A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors) decided to

[ldsbeaker]

Two words: Labor Unions

oh, and the government bailing out the Big 3 whenever they really suck at life. Good job USA. Way to encourage innovative thinking.

[Vedubin01]

that is true, labor unions are a double edge sward. They fight for rights of fellow members at the cost of everyone else. Again if the higher ups listened to the little guy the companies would be in much better shape. The old school of thinking and not changing with the time is whats killing them. I have no love for the US automakers or the employees that work there.

[rwh11385]

The old school of thinking and not changing with the time is whats killing them.

US automakers only change to keep up with the Germans / Japanese.

In Japan, they integrate 'kaizen' into the workplace.

• KAI means 'change'
• ZEN means 'good'.

Germans are obsessed with efficiency and BMW has different groups competing on the best way to do thing instead of integrating everyone to do the same process the same way. Quite the different philosophy from traditional US... and labor unions hurt a ton.

[BeirBrennerE30]

i just glad im the consultant that all the big guys pay the big money too....

The japanses really got it right on the manufacturing side... particularly toyota. The problem is that American upper management usually just doeant understand lean manufacturing. It is a complete culture change for most companies that is fought tooth and nail by unions and usually by upper management. Unions think it is going to result in layoffs but it almost never does. It is making peoples jobs easier and by making a job easier it allows more production with less effort. It also gives more power to the average working guy which management seems to hate. Workers on the floor are the ones adding value to the product NOT the people in the offices. Americans seem to forget that once they go to college.

[CorvallisBMW]

Both Lance and Vedubin have good points. As an industrial engineer I can attest to Toyota's fantastic strengths in Kaizen, Lean, Muda reduction, Six Sigma and the like. They were the ones who literally invented industrial engineering after their entire industrial system was destroyed in WW2. It took American companies a long, long time to realize that they were on a sinking ship unless they adopted some of Toyota's successful practices. Today GM, Ford and Chrysler have made great strides in Lean manufacturing and are doing a great job with quality control also.

But there are 2 big things holding them back: First, they have to pay healthcare/retirement benefits to all of their UAW workers, whereas the foreign auto makers treat their workers so well they don't need the UAW. Secondly, US automakers are still reluctant to embrace innovation and change. They fought tooth-and-nail against, seatbelts, catalytic converters, crash testing, airbags, mileage standards, etc. They spend millions on lobbyists and court costs to challenge these things instead of working to overcome them. The foreign automakers on the other hand view them as merely challenges to overcome, and they put their best engineers and resources on meeting those challenges. So instead of sitting around bitching about how these new standards are going to 'bankrupt our industry', perhaps the big 3 should take a lesson from the SUCCESSFUL automakers and learn to innovate.

There is a huge amount of great information out there on the internet about how Toyota has become the world's largest automaker and why the Big 3 have fallen.

[h0lmes]

If you want to see real laziness, go to France. I do agree with your points though.

[kowalski]

Two words: Labor Unions

oh, and the government bailing out the Big 3 whenever they really suck at life. Good job USA. Way to encourage innovative thinking.

two more words. "Six Sigma" if the big 3 adopted it they might have a fighting chance. They seem to have a hard time adopting that something from toyota.

[1991 318is]

Japan has universal health care and lower and middle management routinely make 120-150% of the floor workers. Not the larger differential of American management. This would not go down well in the US where management sees this as an entitlement. Now Toyoto is kicking our asses in pickup trucks to add insult to injury.
In the present and historically, the problems of the American auto industry fall upon the people running the show. They first started giving benefits as an alternative to wage increases beginning in the 1950's. Just as all workers that aren't unionized get a free ride on the union's coattails when it comes to vacation, overtime, 40 hour week, child labor, job security and all the rest, they, and we as a society, suffer from health care being tied to employment. Without this historical precedent set by the steel, auto, etc. industries, another means of providing health care might have evolved. They are probably all saying, "Thank God for labor unions. Otherwise they might blame us for the mess we're in." The saddest part of all is that all those people steering the boat design cars the same way. The problem - nobody's buying!

[BeirBrennerE30]

two more words. "Six Sigma" if the big 3 adopted it they might have a fighting chance. They seem to have a hard time adopting that something from toyota.

six sigma doesnt work.... everyone gets too bogged down in stats to do anything. Just go to the "gemba"

[CorvallisBMW]

six sigma doesnt work.... everyone gets too bogged down in stats to do anything. Just go to the "gemba"

I think Toyota would beg to differ. I have my Six Sigma Black Belt and find it extremely useful.

[1991 318is]

Why does having good sense have to have a name like Sex Smegma. Was there a Five Sigma? Will there be a Seven sigma? I doubt it. The sigma is dead - long live the sigma!

[kowalski]

Why does having good sense have to have a name like Sex Smegma. Was there a Five Sigma? Will there be a Seven sigma? I doubt it. The sigma is dead - long live the sigma!

because its six standard deviations from the mean of a standard deviation. essentially its perfect quality.

[kowalski]

six sigma doesnt work.... everyone gets too bogged down in stats to do anything. Just go to the "gemba"

I disagree, there is many companies using it that attribute great success to six sigma. Caterpillar is one of them. I'm sure if its not approached the right way it can do lots of damage. I'm working with a company that seems to have this problem right now...

[e30e]

I disagree, there is many companies using it that attribute great success to six sigma. Caterpillar is one of them. I'm sure if its not approached the right way it can do lots of damage. I'm working with a company that seems to have this problem right now...

As an intern at a Caterpillar dealership Ive scene that six sigma works well but does not necessarily mean it would work for every company.

[rwh11385]

As an intern at a Caterpillar dealership Ive scene that six sigma works well but does not necessarily mean it would work for every company.

seen? haha. Another guy from the board in interning there right now. He's nerdy and probably fits with it.

Probably works well for CAT but they are pretty anal and it fits with the corporate culture as far as my friend who interned there said. Like ya mentioned, not everyone's bag - but for things that need to be exact, makes sense.