[quanto]

I would go even further and say comparing Apple to Toyota is a high praise for Apple. Toyota, one of the world's largest manufacturers of any product, created its own management and engineering style (e.g. TPS) that continue to edify engineers to this day. Toyota survived and thrived this long in a highly competitive field, especially on a global stage -- a rare instance for a Japanese company. Steve Jobs in his peak had great admiration for Japanese manufacturers like Toyota and wanted to emulate them.

[Clubber]

One of the reasons that Toyota was still pushing out cars during covid while nearly everyone else had a shortage was their mastery of the supply chain. They make sure that their critical suppliers are as redundant as possible and well taken care of. Not only did Toyota maintain a stockpile of critical parts, the distributors gave them preference because they paid on time.