The Evolution of a Manufacturing System at Toyota
Faculty of Economics at University of Tokyo Takahiro Fujimoto Professor
Oxford University Press, 19-Jul-1999 - Business & Economics - 400 pages
What is the true source of a firm's long-term competitive advantage in manufacturing?
Through original field studies, historical research, and statistical analyses, this book shows how Toyota Motor Corporation, one of the world's largest automobile companies, built distinctive capabilities in production, product development, and supplier management.
Fujimoto asserts that it is Toyota's evolutionary learning capability that gives the company its advantage and demonstrates how this learning is put to use in daily work.
Google Book Link with Preview facility
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=KBm8F9cI8OYC
This book is an enquiry into capabilities and performance link.
The book highlights Toyota's evolutionary learning capability.
Toyota Motor Company was founded in 1937.
But Kiichiro Toyoda started preparation for building an automobile in 1931.
In May 1935, Toyoda completed the first prototype A1, a five person sedan.
Toyoda's Kariya assembly plant was started in 1936
Kiichiro's goals was to reach costs of Americal automobile plants with a production quantity of 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles per year.
Koromo plant with capacity of 2000 vehicles per month was started in 1938.
Toyota's productivity was roughly one tenth of productivity of American companies like Ford and General Motors.
1945, Toyoda set a target of reaching Americal Productivity in 3 years. The effort resulted in increase of productivity by several times by 1950 and by 10 times by 1955. - Page 38
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