One of the big differentiators between how the Big Three operate and how the vaunted Toyota production system works is how they deal with suppliers. Toyota takes the stance that it competes supply chain against supply chain, so it works hand-in-hand with vendors. It’s not just what happens in its body and assembly plants.

Taiichi Ohno, the production guru at Toyota, put it this way: “Achievement of business performance by the parent company through bullying suppliers is totally alien to the spirit of the Toyota production system.”