Big 3 Management answers
 

Found this posted in the AMC Forums - funny, but a lot of truth to it.

Subject: Corporate Ingenuity in America
=========================================
A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (General
Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both
teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before
the race.

On the big day, the Japanese team won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to
investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team
made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend
appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese team had 8 people rowing and 1
person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1
person rowing.

So American management hired a consulting company and paid them
a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised that too many people were steering the boat, while
not enough people were rowing. To prevent another loss to the
Japanese, the American's rowing team's management structure was
totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering
superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager .

They also implemented a new performance system that would give
the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder.
It was called the "Rowing Team Quality First Program," with meetings,
dinners and free pens for the rower There was discussion of getting
new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for
practices, and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor
performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and
canceled all capital investments for new equipment.

The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as
bonuses and the next year's racing team was outsourced to India.

Re: Big 3 Management answers
 

Aint that the truth!

Who needs a new camaro that looks like a 67-9? We'll just take a cadillac, and make a cadimaro!

Re: Big 3 Management answers
 

The problem guys is that this is more than just a statement
about the Big 3. It is a statement about America as a whole.

This type of scenario is rampant throughout the manufacturing
communities. I just fear that it is already too late for
us as a country. The Japanese must be laughing their a$$es
off all the time. The best thing they ever did for their
own country was to bomb Pearl Harbor. Look how we rebuilt
them, then helped turn them into a world economic power.

Now, they are cleaning our clocks. How ironic is this:
Many of GM's & Ford's manufacturing facilities were turned into war product
producing plants during WWII. Some 60 years later, these
same companies are getting their clocks cleaned by the same
country they were busy helping to defeat. How sad are we?

Steve

Re: Big 3 Management answers
 

As long as foreign countries have bee colony type work forces there is no way we as a country can compete in this lop sided world market place.The U.S better start doing as families are suppose to and take a greater interest in taking care of their own first before letting Americans depend on foreign governments to give them jobs.....It's really a disgrace!!!!!!!!!!!!!..

Re: Big 3 Management answers
 

It is sad. If one of OUR top generals - MacArthur, hadnt done such an INCREDIBLE job in Japan. giving them a constitution, reorganizing their corporate structure and ecomnomy, giving women the vote.....

they'd still probably be 200 years behind us.

Re: Big 3 Management answers
 

Two Words:

Dr. Deming

See this post:
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/showflat...true#Post249173

<<<<<<<<<<snip>&g t;>>>>>>>>>>>> >>
http://www.lii.net/deming.html

Who is Dr. W. Edwards Deming?

Dr. W. Edwards Deming is known as the father of the Japanese post-war industrial revival and was regarded by many as the leading quality guru in the United States. He passed on in 1993.

Trained as a statistician, his expertise was used during World War II to assist the United States in its effort to improve the quality of war materials.

He was invited to Japan at the end of World War II by Japanese industrial leaders and engineers. They asked Dr. Deming how long it would take to shift the perception of the world from the existing paradigm that Japan produced cheap, shoddy imitations to one of producing innovative quality products.

Dr. Deming told the group that if they would follow his directions, they could achieve the desired outcome in five years. Few of the leaders believed him. But they were ashamed to say so and would be embarrassed if they failed to follow his suggestions.
As Dr. Deming told it, "They surprised me and did it in four years."
<<<<<<<<<<<<&l t;<<<<<<<<<<snip> >>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>