Word: toyotas
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...Ohio, and Smyrna, Tenn., respectively. But if the stakes were high then, they're even higher now. The Big Three's overall North American market share slipped to 61.7% last year, an all-time low, and it has declined an additional 1.6 points in the first quarter of 2003. Toyota is just a couple of market-share points from passing Chrysler, the smallest of the Big Three. Though it is narrowing the quality gap, Detroit today squeezes almost all its earnings out of "light trucks," an industry category that includes SUVs and pickups. But the transplants are attacking that bastion...
...since 2000 its North American market share has fallen 2.8 percentage points (GM's is down 1.5 points). CEO William Clay Ford Jr., the founder's great-grandson, is focused on cutting new-vehicle development time from the current three years (a full year longer than industry leader Toyota) and increasing parts-and-platform sharing. Ford's new Futura sedan, due in 2005 to replace the outgoing Taurus, will use a Mazda platform that Ford plans to leverage across 10 cars and crossover vehicles in its global lineup, including its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands. (Ford owns a controlling stake...
Chrysler, Ford and GM take an average of eight more hours to make a vehicle at their North American plants than do Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Nissan is fastest at 18 hours a vehicle, and Chrysler (the U.S.-based unit of DaimlerChrysler) is slowest at 31 hours, according to the Harbour Report, an annual productivity guide. These times translate into an extra expense of $300 to $500 a vehicle for the Big Three as compared with the transplants, which in a tough market can kill already slim profit potential...
...refining "flexible assembly," a process that Detroit hasn't practiced as well. Flexibility means being able to make several types of vehicles on one assembly line, which can cut investment 25% for a new model and allow for efficiently altering the model mix based on changes in demand. At Toyota's operation in Princeton, Ind., a single line cranks out the full-size Sequoia SUV and Sienna minivan. What's novel: the Sequoia is built on a frame, while the Sienna, as a "unibody" vehicle, isn't. Toyota's line is the first in North America to assemble such fundamentally...
...classifications at transplant factories are broader. Line workers are trained in a variety of tasks--say, spot welding as well as interior assembly--and they rotate jobs frequently. They're less susceptible to boredom and repetitive-stress injuries. They're also trained to do preventive maintenance. At Toyota plants, every assembly-line worker has the authority to stop the line if he or she spots, say, a flaw in a windshield. More important, workers are encouraged by management...