Toyota goes old school amid robots and automation

Even Toyota, which wrote the book on modern automobile manufacturing, faces a challenge passing its craftsmanship down to the next generation now that baby boomers are reaching retirement and production has become heavily automated.
     Toyota knows workers trained only to feed the machines are ill-prepared to solve unforeseen future problems. So, the Japanese automaker has begun searching for new training methods to restore the glory of the ''the Toyota master craftsman.''
     It is hosting a national event -- something of a technical Olympics -- where young workers compete to show off their skills using, for example, hand files or a lathe. Toyota has many skilled workers and in this year's National Skills Competition, contestants from the company brought home the gold in five of the 10 events in which they competed.
Ultimately, the workers' skills are what enable a company to maintain the quality of its products. Toyota has begun tackling the challenge of nurturing a new generation of craftsmen who can handle the unexpected.
 
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