While the troubles of U.S. automakers have drawn much of the media attention, Toyota has been quietly doing its job right.

Toyota has boosted U.S. vehicle sales by 10 percent last year from 2004, to clinch 13 percent of the U.S. vehicle market share, up from 12 percent in 2004, leading a steady gain by Asian companies. GM’s U.S. market share has been dwindling, dipping to 26 percent last year from 27 percent in 2004.

But for the first time, the Japanese automaker is passing on to workers outside Japan the knowledge that had been passed on silently on the job from generation to generation. ...

Although the teaching tools are mostly visual and hands-on, designed to skirt language barriers, the key to producing quality cars is to absorb the proper movements through your body through repeated practice, much like a dance lesson, often in time to a jingling metronome, Toyota officials say.