Introduction The production system is a definite source of competitive advantage to the national industry. Traditionally, sources of competitive success have been manufacturing technology, market regulations, exclusive access to financial resources, or economies of scale. Therefore, traditional literature seems to endorse that the production system has the possibility of providing competitive leverage to a nation or industry. Xerox gained production system leverage as it developed the first plain paper copier in 1995 and by 1972 enjoyed 90% market share (Pfeffer, 1994). As the product life cycle declined, there was a greater demand for better and technologically advanced production processes to gain a competitive advantage. The potent question that therefore arises is if nations have been able to gain a competitive lead in production and operations management? Have analysts overlooked more important differences between industries and companies? This paper argues that a production system can deliver competitive lead to a company operating globally (as in the case of Toyota) but may not be successful in delivering competitive advantage to the nation. The production system is believed to provide a substantial competitive advantage to the company in helping the company gain a competitive edge. However, transposing these systems to another company in a different country may pose substantial alterations and problems. This point is argued by considering the case of the production system followed in the automobile industry in the US, Germany, and Japan. Given the recent popularity of lean production (a Japanese brainchild) the article tries to ascertain if this system is better and different from Taylorism and Fordism and if it can provide a competitive advantage to the nation and/or company. Further, the article also discusses issues related to the adoption and implementation of the model in other national settings, for instance in US and German automobile companies. Therefore, the paper aims to understand if one process is good for all countries or companies and how they affect the performance of the companies. This is done with examples from three automobile industries in three different countries –Japan, the USA, and Germany. The paper will first discuss the popularity of the Japanese production system gaining unprecedented popularity and then enumerate using academic and industry-based literature on the strengths and weakness of such adaptation in other countries. The paper will provide a comparison between the three production systems i.e. lean manufacturing, Taylorism, and Fordism. The processing system will be evaluated concerning other management areas like human resources, supplier management, production strategy, and management techniques. Comparison between Taylorism, Fordism, and Lean Production The production system of Japanese automobile companies like Toyota has been believed to have a source of success for the company as well as Japanese automakers for a long time. Japanese production system had been adopted in entirety or partially by companies from other nations. Different processes like kanban cards and quality circles have been implemented by automobile makers in other countries. American companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler have made the initiative to establish a Toyota-like production system, but few