Source of raw materials for 2nd gen.

Curious if there is way to track the start to finish process from raw materials to a fully assembled truck. mined, processed, forged/cast , milled, sub assembled, fully assembled. I have a texas assembled 2015 if that makes any difference. thanks!

 

This is very very complex. Not a simple answer.

Steel is a result of several processes.
Your best path is to search the internet.
Some common materials in cars:
Steel
Iron
Aluminum
Lead
Glass
Plastic
Rubber
Copper
electronic components
oil/grease
coolant
fuel
Chrome
Zinc
platinum
cobalt

 

Doubt it. Parts are sourced from multiple suppliers, who are probably sourcing pieces from other suppliers. I would doubt many companies go through the trouble of tracking as they are more concerned about day to day operations and making money.

 

This sounds like something I had to do when Trump messed with the Canadian/USA border laws. In the end it only mattered where the product was assembled, and not whether a part of the assembly came from China.

 

Pretty much all materials in major production manufacturing are lot traceable and have certifications to conform. Yes, it is possible, but normally this process involves a lot of research to look into work orders and suppliers and follow the chain to the end. You’d be very hard pressed to find someone in Toyota that would spend the resources to do that “just to know”.
Normally only audits like this happen if there is an accident or something concerning public safety. Something similar to the Firestone tire issue in the 90s. I’m sure every molecule was traced in that investigation.

 

Well put, I'm sure Toyota COULD trace everything back... do they want to? no. Do they have a website that you put your vin in and it tells you where all the materials and manufacturing involved in each part came from? Absolutely not.

I think alot of people under appreciate how much goes into a single product that you don't think twice about. Take a super simple example, an alloy steel bolt: the iron, coal, misc alloy components (Chromium, Nickel, Silicon, Molybdenum, etc) are mined in various places around the country (or more realistically world), then refined and processed elsewhere, then sent to the steel mill where they get combined and made into bulk steel, then that finally gets sent to where it'll actually get made into bolts. There are alot of intermediate steps before you even begin making anything that resembles a product (and this is a very simplified summary). Something as simple as a bolt has dozens of suppliers involved in the supply chain.

It starts to get really mind boggling when you scale that up to larger products like a truck. There are thousands upon thousands of suppliers involved in the production of our trucks.

 

This is completely accurate. I'm an automotive engineer and when designing and releasing parts for production each singular part, everything from the roof panel to a single fastener for holding on your license plate light, is reviewed while considering multiple suppliers. Considering how many thousands of parts are in vehicles, I can't even comprehend how many suppliers help make an entire vehicle. Not to mention they are around the globe. People assume that all body panels are produced at the same place, and that isn't correct at all. Same goes for interior. That doesn't even take a stab at where each supplier gets their raw material from!

However, yes, auto manufacters keep track of each and every supplier they work with. Ones that work well and produce high quality parts are on one list, and ones that have caused issues or have poor quality parts are on another. Now the supplier isn't chosen by the engineer, that's done by the penny counters in the purchasing department.

 

I feel ya! I’m a mechanical engineer and I’ve mostly worked in consumer electronics and aerospace.

They both have their crazy sides when it comes to supply chain. Consumer electronics it’s all the exotic metals being mined and processed overseas and manufacturing processes performed in China because they’re banned by the EPA so we can’t do it here. Then working as a Boeing subcontractor EVERYTHING had to be documented (and understandably so). Not to mention every aerospace supplier has to get certified by the FAA so navigating the approved vendor list or even worse getting a new one approved is a nightmare.

 

I have to do similar analysis. Except we manufacture subassemblies in multiple countries so we had to concern ourselves with the “significant transformation”. The majority of the source components as well as the transformative assemble step has to happen in the country of origin.

 

Another Mechanical Engr. My experience is in industrial air compressors and consumer goods (power tools).

Supplier base is a whole beast on its own. Yes, a supplier is found and chosen by the $ counters and Purchasing. Although, Engineering and Quality have the burden to verify the item meets design specifications.

The process is very detailed and very complex.

 

99% of the time you get a bunch of bullshit on a forum

and rarely, a guy like this (actually informed) speaks truth

I would imagine car companies keep track of parts
given that some parts have barcodes on them
and the fact that they need to quality control somehow, not to mention creating TSB's and Recalls
because if they find out about a problem, they have to figure out what the problem is, what caused it, and how to implement a design improvement to solve that problem while vehicles are still in production, to save themselves money
so that new vehicles of the same kind don't roll off the assembly line with the same issue,
that they would later on have to pay a dealer tech warranty money to fix/resolve

I find it hard to believe
that an auto company would try hard to keep track of whether a technician repairs a vehicle properly and according to their standards,
but not give a shit about what happens within their factories, that could be potentially monitored.
"Oh, this employee keeps skipping steps on the production line, and cars keep arriving to customers buying new with shit not installed, giving them a bad impression of the brand? Whatever!"

but Why use common sense or consult experts
when you can listen to Forum People

Toyota is probably not going to tell you their production steps
because they don't give a shit about you
just like how they tend not to share with you repair manual information
or TSB lists

The closest you can get is some kind of Discovery Channel YouTube documentary showing factory production How It's Made on a vehicle.

 

I’ve worked for 35 years producing parts for US Navy submarines. Everything is tracked and documented every step of the way. It is said, and very believable, that the paperwork for a sub outweighs the sub itself. All for failure analysis. Even sorting through that paperwork for a Tacoma would be a task for a masochist.

 

on the note of tracking things back to techs I was reading about this the other day. Pretty impressive on subarus part (and sucks for the tech hahaha):

https://www.manufacturing.net/autom...blames-entire-recall-on-single-factory-worker

passenger aircraft are the same way with the paperwork.

 

Down the internet rabbit hole !

 

Wanna deep dive into the rabbit hole???

Many of the materials have a recycled content. Steel, Aluminum, glass and plastics are common recycle materials.

 

i'm pretty sure your engine oil is from baby bop.

still trying to confirm, but i believe your u joint grease came from barney.