At that point in time, Toyota still did not have manufacturing in the USA. Honda did, but Toyota did not; they were still not sure how to do it.
Additionally, and more relevant - American suppliers could not make parts to Toyota's quality specifications.
One of the craziest parts of this story is that GM simply did not believe the stories that were coming out of NUMMI - for instance, NUMMI could change press dies (for stamping sheet metal) in under a 30 minutes where other plants took several hours.
It is crazy to think about, but GM at that point in history had enough cash to simply buy Toyota; being the biggest dog in town leads to self-satisfaction and complacency.
GM and the big three at that time had an inspect and reject batch lot production system. Each stage of production would make a bunch of parts that would later be used downstream, possibly a few days or a week later. These parts would be inspected for defects before being used, but by then there may be a buffer of several thousand parts - that may all need to be scrapped. Toyota ran on a lean system, which meant that upstream production could cause severe downtime if those upstream suppliers or plant operations failed. This caused 2 things - emphasis on more robust operations and less waste due to scrap.
The whole time period is fascinating no matter what business you are in.
Disclosure / disclaimer - I work for GM, but did not during this time period - I've just read a lot about it.
Additionally, and more relevant - American suppliers could not make parts to Toyota's quality specifications.
One of the craziest parts of this story is that GM simply did not believe the stories that were coming out of NUMMI - for instance, NUMMI could change press dies (for stamping sheet metal) in under a 30 minutes where other plants took several hours.
It is crazy to think about, but GM at that point in history had enough cash to simply buy Toyota; being the biggest dog in town leads to self-satisfaction and complacency.
GM and the big three at that time had an inspect and reject batch lot production system. Each stage of production would make a bunch of parts that would later be used downstream, possibly a few days or a week later. These parts would be inspected for defects before being used, but by then there may be a buffer of several thousand parts - that may all need to be scrapped. Toyota ran on a lean system, which meant that upstream production could cause severe downtime if those upstream suppliers or plant operations failed. This caused 2 things - emphasis on more robust operations and less waste due to scrap.
The whole time period is fascinating no matter what business you are in.
Disclosure / disclaimer - I work for GM, but did not during this time period - I've just read a lot about it.