Toyota Offers a Lesson in How to Get Back Up After Falling Down
Only five years ago, the Toyota Production System—and the company that spawned it—were the envy of the manufacturing world. Then Toyota buckled, and “TPS” became yesterday’s glory. But now a humbled and wiser Toyota is launching a new, global, “modular” manufacturing system that is meant to re-establish its former pre-eminence in making automobiles. There are lessons other CEOs can learn from Toyota’s rise back up from the manufacturing ashes.