The Evolution of a Manufacturing Systems at Toyota

Rating:
Summary: Strategic capabilities can be born unintentionnally
Review: A book that tries to highlight the role of system formation processes that aren't deliberately planned in Toyota. It is written after the author's past works on functional analysis of existing/planned manufacturing systems in automobile industry and Toyota in particular. The presentation adopts the evolutionary approach considering that manufacturing systems aren't merely a product of deliberately planning. Some of Toyota's successful routines may have originated unintentionally. Social systems often evolve because of unanticipated events and unplanned behavior. This idea is related to system emergence, a concept central to the evolutionary framework the author has adopted. What the author has presented and uncovered from Toyota's experience can be happened in other companies or may have been taken place in other companies. This is an example of presentation that we cannot find easily for other successful companies using an evolutionary approach, not strictly in a neo-darwinian framework. This book gives us general idea on how company's organizational capabilities were born and helps us understand particularly how Toyota has created its style manufacturing system and capabilities. A book that is worth-reading not only for scholars and students in management and organizational science, but also by those being actors in companies' building capabilities.