The Feb 28th '10 edition of the Economist had a very informative artical (pg.74) on Toyota's over-stretched supply chain pointing out that they were ' the author of most of its own misfortunes".  James Womack is quoted in the piece on Toyota's rapid expansion 'meant working with a lot of unfamiliar suppliers who didn't have a deep understandin of Toyota's culture.  The majority of the problems almost certainly originated not in the Toyota factories but in those of the supppliers'.

One purchasing executive said that it started in mid-2008, when the weaker parts of the supply chain were put under great strain. There is a need for visibility but not always there. Firms need transparancy and speed of communications to make sure defective parts and errors dont reach the customer.

It concludes with guidance to manufacturers: "It may be safer not to have all your eggs in one basket, but to have maybe 3 suppliers for major components who can benchmark each other' - Toyota was the peerless exemplar, now seen as an awful warning