• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Any opinions on this ?

RoadKing

Silver Member
Site Supporter
A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There wasdiscussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American manag ement laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India

Sadly, the End.

Sad, but oh so true! Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages. Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US

The last quarter's results:
Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while F ord racked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WASN'T SO SAD IT MIGHT BE FUNNY!


This of course is true when viewed from 30,000 feet. What people forget is that Toyota established manufacturing here in the USA without being saddled with the burdens of guaranteed pension funds and ridiculous UAW union contracts. Like those that pay laid off workers 95% of their salary for years while on essentially permanent layoff. Ford, GM and Chrysler are all burdened with legacy costs that the UAW has foisted on them and refuses to get tuned into reality on and negotiate back these ridiculous contracts in the interest of saving the company. Toyota, Nissan Hyundai etc, all of whom manufacture here in the USA do not have these legacy costs. That's a big factor in helping them beat the Big Three.

Sometimes you have to cut off the arm to save the body...
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Good post RK.
Even cutting off the arm (buying out the unions) has proven to expensive. All of the auto industries problems cannot be blamed on the unions. I don't understand how Ford can loose so much money with most of their plants moved to non union locations. :pat:
 

waybomb

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I personally no longer see the value of a union. I think their value went away about 50 years ago.

However, to blame the unions for the big three problems is a friggin joke. It takes two parties to enter into a contract. One party was the union. The other was the lazy ass management of yesteryear. They didn't have to sign. Their cars were pieces of shit. If they didn't sign, they wouldn't have sold the cars while they were down, but, the POS cars they had built would still be breaking down. Eventually, the company would have won the negotiations, and sales would have sky-rocketed. But the cowards had no spine.

Alot of what into the contracts was good for both parties. But 95% pay, defined crafts, etc, were simply ludicrous.
 
Top