[theothermkn]

A sibling post mentioned Deming, the American who's WWII work on bomber production formed the basis for "The Toyota Way," and not in some indirect way, either. Deming went to Japan at the behest of the US to help them rebuild their economy after WWII.

[kesor]

I read somewhere that the context for this was all the men returning from WW II. While it was mostly women worked in the factories during the war and had to find ways to improve production, Deming ideas were solid. But as soon as the egoistic men came back from the frontlines after the war, he was kinda "pushed away" because no one in the US wanted to listen to him anymore. Which naturally was a big mistake as it turned out in the 70s when Japanese car manufacturing made American cars look like garbage.