The Japanese industry absolutely bought into Deming. Think about the 1950′s – “Made in Japan” meant cheap plastic junk. The world’s best cameras were German, the worlds best electronics were American, worlds best cars were European, and so on. Adoption of Deming’s principles transformed Japanese industry, and eventually, the world’s (being central to manufacturing everywhere).

I don’t know enough about Toyota and it’s problems to comment on what went wrong. I suspect it lost control of its vast global supply chain; its products became too complex, and in the wake of great success and massive growth, lost sight of the values and principles that got it to that point – as usual, hubris, arrogance and letting the bean counters run the show! But, as I said, I really am not close enough to know.