>An alternative view...is creating a bleeding-edge factory... This is not what Toyota does. VW does this[1]. Tesla does this[2]. But not Toyota [3]. Watch tho

>An alternative view...is creating a bleeding-edge factory... This is not what Toyota does. VW does this[1]. Tesla does this[2]. But not Toyota [3]. Watch those videos. Which ones are full of robots and computers? Which ones are all manual labor? My tone should give it away. The Toyota Production System link you cite was heavily developed by Taiichi Ohno. You can learn more in his 1978 book: "Toyota Production System". There's a whole chapter on procurement. Taiichi san's very, very strong belief is: When purchasing new equipment, we must consider buying the minimum capable of meeting our requirements. Reliability and ease of maintenance should be considered before features. Bells and whistles can often be added later if the need arises. We want to avoid buying features "just in case." We must consider up-time, utilization and quality factors when making equipment choices. Further emphasis is put on making old equipment last longer. Less 'bleeding edge'. More 'minimum viable' meets 'minimum risk'. Design emphasis is very conservative. Material choice is very conservative. You will not find innovation. You will find reliability. You will find simplification. You will find repeatability. As far as risk goes, Toyota is the bond market of the automotive industry. They make a vehicle in nearly every category. It is a standout in none of them. The engines are bulkier. They are less fuel efficient. They underperform in nearly every metric. They are costly for their performance specs. But they last. The interesting thing about their production line system is how much is focused on the people on the line rather than automating the process on the line. It's the YC version of "Talk to your users" - except applied to workers on the line. Most companies try to automate this step out. Toyota does remove their workers - but only to get more training. This English translation[4] of a Le Monde artice from a few years ago goes into extensive detail about the "Takumi" system of training master craftsmen. Toyota gets a lot of deserved credit for making great products - how they make those products is frequently misunderstood - famously so by Detroit in the '80's. Their process is counter-intuitive and worth a study. I recommend starting with Taiichi's book mentioned above. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlIyDhss4Cg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlIyDhss4Cg [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOXaBto7giY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOXaBto7giY [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5RlapdEtE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5RlapdEtE [4] http://www.worldcrunch.com/tech-science/takumi-toyota-039-s-secret-weapons-to-train-the-robots/industry-car-technology-unemployment-robots-takumi/c4s16867/ http://www.worldcrunch.com/tech-science/takumi-toyota-039-s-... [5] http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2014/08/18/face-aux-robots-toyota-rehabilite-le-role-des-experts-maison_4472804_3234.html http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2014/08/18/face-aux-r...