Toying With Toyota
December 23, 2006 at 11:24 pm
The Washington Post ran this story today:
Toyota said yesterday that it was on track to become the world’s largest automaker next year, dethroning General Motors and underlining how far auto manufacturing has fallen from its once-pivotal place in America’s economy and politics.
I talked to an auto industry insider about the story. His astute observation: Here’s the reason Toyota is taking over the auto market. For years, the model for American manufacturers was build the car, sell it, and then fix it. The Toyota way is different. For Toyota, the model is build a car, fix it, and then sell it.
John Henry said,
December 24, 2006 @ 12:41 am
Toyota was founded(as a car company) in 1930 or so and was based directly on the principles laid down by Henry Ford in his book “My Life and Work”. It continues to run on those same principles to this day. The book has been out of print in English since the 20’s. It has never been out of print in Japanese and is required reading for all Toyota engineers.
I have studied, taught and done manufacturing for 30 years. I have read hundreds of books on the subject. This one book is far and away the best of all of them. So good, I recently was instrumental in getting it republished and writing a new introduction.
https://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=32476
It is sad that almost 100 years ago we knew exactly how to run a manufacturing company. Ford showed us how and then we lost it. In the meantime, the Japanese adapted what we had developed and ate our lunch.
John Henry
argon said,
February 19, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
i have good news
http://customcarpart.com.md