How have some companies experienced dramatic growth and productivity improvement in manufacturing even as their peers struggle to compete? What explains how some manufacturing firms have been faster to adopt new technologies or workforce practices than other firms? This presentation will focus on understanding the operational and technological patterns of high-performing manufacturing firms in the United States. It will emphasize particularly the way that these firms have built on – and in some cases departed from – the Toyota Production System, which has for decades been the paradigm for manufacturing excellence in the United States and abroad.