ABSTRACT
The oil crisis of the autumn of 1973 first led the public to take a strong interest in the Toyota production system. The Toyota production system is geared to inexpensive, limited production of a large variety of models. The entire Japanese industrial sector, including the automotive industry, has been spoiled by conditions in the recent past, when they could sell everything they made. The automotive industry talks of something called the Maxey-Silverstone Curve. The other pillar of the Toyota production system is “Automation,” meaning “to work of itself,” as distinct from “Automotion,” or “to move of itself.” The spirit of “self-working” automation is rooted in the invention of automatic looms by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota. An automobile is a product in which great emphasis must be placed on safety. The progress of automation is directly linked to the intelligence of the supervisors and directors in each production plant.
