Eiji Toyoda (1913-2013), kiichiro-toyoda's cousin and the Toyota leader most responsible for enabling TPS. As managing director, president, and eventually chairman of toyota-motor-corporation, Eiji provided taiichi-ohno with the institutional support to develop and implement TPS against significant internal resistance. Eiji visited ford-motor-company's River Rouge plant in 1950 and concluded that Toyota could not compete through scale — it would have to compete through efficiency and flexibility. This conviction led him to back Ohno's unconventional experiments. Eiji's 1961 directive to implement a "Total Quality Control" system company-wide, building on w-edwards-deming's teachings through juse, created the infrastructure for Toyota's Deming Prize win in 1965. Without Eiji's protection, Ohno's radical ideas might never have survived Toyota's internal politics.