NPR.

In the early 1930s, when Kiitiro Toyota was working at the family business, Toyota, the

company didn't make cars.

There was no crawler, no camera, Toyota made mechanical looms for weaving fabric.

But Kiitiro had a vision. He wanted to take his father's company in a whole new direction.

He wanted to build cars. Of course, the odds were stacked against him. At the time, Japan's

car industry was tiny.

And also, if the gamble failed, he would be risking the reputation and finances of his

father's very successful loom company. The stakes were high. And Kiitiro was new to

the industry. So he wanted to figure out some kind of an edge so that he could compete

with the much larger global car makers.

Kiitiro opened Toyota's first dedicated car factory in 1938. And to compete, he knew

he had to totally rethink the way factories were run. Kiitiro hated waste. He didn't want

his workers waiting around for car parts. Or on the other hand, he didn't want car

parts piling up in storage, taking up more and more space. So he developed a system.

He called it just in time.

This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darien Woods.

And I'm Stacy Vanick Smith. Just in time production was a revolution. Not just for Toyota, but

for other car companies around the world. Although it did have this flaw. A flaw that became

very apparent during the COVID crisis. Also, a flaw that somehow the inventor of just

in time production managed to avoid.

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