Toyota is dead?
According to this post on Business Week, the fact that Toyota experienced it’s “…first quarterly loss in 70 years suggests a need to rethink supply chain technology… ‘. The post concludes that “…a tech-free Lean gospel just can’t hack it anymore.”
Whoa.
A QUARTERLY loss and Toyota should deep-six 70 YEARS of finely-tuned practices? AND…technology–supply chain technology–would have prevented the QUARTERY loss?
Not only does a rising tide lift all ships, but all ships de-rise [sic] when the tide goes out. No auto maker is immune or could have immunized itself from the massive, relatively sudden changes that have taken place in the global economy and consumer auto purchases in particular.
Even if there is an “…exploding level of risk…” in supply chaims, it’s by no means clear (a) technology CAN dramatically reduce that risk, (b) that said risk was a factor–let alone a major factor–in the quarterly loss, or (c) that the ever-illusive pot of gold promised by the rainbow of technologies wouldn’t cause bigger problems than those it solves.
Solving difficult problems is rarely so simple as automation…
