Word: saturn
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...first time in years, GM's timing of a new product seems uncannily accurate. Saturn's debut coincides with rocketing gasoline prices and a looming recession, all of which should be a boon to a small, inexpensive car that gets 27 m.p.g. in city driving and 37 m.p.g. on the highway. In Spring Hill, Saturn executives exude a cocky optimism that their moment has arrived. They are confident enough in Saturn that they chose Southern California, the heart of import country, as one of the first launching points. Saturn's goal is to sell 80% of its cars to import...
...Saturn so revolutionary for American industry? Primarily because this attempt to reverse GM's industrial decline acknowledges for the first time on ! a large scale the real reason for Japan's manufacturing superiority over the past two decades. The secret is not advanced technology or low wages or some mystical Asian work ethic. Japan's most important advantage is its management system: the way it deals with employees, suppliers, dealers and customers. This month a historic, $5 million M.I.T. study of the world's auto companies concluded that Japan's advantages boil down to a few elements, including teamwork, efficient...
...Saturn's best hope is that it represents a profound change in the way GM manages its people. But the difference is not technological. Saturn's cavernous, mile-long Tennessee factory is a medium-tech plant, as are many of the most efficient facilities in Japan. The core of Saturn's system is one of the most radical labor-management agreements ever developed in this country, one that involves the United Auto Workers in every aspect of the business. The executive suite in Spring Hill is shared by president LeFauve and U.A.W. coordinator Richard Hoalcraft, who often travel together...
...teams (average size: 10 workers). They are given wide responsibility to decide how to run their own areas; when workers see a problem on the assembly line, they can pull on a blue handle and shut down the entire line. They are even given budget responsibility. One team in Saturn's final-assembly area voted to reject some proposed pneumatic car- assembly equipment and went to another supplier to buy electronic gear that its members believed to be safer. Says Hoalcraft: "I don't know of another U.A.W. person who has ever decided on the purchase and installation of equipment...
...Saturn's progressive ideas sprang up in Tennessee. Many were borrowed from around the world by the Group of 99, a team of Saturn workers who traveled 2 million miles in 1984 and looked into some 160 pioneering enterprises, including Hewlett-Packard, McDonald's, Volvo, Kawasaki and Nissan. Their main conclusions: that most successful companies provide employees with a sense of ownership, have few and flexible guidelines and impose virtually no job-defining shop rules...