GEORGETOWN, Ky. - Toyota's North American vehicle sales have been growing at a record pace, but the world's third largest automaker isn't easing up on innovations.

        Toyota is introducing a new body welding system in its North American plants that dramatically reduces its costs and increases its ability to produce different models on the same production line.

        For customers, the new system has allowed Toyota to hold down the cost of its new cars and improve their structural integrity, said Gary Convis, president of Toyota's Georgetown plant.

        Called the Global Body Line (GBL), the new system gives Toyota the ability to produce up to eight different vehicles on the same line at about half the cost.

        Toyota's old body welding system, called the Flexible Body Line, was developed 15 years ago, can produce no more than five different vehicles without expensive down-time for retooling.

        This week, Toyota gave the automotive trade press and investment analysts a look at the system installed here over the last year.

        Georgetown, Toyota's largest plant, was the first to install the GBL. Toyota, would disclose the cost of the new system but said it will be added next year at the Princeton, Ind., truck plant and Cambridge, Ontario small car plant.

        The Georgetown plant was the first in the United States to produce a sedan, the Camry, and a minivan, the Sienna, on the same line using the old body weld system.Glenn Chin, auto analyst for Lehman Brothers, said, “Any facility where you can produce eight vehicles on one line is impressive. It gives them a big advantage on the Big Three.”

        Vehicle production flexibility, to cater to changing buyers' tastes, is the Holy Grail in the auto industry.

        Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. is converting all its plants to a flexible, automated body-weld system that can handle any of its vehicles. Ford Motor Co. recently touted an initiative to equip half its assembly plants with flexible bodylines capable of building four different models by 2005.

        Unlike the Big Three which have excess production capacity, Toyota sells all the vehicles it can produce and is considering adding a fifth assembly plant in North America.

        The GBL, for example, would allow Toyota to expand production of hot-selling models and curtail production of less popular ones without expensive and time-consuming model changeovers.

        The company was able to bring its new Camry to market last year at a lower sticker price than the previous model thanks in part to the GBL, Mr. Convis said.

        In Toyota's old body weld system, the vehicle's sides, bottom and top were brought together using specially designed jigs, or pallets, which hold the pieces together while robots weld them.

        The old system required 50 jigs to handle the flow of components to the weld line.

        Using three-dimensional computer software, Toyota totally redesigned the body weld system.

        The GBL, introduced in 1996 in a small volume plant in Vietnam, brings the components to the weld line using simple material handling equipment. The parts are crimped together by robots then a single master jig is lowered inside the frame and holds it while robots perform the 4,000 welds.

        The Georgetown plant has increased the number of welding robots from about 250 to 350 with the new line.” The old (body weld) line wasn't adaptable to small production numbers and quick changeovers,” said Don Jackson, Georgetown plant vice president of manufacturing.

        The GBL allows the plant to make model changes almost instantly simply by changing the robot computer programming and master jig.

        Besides saving time and cost, the new system eliminates the complex overhead carrier system which brought the jigs to the line and blocked most of the light making the line a “dark and dirty place,” Toyota said.

        Eliminating the carrier system makes the new line more open and brighter, and it takes about half the space of the old weld line, Toyota says.

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