Leverage the Limits

May tells a wonderful story about Toyota’s North American Parts Operations (NAPO) stretch goals. In the year 2000, Jane Beseda, newly appointed vice president and general manager, challenged NAPO with ten audacious and mutually competing goals, including inventory reduction, response time reduction, and waste reduction. The goals were such that they could only be achieved by departments working together across what had been organizational boundaries, and the results were nothing short of amazing.