Toyota's reliance on single supplier drags out long shutdown

The article is more interesting than the headline, which seems like a shallow attack on the Toyota practices. But those practices led to them being the best car manufacturer in history for reliability, and the headline rubbed me the wrong way.

Yeah, when you want to reduce one type of risk, you sometimes open yourself up to other types of risks. Single supplier and jit processes reduces some forms or risk and increases others. It’s a trade off

It's not a valid critique of lean or TPMS, it's the liability introduced with sole-source vendors. This a problem in every company that isn't vertically integrated and makes physical objects. "Irreplaceable supplier" must be made a non sequitur by deliberate incubation, partnering, incentivizing, and other strategies to ensure the health of suppliers providing critical inputs.