TL;DR: The canonical example of process-power. Decades of relentless, bottom-up, trial-and-error improvement created a system so complex and opaque that competitors couldn’t replicate it despite openly studying it.
Toyota didn’t invent the car. They invented a way of making cars. The TPS is a masterwork of tacit knowledge—embedded in worker training, floor layouts, supplier relationships, problem-solving culture. You can observe it, but you can’t copy the living system that produces it.
Boyd recognized TPS as maneuver warfare applied to manufacturing. The “tactics” are Kaizen, pull systems, and continuous improvement. The “strategy” is that competitors trying to replicate TPS will spend years chasing a moving target. By the time they catch up, the system has evolved. (certain-to-win, ooda-loop, seven-powers)