TOYOTA boasts of its $211-billion war chest or equivalent to the combined value of Volkswagen at $80 billion, General Motors at $52 billion, Daimler at $49 billion and Honda at $42 billion, according to investment and financial writer John Divine of U.S. News (2019). Despite its enormous wealth, Toyota is very much alive in its corporate-wide waste elimination campaign even at some point of saving a penny worth of nuts and bolts.

So, why would Toyota focus on saving money despite its billion-dollar asset base? The answer is: Why not? A penny saved is a penny earned. But that’s exactly the essence of Toyota Production System (TPS) – the not-so secret homegrown formula that propelled Toyota’s consistent high-performance since its establishment in 1937.|