Thailand is one of the centers of Toyota Motor Corporation’s global bases that
exert efforts to the production of automobiles employing global strategies.
Although some strategic parts used to assemble the global car are imported from
the ASEAN region in which a system of mutual supplementation is already
established, parts that are procured in Thailand account for about 80% (monetary
base).
In Thailand, some original parts procurement systems are being constructed and
one of the systems in recent years is the Milk Run logistics. The Milk Run
logistics is becoming one of the standard systems of an overseas version of JIT
distribution. At overseas production bases, the Milk Run logistics in the local
country and the above-mentioned international distribution system are combined,
and a global procurement logistics system is formed. The following discusses the
operations of the Milk Run logistics through an analysis of the interview surveys
conducted at TMT (Toyota Motor Thailand) and the 3PL provider TTKL (TTK
Logistics) (Thailand)