When the invite from Toyota came in, Ford’s senior executive team was skeptical. We invite you to visit our newest manufacturing plant. Send your top engineers and bring all your questions. We’re anxious to share our methods. When the engineers came back from their visit, they confirmed the skepticism. “It wasn’t a real auto manufacturing facility,” the plant engineers explained. “Sure they had chassis and tools, and people, but spare parts and components were virtually nonexistent. The...
