Came across this forum and saw several posts slamming Toyota and we all have an opinion worthy of hearing. What I find ironic is that many people praise GM and again, your opinion counts. But even if we ignore the comparison on the number of defects that leave a GM plant compared to Toyota (which by the way are doing great things for providing jobs in the U.S. while GM sends workers packing) you can still find reason to corss your arms and shake your head at GM. I don't work for any auto maker. But happen to have been priviledged enough to do some management and quality consulting for a handful of automakers including GM, and have done consulting and training work for many firms.
I'll just say that the closer you get to GM management, quality, and leadership personnel, the more you find yourself saying "what the h**l is going on here"! It is baffling! Quality...not enough of a concern. Customer...so what. Their workforce...who cares. Profit...there you go, that's all we need to worry about. In some cases they actually would rather commit suicide than change. No change equals no improvement equals our competitors will surely leave us behind.
Compare to Toyotas philosophy...treat all employees as valuable resources and good people, and constantly impove methods and quality...this means a better product for you, growth, more jobs, and an actual future. When you see the inner-workings it is not only baffling but sometimes even scary. I don't see GM being even considered Big 3 in 30 years. The leadership and culture impede any improvement. But it's not only management. I'm neither pro-union or against union. When a union works it works. When it doesn't you have GM. Union/management teamwork and progress was as good back in the old coal-mining days as they are in some of the gm facilities today. Detroit steel and Japanese junk don't really hold true today. I'll pick a company that understands leadership, management, and concern for customer and employee anyday. sorry for the long-winded post, but man...drive for profit only is a short-term goal that will not last.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by digitalcraft
