Already the world's most profitable automaker, Toyota is on the brink of becoming the world's largest, too.
And this week, it opens a new plant in Texas to make a true full-size pickup -- attacking a longtime bastion of dominance for Detroit automakers.
Can the Japanese juggernaut keep rolling? Or is it stretching itself too thin?
Gary Convis, the senior vice president of manufacturing in North America for Toyota Motor Corp., remembers well the first time he stepped into a Toyota plant.
A former Ford Motor Co. assistant plant manager, Convis was hired almost 23 years ago by Toyota and put on a plane the next day to Japan. When he walked into the company's Takaoka plant, Convis said, "To me, it was like looking at a symphony," Convis said. "Everybody knew their instrument and their music. They knew when to come in and when not to come in."
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