No, I know about pull, Toyota, Lean, and all that.
Still manufacturing and production of repeatable widgets...
Will you apply the same approach to make a bunch of mathematicians prove a theorem?
Most computer programming (in the private sector) is not research. It is product development. It is much more like designing and prototyping a physical product like an automobile, than it is like proving a theorem.
Is there any evidence that design work and prototype work is done in the same fashion as manufacturing by these Japanese firms?
FWIW, it appears that the software development process in Toyota is pretty screwed, and the bugs that saw the light lately seems to confirm it