[Auto] Auto industry reconsiders production systems after border protests

[FazzNoth]

 

Days after a Canadian border blockade was broken up, the auto industry is facing a serious dilemma.

Over the past three decades, manufacturers have adopted “lean” manufacturing. Largely lifted from the Toyota production system, the complex strategy relies heavily on things like automation and other labor-saving steps. But the centerpiece is a system known as “just-in-time,” or “JIT,” production, which has sharply reduced the amount of inventory maintained at automotive factories. That approach, it turns out, is extremely vulnerable to disruptions that can quickly bring factories to a halt.

 

While no other industry has become more dependent on JIT production, it has also become a way of life for everything from agriculture to aerospace to consumer electronics, and it catches some of the blame for the supply chain disruptions and inflation that the industry has been battling the last two years.

“Today’s generation of automotive leaders learned from the Toyota production system, focusing on getting cash out of inventory,” Joe Hinrichs, who retired as Ford Motor Co.’s global head of automotive operations in 2020, said.

“Now, with everything that’s happened, including Covid, the semiconductor shortage, geopolitical risks and other events,” he said, there is growing concern that lean manufacturing — JIT production, in particular — no longer works.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/auto-industry-reconsiders-production-systems-after-border-protests/ar-AATZ5hx?ocid=BingNewsSearch