The Leaning Factories 273
Toyota wanted to build the first overseas factory to-
gether with an American company. General Motors ac-
cepted the invitation because they wanted to outsource the
production of a small car. The factory of choice was a light
truck factory in Fremont, California. To show that it was
a collaboration between two companies, they renamed the
factory to NUMMI [New United Motor Manufacturing].^2
When NUMMI opened in 1984, General Motors saw
how the factory became the most productive of all their
factories across the world. The products had a high quality,
and the factory was empty – it didn’t look like a warehouse
anymore. NUMMI became a learning plant for General
Motors to which they sent their employees to learn the
secrets behind the Toyota Manufacturing System.^2
The Toyota Manufacturing System spread across the
globe to other auto manufacturers, and is often translated
with the word Lean. Lately, Lean has spread to other
industries such as hospitals, computer programmers, and
startups as described in the bookThe Lean Startupby Eric
Ries.
As the secrets behind Toyota’s high productivity and
good quality spread, more factories adopted the ideas and
increased their productivity and the quality of their prod-
ucts. This, in combination with economic factors, led to
a decision by General Motors to stop producing cars in
NUMMI. Toyota decided to stop their production in 2010.
The factory that initially brought the ideas from Toyota to
America was now empty. But who would need a car factory
in California with a value of nearly one billion dollars?