When Taiichi Ohno and his colleagues at Toyota began planting the seeds for what was to become the Toyota Production System, the company was producing less than 10,000 cars per year, a tiny fraction of Ford’s and General Motors’ production.
Today, Toyota is close to overtaking General Motors as the world’s largest auto maker, which it is expected to do sometime in 2007. The numbers and stock chart below give you an idea of the revolutionary impact of the Toyota Production System, the roots of TBM’s approach to business improvement.
| Toyota | Ford | General Motors | |
| Annual Sales ($ mil.) | 172,749 | 171,652 | 193,517 |
| Employees | 264,410 | 324,864 | 324,000 |
| US Market Share 2005 | 17.9 | 15.3 | 18.8 |
| US Market Share 1990 | 7.6 | 23.9 | 35.5 |
| Market Cap ($ mil.) | 163,936 | 15,659 | 13,300 |
| Net Profit Margin | 5.96% | 1.13% | (1.70%) |
| Return on Assets | 4.6% | 0.7% | (0.7%) |
| Days of Sales Outstanding | 89.03 | 198.72 | 360.22 |
| 36-Month Revenue Growth | 13.4% | 2.4% | 1.4% |
