. That is so cool how you are using the truck, how you're using the Sequoia, all the things that you're doing. Suzanne Kazunas is the president of Toyota Manufacturing Texas and she's in charge of a massive manufacturing facility in San Antonio where every Tundra and Sequoia are built. That's right, right here in the Lone Star State. San Antonio, it's one of the places with the most allure. You know from a personal perspective it's just a fun place to live and from a work perspective we have an incredible team here. 3,715 Texans come to work each day at this 2.2 million square foot facility where approximately 200,000 vehicles are made each year. My favorite part of my day is coming to work. Just seeing an energy and the passion in the plant, it makes your day start out on a positive note every single day. What's it like to be responsible for this much stuff? It's pretty fun actually because I mean I will argue that there is a misconception about manufacturing. It is a really fun job. It's incredibly tangible. When you drive down the road and you see something you made, there is just a sense of pride. You know that what you're producing is going out to the public and it's done right. It's a good feeling. Diego Rodriguez has been working at the plant since 2021. He's a team leader for the Vehicle Confirmation Inspection Crew. That's where the vehicle comes off of the line after everything is complete and they start it up, drive it off the line. We do our initial checks for it, making sure all the switches work, the sunroof works. What's that like knowing that you're the first person to drive those vehicles? It's exciting. It's one spot I hope to stay for quite some time. Diego gets to see the tundras and sequoias at the end of their manufacturing journey, but the entire process takes almost an entire day and involves thousands of parts. It all starts with sheet metal stamped on site. They're attaching over 3,500 parts in the assembly shop and one by one we go through the assembly order so that we can build up the vehicle. Wire harnesses, floor, carpeting, and you got your seats and it just keeps building until you have that finished vehicle that comes down final line. How long does it take from start to finish? At 62 second tack time, which means that you're making one truck every 62 seconds, from start to finish in body shop, which is where we put the body number in the vehicle, it's a little over 18 hours. 18 hours to a finished thing that's happening every 62 seconds. Every 62 seconds. It's pretty cool. That's unreal. We get to drive it off the line. This is nerve-wracking. There's pride in seeing the truck come off the line, but just when you're walking through our plant, you see every team member has a task. There's something specific that every single person is doing to add value to the vehicles that we make to make sure that the content is there and that the quality is being confirmed for our final customer and it's just gratifying. Before getting to be the first one to ride a new Tundra, Diego explained what we were witnessing. This is the end of the line for the trucks here. This is their last inspections, right? Yes. All of these little checks that they do are tedious and imperative to the quality of each vehicle. It was then time to take one off the line. Hey, Diego, do I just do this? You can do whatever you want. I'm happy with that. At least I know who I'm picking up. Yeah. A 1794 edition Tundra was Diego's vehicle of choice. The first start-up. Nice. Right off the line. I feel like I need to sign the dash. 1794 takes us back to the original owners of this property that we're sitting on right now. Rob Franklin is the vice president of administration. When Toyota moved to San Antonio in 2006 to build Tundras, Rob was selected as a project lead and the move was a no-brainer. Well, let's build vehicles where we sell them. And of course, Texas was easy to imagine the number one place where you're going to find pickup trucks. I can never imagine the Tundra being built anywhere else but Texas. Getting to tour this campus and see the manufacturing process isn't something only TV shows can do. Anybody can have this incredible tour of the Toyota plant. We have tours three days a week. We love seeing people come watch us build the trucks. You spend an hour, an hour and a half here on our campus. You kind of understand not only history of the Toyota but really about what we're doing in South Texas right now. This is our community and they've made this their home and they're contributing to best built truck on the planet. You look at your vehicle but you don't think about how it was made and this is definitely something that I think everyone needs to see. There's nothing more Texan than trucks and we are so proud to be a truck builder right here in San Antonio with our incredible workforce being able to make the best trucks on the market. That's what makes us Toyota Texas. Well thanks for watching this segment of the Texas Bucket List. To see more be sure you subscribe to our channel and to see full episodes become a member. In the meantime, you can also shop our store at the Texas Bucket List store and studio.