The father of Carpal tunnel Syndrome

[lumberjim]

[bluecuracao]

Huh...I see where "Built Ford Tough" came from.

[Cloud]

extremely interesting, thanks! I remember my mom's stories about learning to drive in one

[richlevy]

Cool. But there were no seatbelts and safety glass had not been invented. A crash at even 10 mph was a 'significant' event.

http://www.in.gov/gov/files/Press/12...eaths_Data.pdf

There were more motor vehicle deaths in Indiana in 1928 than in 2008, despite a smaller population and less cars on the road.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windshield

Early windscreens were made of ordinary window glass, but that could lead to serious injuries in the event of a crash. A series of lawsuits led up to the development of stronger windscreens. The most notable example of this is the Pane vs. Ford case of 1917 that decided against Pane in that he was only injured through reckless driving. They were replaced with windscreens made of toughened glass and were fitted in the frame using a rubber or neoprene seal. The hardened glass shattered into many mostly harmless fragments when the windscreen broke. These windscreens, however, could shatter from a simple stone chip. In 1919, Henry Ford solved the problem of flying debris by using a new technology founded in France called glass laminating. Windscreens made using this process were actually two layers of glass with a cellulose inner layer. This inner layer held the glass together when it fractured. Between 1919 and 1929, Ford ordered the use of laminated glass on all of his vehicles.[1]

[Shawnee123]

Carpal Diem--My wrist hurts today.

[Gravdigr]

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome--Momdigr's been there and done that. Twice.

[Pete Zicato]

Good find, Jim. Very interesting.

[tw]

Curiously, another benchmark in auto innovation has just terminated - I believe last Thursday. Over 20 years ago, Toyota and GM shared a plant in Freemont CA called NUMMI. For Toyota, it was an experiment in how to apply Japanese production using American workers. For GM, it was an opportunity to learn how to be productive.

NUMMI used the same 'least productive' GM union workers to make a Toyota Corolla (also called a Chevy Nova). As a result, the same work was accomplished with only 1/4th the employees. And not with robots that GM 'knew' was the solution. In NUMMI, workers controlled production. Management worked for the employees. All employees stopped working if products were being assembled wrong. Therefore costs went down. Productivity increased.

Toyota so prospered from the experiment as to open factories throughout the US. GM (via 18 managers who were expected to take the lessons to all of GM) learned nothing. GM managers who learned in NUMMI found themselves mostly without job opportunities. Concepts based in the product could not be understood by business school graduates who insisted it was some kind of black magic.

GM so self destructed - so ignored the lessons from NUMMI - that GM recently stopped buying products from NUMMI. A desperate attempt to save other GM factories. Without GM, that Toyota plant just did not have product demand to remain operational. So the only Toyota plant to have union workers closed this past week.

What happened in Freemont CA 25 years ago were concepts that Deming taught Japan 50 years ago. Concepts that saved Ford Motor (Quality is Job #1). Concepts that GM would deny; instead wasting $billons on robots, more management, and other myths from business schools. The irony is that NUMMI - GM's solution - is instead a victim of GM. Meanwhile those lessons readily available in the early 1980s could have saved GM. But so ignored that massive job losses, government welfare, and harm to the entire American economy finally appeared on spread sheets 25 years later.

Whereas Henry Ford innovated and therefore everyone prospered. GM cost controlled and therefore harmed America. Whereas Henry Ford's successes due to innovation will be recorded in history. Lessons of stifled innovation in the name of cost controls and spread sheet management will remain ignored in those same history books. The death of NUMMI is a trophy of business schools and a history lesson that few will learn. We like to hype what makes one feel good. Often ignore what makes us all smarter - therefore more productive.

The death of NUMMI this last week is as much as benchmark in history as the day that Henry Ford introduced the assembly line. Both marked what was happening to the America economy.