Saving the US Auto Industry

[Pico and ME]

:shrug:

good question

It must have something to do with accounting....whereas labor is different from inventory. (??)

[tw]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

good question

It must have something to do with accounting....whereas labor is different from inventory.

The logic is so true. In MBA run operations, there is almost no limit the Capital dollars. But money for daily operations is rationed like it was Venusian Kolars. It makes no sense. But that is another problem obvious in GM plants where MBAs - not car guys - make decisions.

But that logic does not explain why JIT means parts are always available - and why stocking parts even causes parts shortages. Again, return to the company who demonstrates how to be destructive, anti-innovative, and therefore anti-American - GM.

GM had decided that parts cost too much when handled from the shipping dock to assembly line. So GM spent massive capital money and even rewired floors. Robots would carry parts from stock rooms to the assembly line. As a result, assembly lines were constantly short of parts. By stocking parts, GM assembly lines periodically had part shortages.

Because GM management is business school graduates, they could not address reasons for higher costs and part shortages. Instead we look at what an American (an enemy of the business schools) taught Japan.

Deming taught 1950s Japan concepts where parts arrive JIT. IOW suppliers delivered parts directly to the assembly line as assembly line workers used those parts. As each bin emptied, an assembly line worker would send the card (attached to that bin) into a system that immediately notified the parts supplier. No more stock rooms and shipping docks. Instead, the supplier delivered his parts directly to the assembly line with another card attached to the bin.

MBAs cringe. No paper work to verify parts are delivered and accounted for. But then quality also means eliminating that paper work. At the end of the assembly line are X cars requiring two parts per car. At the end of the week, the supplier's bill better match the number of cars produced. Guess what. Parts always available on the supply line. No stock rooms. No Receiving department. No massive MBA paperwork. Therefore the Toyota or Honda costs far less than a GM car.

But again, quality means eliminating useless overhead such as accountants, empowering the workers (who order more parts by sending out that card), eliminating a purchasing department, eliminating a receiving department, no wasted labor (or silly robots) taking parts from stock room to assembly line ... get the idea? And I have still not listed all the saving when everyone acknowledges that bean counters only increase costs.

Of course when your CEO was also the CFO, such innovations are not possible. Bean counters cut costs rather than innovate - which is why Deming was the enemy of business schools and why the Toyota way was legendary even in 1964.

How destructive are bean counters? Ford engineers developed the stratified charge engine in 1960. When did Americans finally see it? Another American innovation stifled by a bean counter named Henry Ford and rescued by patriots. The American innovation was called CVCC; found on 1980s Honda Accords and Civics. Therefore Honda had two best selling cars in America.

The CVCC story is not unique. It is exactly by GM products are all crap today. It is what Rick Wagoner and his predecessors did to GM.

What did the assholes do? Rather than learn from 1950s Deming; rather than use JIT - they installed robots to deliver parts to the assembly line.

Notice that nobody contradicts these stories. And yet still some remain so much in denial as to not demand removing GM's only problem - Rick Wagoner. Patriots save GM by not buying GM products AND mocking any anti-American so dumb as to buy those products over the last 20 years.

Not buying crap saved 1979 Chrysler and 1981 Ford before 'Townsend and Richardo' and before Henry Ford could do irreparable damage. Only a scumbag would ignore quality and instead install robots. But then capital money and daily expenses exist on separate spread sheets.

And you thought you were making a simple statement? Reality and the reason why GM needs Chapter 11 are never explained by sound bytes.