Supply Chain

The Light at the End of GM's Tunnel Is a Camry

April 25, 2007

I visited a Toyota plant today as part of the IW Best Plants Conference. Coincidentally, Toyota today became the world's biggest automaker (at least for the first quarter of 2007), for the first time selling more cars worldwide than General Motors.

The plant I visited in Columbus, Indiana, doesn't actually produce automobiles -- instead, I got to tour Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing, which manufactures lift trucks and material handling equipment. Now, I've visited a lot of manufacturing plants and gone on a lot of tours, and even seen various companies' adaptation of the Toyota Production System, but it was quite eye-opening to see the TPS in action at Toyota itself.

Nobody at the Toyota plant was crowing about displacing GM -- maybe the announcement came too late in the day (the tour was first thing in the morning), or maybe the MSNBC article is accurate when it points out that Toyota doesn't seem too interested in celebrating its new status as # 1. With a culture devoted to continuous improvements in every aspect of the company, where the ideas and input of every employee is not only valued but essential, then maybe Toyota has figured out that the only way GM (and Ford, and Chrysler) can potentially reclaim some of their faded glory is to figure out exactly why it is that companies that are on a continuous improvement journey (a fair characterization of all the IW Best Plants winners) believe more in the power of their employees than they do in their legacy.

Just a thought.

About the Author

Dave Blanchard Blog | Senior Editor

Focus: Supply Chain

Email: [email protected]

Follow on Twitter @supplychainDave

Call: 216-931-9794

Contributing Editor Dave Blanchard provides the IndustryWeek audience his expertise in lean supply chain, reporting on topics from logistics, procurement and inventory management to warehousing and distribution. He also specializes in business finance news and analysis, writing on such topics as corporate finance and tax, cost management, governance, risk and compliance, and budgeting and reporting.

Dave is also the chief editor of Penton Media’s Business Finance and editorial director of Material Handling & Logistics.

With over 25 years of experience, Dave literally wrote the book on supply chain management, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), and is a frequent speaker at industry events. Dave is an award-winning journalist and has been twice named one of the nation’s top columnists by the American Society of Business Publications Editors.

Dave received his B.A. in English from Northern Illinois University, and was a high school teacher prior to his joining the publishing industry. He is married and has two daughters.