I can remember reading Bertel Schmitt over at TTAC [1] years ago. You will find very few people in the world who can write well enough and have the level of car industry knowledge that he has. If I remember correctly, he started working at Volkswagen in the 1980s.
I can still remember an article about a Toyota factory [2] that is quite the opposite from this Volvo factory
Wow interesting read that the Toyota factory is the opposite. I think some adjustments where made targeting property cost in Japan are much higher but overall the property cost compared to total factory investment cost are low. But also the Chinese factory is producing higher margin cars compared to low revenue cars from Toyota.
Toyota's manufacturing methods are well known at this point...
If you've read about Lean Engineering or the Toyota Kata or even foundational devops books like The Phoenix Project, you've been beaten over the head with the idea that Toyota's process is highly effective. (And it is)