1. Consider the following statement: Henry Ford practiced short-cycle manufacturing in the 1910s. The basic tools of total quality management were developed and practiced at Western Electric in the 1920s. Kanban is equivalent to a base stock system, which was well known since the 1930s. Thus, just-in-time is nothing more than a repackaging of traditional American ideas, for which its Japanese proponents have been greatly over praised. (a) Comment on the accuracy of this statement. (b) What aspects of JIT seem radically distinct from older techniques? Do these justify terming JIT a revolution? (c) What aspects of JIT are particularly rooted in Japanese culture? What implications might this have for the transferability of JIT to America