In January 2020, the Boeing 777X, an update to the widely popular 777, took its maiden flight. The 777X was the product of what Boeing calls its advanced manufacturing process. With it, Boeing extended its extremely successful process known as lean production to newer production methods, such as robotics.

Lean manufacturing, pioneered by Toyota Motors of Japan, is based on the practice of having parts arrive on the factory floor just as they are needed for production. This reduces the amount of parts Boeing holds in inventory as well as the amount of the factory floor needed for production. To help move from lean production to advanced manufacturing Boeing has turned to Toyota, hiring some of their top engineers.  

Boeing first adopted lean manufacturing in 1999 in the manufacture of the 737, the most popular commercial airplane. By 2005, aer constant refinement, it achieved a 50% reduction in the time it takes to produce a plane and a nearly 60% reduction in parts inventory. An important feature is a continuously moving assembly line, moving products from one assembly team to the next at a steady pace and eliminating the need for workers to wander across the factory floor from task to task or in search of tools and parts.........

QUESTIONS

1. What is the opportunity cost associated with having a worker wander across the factory floor from task to task or in search of tools and parts? 

2. Explain how lean manufacturing improves the economy’s efficiency in allocation.

3. Before lean manufacturing innovations, Japan mostly sold consumer electronics to the United States. How did lean manufacturing innovations alter Japan’s comparative advantage vis-à-vis the United States?

4. How do you think the shi in the location of Toyota’s production from Japan to the  United States has altered the pattern of comparative advantage in automaking  between the two countries?