Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Toyota Hits the Brakes

In today's Wall Street Journal, I read an interesting article - Toyota's New U.S. Plan: Stop Building Factories. You can read it online with a paid subscription or check out the AP version.

With the past push to add capacity to match sales, it makes sense to look at this expansion plan if your sales are slowing down. Not a real surprise that the older, wise leaders of Toyota are asking questions about the need for continued US manufacturing expansion. I am surprised that each new US plant was not designed for more flexibility to run more that just one model.

Plenty of lean leadership lessons can be discovered if you look closer at this strategic shift.

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