Toyota: Product Centre of Excellence
Injecting life back into the engine plant
The objective
LM Engineering was engaged to project manage the transition of the Toyota Altona plant into the new state of the art Centre of Excellence. The team would work alongside multiple Toyota business units, including Corporate Property, Legal, Product Development, People and Business Development, Vehicle Evaluations and Guest First.
Toyota established grand plans to convert the manufacturing plant into a Centre of Excellence, which would become a hub for research, development and training, as well as a new corporate office space for nearly 200 Toyota employees. At the heart of this new facility would be a dedicated Product Centre spanning over 25,000sqm, with complex security requirements given it would house Toyota’s new design, training, sales and procurement divisions. As the future of automotive innovation, it also required a 300-person auditorium, as well as substantial employee amenities including a gym, a bistro capable of serving up to 700 people and more.
The process
As the project managers for the establishment of the new Centre of Excellence through all phases of the project lifecycle, the work completed by LM Engineering included:
Leading architects and designers through the concepts and design phase, overseeing budgets and managing builder contracts.
Managing all trades through the construction phase (with up to 150 people onsite at peak), and identifying issues and defects to be addressed.
Working with internal and external stakeholders, maintaining commercial relationships with clients, and reporting back to senior management with project updates and dispute resolutions.
Relocating all equipment into the new space once the build was complete.
The outcome
The new Toyota Centre of Excellence was successfully opened in February 2021, repurposing the building and facilities, and in the process, putting life back into the old engine plant. After the closure of the production line some five years earlier, the reopening signalled a new beginning not only for the Toyota premises, but also for its people. The new centre achieved every aspect of the vision, including an education centre showcasing the history of Toyota Australia with a range of historical, concept and new release vehicles on display, and a training centre with service bays and a mock dealership, used for training dealer staff and mechanics. The product design centre, as a hub of innovation, is capable of constructing clay models and specific parts right through to complete concept vehicles.
The project was delivered on time, on budget, and with an utmost attention to detail and quality of execution. Toyota have since engaged LM Engineering for further work after the Centre of Excellence project was completed.
