Toyota has specifically created the TPS to break down the organizational barriers between suppliers and create a more effective approach at managing knowledge workflows between suppliers and also with Toyota itself. To accomplish this, Toyota actually works with suppliers to re-engineer their internal learning processes, making available a system integration team that is responsible for creating the necessary process integration links within and between suppliers (Dyer, Nobeoka 2000). This integration of processes within suppliers and just Toyota itself can take up to a year or longer, and when overlaid to the broader supplier network, it can take easily up to eighteen months to two years. All of this effort and investment made by Toyota however is focused on transforming knowledge of processes and quality standards into a competitive advantage. Toyota is unique in that it's open nurturing of suppliers and the continual investment in cross-supplier collaboration (Amasaka, Sakai, 2009). Clearly...
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