It does it so well it became the first company to produce more than 10 million a year.

它做的程度之好，讓它成為首間一年生產超過 1 千萬輛車的公司。

Its success is rooted in a special system and began what's now known as "lean manufacturing", an ethos emulated by companies around the world to make products faster, cheaper, and better.

它的成功源自於一個特別的系統，並展開所謂的「精實生產」，一種由全球其它公司效仿的特質，目的在於更快、更便宜且更好地製造產品。

Here's how Toyota changed the way we make things.

以下說明 Toyota 如何改變我們製造物品的方式。

Following the Second World War, Japan was left in a precarious economic position.

二次世界大戰後，日本陷入不穩定的經濟地位。

Steel and other metals are scarce.

鋼鐵和其它金屬都變得稀有。

Already disadvantaged by lacking natural resources, materials were hard to come by and companies had to be creative to compete.

在天然資源已經匱乏的不利條件下，材料難以取得，各大公司必須依靠創意取得競爭力。

Toyota's founder Sakichi Toyoda had started a loom business, but it was his son Kiichiro who founded the motor company in 1937.

Toyota 的創始人豐田佐吉以自動織機業務起家，而汽車公司則是 1937 年由他的兒子豐田喜一郎創辦。

They were used to working within narrow margins.

他們習慣在薄利的情況下工作。

As the shortage of materials increased during the war, the number of headlamps on its Model K truck was reduced to one, and it only had brakes on one of the axles.

隨著材料短卻狀況在戰爭期間惡化，其 Model K 卡車上的頭燈量縮減為一顆，且只有一個車軸有煞車。

The turning point for Toyota's Production System would come in the early '50s, when Kiichiro's cousin Eiji would travel to the US with a veteran loom machinist, Taiichi Ohno.

豐田生產方式（TPS）的轉捩點發生在 50 年代早期，當時喜一郎的表弟英二與織機資深機械師大野耐一同遊至美國。

They visited Ford's River Rouge plant in Michigan and were impressed by the scale of the operation, but knew that in cash-strapped Japan, companies didn't have the resources for such a system.

他們造訪了 Ford 在密西根州的胭脂河工廠，並折服於其營運規模，但深知在財政困難的日本，公司行號並沒有採用此系統的資源。

Having months' worth of stock sitting in a warehouse would tie up precious capital they didn't have.

將數個月的庫存擱置在倉庫內會佔有他們未擁有的寶貴資本。

Instead, what truly impressed Ohno was a visit to a supermarket, a Piggly Wiggly, according to legend.

據傳，讓耐一真正欽佩的反而是一次前往小豬商店的超市之旅。

Japan didn't really have self-service stores at this point, and he was struck by the way customers could choose exactly what they wanted, when they wanted.

日本在那個時候還沒有自助商店，而他對於消費者能夠在想要的時候獲得所需物品這件事感到驚訝。

He decided to model his production line on a similar idea.

它決定用類似的想法規劃其生產線。

With a "supermarket formula", only enough parts were produced in the first phase to replace what was used in the second, and so on.

「超市公式」中，第一期只會生產足以替代第二期的零件，依此類推。

This is where the "Just-in-time" system really took shape.

這就是「及時生產」系統真正雛形的時候。

Toyota was able to eliminate much of the waste in Ford's system, making smaller numbers of parts to be used when it needed them, allowing the company to operate on a tight budget.

Toyota 得以除去福特系統中許多的浪費，在需要的時候製造較小量的零件，讓公司能夠在預算緊縮時營運。

As part of this, Ohno developed "kanban", a sign-based scheduling method which shows goods in, goods in production, and goods out⏤it's now seen as a precursor to bar codes.

這其中一部分是耐一開發的「看板」，一個基於標記符號的排程方式，顯示入廠產品、生產中產品以及出廠產品，這個系統也被視為條碼的前身。

Ohno and Toyoda also noticed that American car companies were still employing many of Henry Ford's early production techniques.

耐一和豐田也發現美國汽車公司仍舊採用了許多亨利・福特的早期生產技術。

They kept operations at full tilt in order to maximize efficiencies of scale, but then had to repair defective cars after they rolled off the line.

他們保持全速運營以最大限度地提高規模效率，但隨後不得不在下線後修理有缺陷的車輛。

Ohno believed this caused more problems and didn't encourage workers⏤or machines⏤to stop making the mistake.

耐一堅信這引發更多問題且未鼓勵員工或器械停止犯錯。

So, he placed a cord above every station which any worker could pull to stop the entire assembly if they spotted a problem.

於是，他在生產線每一站上方都加裝一條繩子，任何員工都可以在看到問題時拉下繩子，中止整個組裝流程。

The whole team would work on it to prevent it from happening again.

整個團隊接著會一起處理問題，預防它再次發生。

As teams identified more problems, the number of errors began to drop dramatically.

隨著團隊辨識出越多問題，錯誤的數量開始大幅下降。

Combined with a culture of continuous incremental improvement called "kaizen", the Toyota Production System built a brand known for making reliable and affordable cars.

結合了持續增加進步幅度的「改善」文化，TPS 打造了一個以製造可靠且可負擔車輛聞名的品牌。

But Toyota was also getting good at producing cars quickly.

但 Toyota 在快速生產車輛的能力也繼續變好。

In 1962, the company had produced 1 million vehicles.

1962 年時，該公司生產了 1 百萬輛車。

By 1972, they'd produced 10 million.

到了 1972 年，他們已經生產 1 千萬輛。

It was around that time that the efficiencies of their factories enabled Toyota to produce a car every 1.6 man hours, much lower than their competitors in the US, Sweden, and Germany.

也就是在那個時期，Toyota 工廠的效率讓他們能夠在每 1.6 人工小時就生產一輛車，耗時比美國、瑞典和德國的競爭者都要低得多。

And as the oil crises of the decade sent gas prices higher,

而隨著當時石油危機使得油價上漲，

cheap-to-run Japanese cars became much more appealing to Americans, whose powerful but gas-guzzling vehicles suddenly became very expensive to run.

低耗油的日本車在美國人眼中變得更有吸引力，因為他們強力但高耗油的車輛開起來突然變得很貴。

Today, Toyota has made over 250 million vehicles.

今日，Toyota 已經生產超過 2 億 5 千萬輛汽車。

Others have looked to them to learn the lessons of "lean", combining craft with mass production, avoiding waste, while striving for constant improvement.

其它公司爭相效仿其「精實」手法，將工藝與量產結合，在追求持續進步的同時，避免浪費。

Boeing is perhaps the most famous, restructuring a plant to better suit TPS.

最著名的或許是波音公司，為了配合 TPS 而重組工廠。

Intel is another long-time lean ambassador, and is exploring the principles in the context of AI and the Internet of Things.

英特爾是另一個「精實」的長期擁護者，並正在人工智慧和互聯網的情境下，試行其原則。

A Canadian hospital even used Toyota's system to decrease wait times in its ER.

一間加拿大的醫院甚至採用了 Toyota 的系統來降低急診室的等待時間。

The Toyota Production System changed not just how cars are made globally but how we approach making things, full stop.

TPS 不僅改變了全球生產車輛的方式，更改變了我們製造的手法。

It also showed there is always a better way to make a product.

它也顯示，製造產品永遠都會有更好的方式。