Back to the Future-Just In Time

摘要

It isn't just the U.S. to Japan jet lag that has us confused. We're deep within the bowels of Toyota's Honsha plant (its original factory), staring at a row of tired-looking, gray-green assembly line machines. They're nicked and scratched, and the paint around their knobs is finger-worn into thin halos. Methodically, a man moves a simple cart along them carrying a jumble of small parts that, if assembled just so, will become a small transmission. We step back to make room for the cart. He places a painted metal card drilled with a particular pattern of holes into a slot and pulls a lever. If it's the right card-the right color-pins with the same pattern will cleanly penetrate the holes and dispense the correct nut to be fastened next. He can't make a mistake.