Word: detroit
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Detroit...
...they did, pointing the way to a revolution in manufacturing. The companies began a $70 billion capital spending program to build better cars and trucks. Detroit equipped itself with elaborate computerized devices to perform hundreds of tasks like precision welding and alignment of doors and fenders. Auto executives consulted with the gurus of manufacturing and quality: W. Edwards Deming, J.M. Juran and Philip B. Crosby, a Florida-based consultant whose 1979 book, Quality Is Free, sits on many Detroit desks...
...Detroit's factories are getting their workers closer to what they are making. At the plant where Pontiac builds its stylish Fiero, Manager Ernie Schaefer has eliminated one rank of supervisors, forcing responsibility on line workers. The pressure is on, he says, "to do it right the first time." At a Buick plant in Flint, Mich., a worker monitors the reliability of springs on a computer screen, rejecting those that do not measure up. Says Utilityman James Adkins: "I like it. It makes my job easier...
Nonetheless, critics charge that manufacturing still lacks the kind of great innovators who set up the original American system. Harvard's Skinner says that many manufacturers are "housekeepers but not yet architects." More strategic thinking, more top talent and more development, he says, are needed. Detroit auto executives take exception to that. They insist they are no longer second to Japanese manufacturing in any way. "There is no manufacturing gap," says Ford President Donald Petersen. Echoes GM President F James McDonald: "There are no differences in the process. Most of the technology everyone uses was developed here...
Boston 5, Detroit...