Schellhase 2024 New England and Appalachian RV Travels: 14 Aug 2024 - Toyota Factory Tour; Vietnam Veteran's Replica Wall; Elvis Presley's Birthplace

We started the morning bright and early at the Toyota Mississippi Experience Center in Blue Springs MS, which is the company that manages the contract for customer tours at the Toyota factory. Many months ago I got ahold of them and reserved seats on a tour for today. We've learned, sometimes the hard way. that you cannot necessarily walk up to these places and get a seat. So was the case this morning as we waited for our tour. A gentleman just showed up and was upset because he could not get in today.

We arrived at about 30 minutes before our scheduled tour time, and after a short "in-processing" by very friendly staff, we walked around the "Experience Center" where there are various displays relating to the Toyota factory here, and the Toyota Corolla that they manufacture. The rules here are very strict. You can take pictures in the Experience Center, but one we launch out on the tour you cannot even take a cell phone or camera, or any sort of bag. They offer lockers to store your items in.

Toyota announced on February 27, 2007, that it would build its fourteenth North American plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi. They broke ground soon after, but the economy collapsed so it was put on hold until June 2010 and then it came online in October 2011 Which Toyota vehicle it was going to be producing changed a few times but it was finally decided it would be the Corolla, which is what is made here today. The plant is capable of producing 700 cars/day but in 2022 they produced 132,684.

Here are a few pictures from the Experience Center while we waited for our tour time to arrive:

1969 Toyota Corolla 2dr Sedan

1958 Toyopet Crown Deluxe

1976 Toyota Corolla

The 2016 50th anniversary edition (1966-2016) signed by everyone on the line.

Many of the displays here focused on the history of Toyota and what they are doing in their factories as far as automation, recycling and to protect the environment. Soon our tour departed by shuttle bus and we arrived at the factory.

<Note: Any pictures from here on were taken in the Experience Center> Since we could not take pictures inside the factory, the following are random thoughts of mine which are in no special order. This places was freaking unbelievable! I had never seen a car factory before, and have never seen an operation that is so automated. So I was overwhelmed!

We got off the shuttle and proceeded into the factory where we boarded a tram. There were seven total on our tram. We each wore safety glasses and a headset that received audio from our tour guide. The factory was noisy so this really helped. Our tram took off and we then stayed in a specific lane in the aisleways that was shared with self-propelled robots called Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV). These vehicles ferry parts to members on the production line. They have lights on them to indicate what they are doing, and they even play songs if they detect an issue. There is a huge parts staging area where they maintain two days parts there only. So the parts are "just in time" numbers only. The sheet metal panels (fenders, quarter panels, hoods, deck lids, inner fender wells, floor pans, etc etc are stamped here.

All the panel assembly and many other operations is by COBOT, which is a collaboration + robot.

A tiny sample of what a COBOT looks like

We saw COBOT operations everywhere. COBOTS perform all the welding with precious to 1/10th of an inch. The vehicles being built are a long ways down the production line before they are first touched by a human. As the vehicles move along, COBOTS move them from the lower level to an upper level for different operations. Even the spare tires are inserted in the trunk by a COBOT. They did not tell us which operations are done by humans.

This factory has 2 million square feet under the massive roof. They capture rain water to flush the toilets, for instance. They recycle everything with a goal of zero waste. Some of the workers are contract employees and the ones that work the line are Toyota employees. The whole tour operation is contracted by a company out of Corpus Christi TX. Toyota treats their workers very well. They have stores where they get their work clothing, even their safety shoes. If they feel ill, they have medical treatment onsite and they even have a pharmacy they call Walmart. They have support groups here of all sorts. They have their own fire and emergency medical services because the nearest fire department is too far away.

One of the first aisleways we went down we passed a room with glass windows where the President of the company was holding some sort of leadership meeting. Everyone was standing as all their employees are on their feet all day. That was impressive, and surely keeps the meetings shorter (standing)!! Everywhere we went the workers smiles and waved at us when they were able.

As we traveled up and down the aisles with our tram, we continually had to stop and yield to the AGV's delivering the parts as they have priority. Some of the parts delivery vehicles were operated by humans. All the operations were behind safety glass panels so we could see everything going on. Some areas we could not visit, like painting, the panel stamping (due to noise levels), etc. The factory was immaculate. We did not see any trash of anything laying around.

When the vehicles are done they are thoroughly tested and inspected, and there is a team of technicians in a separate area that fix anything that needs repaired. The vehicles get about 5 gallons of fuel and then they are driven out of the factory by a human to a nearby staging area where they are either loaded onto rail car or semi trailer, depending on the distance of their destination. ALL vehicles that depart the factory are already SOLD to dealerships. They do not make any vehicles in advance that are not spoken for.

A very small portion of the staging area for completed vehicles.

So the tour concluded. We loaded back up on the shuttle and returned to the Experience Center where we departed. This was a great tour and I would highly recommend it if you are going to be near Tupelo MS. I do not know if they offer tours at any of their other 14 factories.

We returned to the campground, had lunch, tended to Liberty and then launched out for the afternoon operations. First stop was the Vietnam Veteran's Replica Wall which is located in Tupelo's Veteran Park. It is meticulously maintained and a fantastic tribute to Veterans of all branches and all wars. They have an F105D Thunderchief "Thud" static display as you first enter. It was one of the primary attack aircraft flown during the Vietnam War. The Thud flew over 20,000 sorties there and 382 were lost.

. The most impressive part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Veterans Park is a scaled replica of the Maya Lin-designed monument on the Mall in Washington. The Tupelo Wall is etched with the names of the 58,318 killed or still missing from the Vietnam War.

From here we drove just a few blocks south to Elvis Presley's Birthplace. They have a museum with gift shop, the original two room house where Elvis was born in 1935, and the church he attended had been moved here. I did not remember Tupelo as part of the Elvis equation, but this is obviously a significant part of his life.

The museum and gift shop

We started in the museum paying our admission but then were diverted to the chapel as they were about to start a program.

The church had been moved to this location and restored, but this was Elvis's actual church he attended as a child. No pictures or video were allowed during the program, but they had three screens projecting a recreated church service featuring the first time Elvis sang in church, which was the start of his music career.

From there we passed the outhouse (!) and then visited the museum.

Again, no photos or video were allowed in the Elvis museum, but they had many, many artifacts from his singing career and even a few from his Army days.

Finally we visited the Presley two-room house, which is the original house in it's original location. In 1934 Vernon Presley borrowed $180 to buy materials to build a two-room frame house. On 8 Jan 1935 Elvis was born here. They lived here about three years when the house was repossessed and they were forced to move. They lived in various other locations in Tupelo until Elvis was 13 years old and they moved to Memphis TN. After Elvis died in 1977 the City of Tupelo formed a memorial foundation to oversee the birthplace and facilities.