Ford Motor Company and Die Development (Case #40, Notes)
Overview
Ever since the competitive juggernaut of Japanese companies was attributed chiefly to their famed just-in-time operations based on their keiretsu relationships, many U.S. companies have adopted this closely knit supply relationship. In the late 1980s, Ford Motor Company began to rearrange its supplier system to a keiretsu structure patterned after the Toyota system of managing component procurement and product development.
What is keiretsu?