Porsche sold 50,000 cars in 1986 and only 14,000 in 1993. That year it lost 239 million marks. Wendelin Wiedeking brought in Japanese consultants led by Chihiro Nakao. To Nakao the plant looked more like a warehouse than a factory. He handed Wiedeking a circular saw and told him to cut the storage shelves along the line in half.
Porsche took lean management and lean production from Japan. Wiedeking said: Nicht hohe Investitionen, sondern veränderte Prozesse sind der Schlüssel zum Erfolg. Not high investment but changed processes are the key to success. According to the magazine IndustryWeek, the hours needed to build a 911 later fell from 120 to 60.
Porsche’s efficient manufacturing was partly learned in Japan.