The original Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas. Photo courtesy of John P. of onemansblog.com.
Can Toyota, Cadillac, a bunch of rock musicians from New Jersey and a classical composer who lived in Austria two centuries ago have anything in common?
Yup, they can.
Toyota, Beethoven, and Bruce Springsteen with The E-Street Band all understand the care required in orchestrating what they do (I’ll get to the Cadillac part in a minute). Toyota uses takt time in coordinating the production of the Camry, and musicians have for centuries used variants of takt time to write down and coordinate the performance of their music. Learning how great music is made can give insights into how important timing is in the creation of other great products.