ABSTRACT
Toyota Motor Corporation is arguably the most studied company of the modern era. More than a dozen books1 have been written about the company, its management system and philosophy, and its approaches to various business and operational problems. One of the latest books, The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker2, became an immediate best-seller, indicating the instant draw the Toyota name has within the business community. A search on Business Source Premier (https://www.uwe.ac.uk) turned up over 3,000 articles published over a ten-year period with “Toyota” in the title. And this number does not include the hundreds of volumes and countless articles on lean manufacturing or various aspects thereof (for example, 5S, kanban, poka-yoke) that are largely based on tools and practices developed by Toyota.
