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...engines and drivetrains and fits and finishes. Some top-class products score well with car rater J.D. Power, such as the Cadillac CTS and Ford's new F-150. "What exposes us to failure now is not our product lineup or business plan or our long-term strategy," GM's Wagoner told Congress. "What exposes us to failure now is the global financial crisis...
...Experts point to GM's interaction with Toyota at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, Calif., as emblematic of the industry's learning disability. NUMMI was established in 1984 as a joint venture between the two companies, using GM's plant, the Toyota production system and the UAW workers who were already there. The plant had been one of GM's worst; the Toyota system made it one of GM's best...
...made the pilgrimage to Fremont en masse to see the miracle of NUMMI. Some dismissed what should have become a model for the entire industry. True, the technology wasn't that innovative. But Toyota had made the workforce integral to improving the system. Workers were not mere labor inputs. GM had no problem understanding the just-in-time inventory system Toyota used, but executing it required a buy-in from the shop floor so that everyone was dedicated to improvement. The Toyota system, says MacDuffie, "relies on contributions from employees. It feels vulnerable, but your willingness to be open...
...Management in a Mess Detroit's corporate culture is obviously complicit in the industry's deterioration, just as it was guilty of creating an unparalleled manufacturing system decades earlier. The Detroit approach has been plan-command-control, stemming from that original control freak, Henry Ford. At GM, a management hierarchy that had been created by GM's master planner, Alfred P. Sloan, in the '20s - GM's first and most successful restructuring - was still functioning in the '80s. Management's job was to create the products, design the production system and provide solutions if there were problems. Everyone else followed...
...Failing to cure themselves of the Not Invented Here disease, Detroit's bosses resorted to Hail Mary attempts to fix what were long-term issues. "They were constantly looking at buy, sell, hire, fire, looking to be rescued from their predicament," says Spear. On the buy side, GM CEO Roger Smith acquired Hughes Aircraft, EDS and a 50% stake in Saab. His successors bought the Hummer, 20% of Korea-owned Suzuki and 20% of Fiat with the obligation to buy it or pay to get rid of it. (The latter course was chosen, at a cost of $2 billion...