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A MODERN PARABLE ....
A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) 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 was discussion 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 management 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.
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 Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are demanding we give them our hard-earned money to keep the
company going until they figure it out.
IF THIS WEREN'T TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.
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donzi, Sometimes I think you have way to much time on your hands. In this case your right on. Am dealing with a company, not Ford, that fits this to a tee.
The deal is ours, I'm independent but I have to make it happen on a local level, but there are 5 decision makers on the companies side. How diffacult can this be. The customer was ready to sign on the line. The mgr. I was with has to take it back to the top. What is wrong with this picture? It's simple matter of suppling a product we produce, set our price, and deliver it.
We've let our govenment and economy get away from us. It's time to step forwad and make it happen.
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Dr. Deming revitalized Japan's industrial production methods. He realized early on that Japan has very little domestic materials....He rationalized that exports were their only hope to avoid catastrophic failure and communism.
His methods are well documented. Japan's recovery from utter defeat is legendary and paradigm shifting.
Detroit's big three talked about implementing the methods and Ford actually built one car on Deming's principles from design to delivery...the Taurus was the world's best selling and most profitable car for Ford until they deviated from Demming's plan.
One issue that is either overlooked or not fully understood is where is dear old Uncle Sam gonna get this "bail out" money? We've been borrowing money at 4% for 30 years and if anybody has learned anything lately its that nobody is gonna loan us any more money.
Currently, Venezuala borrows at 16%...if we had to borrow at 8% we'd have financial collapse and riots in the street from the gimme crowd.
It has been easier to borrow money than to earn it...those days are behind us.
CC
