Posted on 04/22/2024 3:42:42 PM PDT by yldstrk
“Instead of thinking about the next decade, it is the next quarter. That leads to things like planes falling out of sky and bridges falling down!”
Or EVs catching on fire in your driveway or worse your attached garage.
What is Jack Welch best known for?
Jack Welch: History, Accomplishments, FAQ
Jack Welch was the chair and chief executive of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. Welch closed factories, laid-off workers, and presented a vision of growing fast in a slow-growth economy.
Jack was a master of film flaming his workers, management,
and GE’s stock owners.
My parents bought gm autos in the 70s and 80s. They all had very predictable component failures beginning at 30000 miles. All of them—same failures at same mileage. What junk.
My view is that Detroit’s quality issues were always due to cost cutting. And outsourcing was part of cost cutting. Just like it was for Boeing.
They don’t outsource for any other reason than cutting costs.
Japan captured a big fraction of the US market with vehicles that were significantly higher priced. They are still, but not as much as in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Detroit cost cutting started in the early 1960’s. You can see it in the interiors of the cars year after year after 1960. But there is much more that is hidden.
A switch to cast cranks and powder metal rods. Shoddy castings full of flash, residual sand and core variations. Flimsy cheaper designs for almost everything.
Lousy body designs that created moisture traps (but cheaper to build). Thinner sheet metal that rusted thru faster. Shoddy primer and paint application, skipped body prep steps to save money, and a change to E-coat which initially made things worse.
Even when the added content to improve quality, they half assed it, and had problems. In Canada, the paint over zinc coated metal quickly peeled off because of inadequate (read cost cut) zinc surface prep.
Cheaper wiring harnesses than the Japanese. Cheaper electrical components, cheaper cooling and ac components... every component and assembly process on the car.
Many of us still drive Japanese cars due to that reason.
We know that quality control from Detroit is crap.
rather shocking to see the atlantic writing a story like this ...
There were some stinkers during that timeframe to be sure, but a lot (not all) of that had to do with the heavy hand of government leaning on the industry during that era.
Don't forget, you had the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act passed in 1966 largely in reaction to Nader's book, "Unsafe At Any Speed." Then in the early 70s, CAFE standards were enacted in the wake of the Arab oil embargo. It was a tough time for the auto industry. Certainly there were some very poor management decisions coupled with union apathy, kind of a perfect storm, that when considered holistically, would have made it surprising if the US auto industry had not produced the crappy cars it did at the time.
” Then in the early 70s, CAFE standards were enacted in the wake of the Arab oil embargo. It was a tough time for the auto industry. Certainly there were some very poor management decisions coupled with union apathy, kind of a perfect storm, that when considered holistically, would have made it surprising if the US auto industry had not produced the crappy cars it did at the time. “
The combination of tightening emissions plus crash safety plus CAFE was a real killer.
For emissions, the way they dealt with reducing oxides of nitrogen was drastically lowering compression ratios - which killed power and absolutely killed mileage. Then the first catalytic converters came in, which were very restrictive and killed power and mileage some more.
They were putting smaller engines in heavier cars (crash safety) for fuel economy and the idle settings were very lean for emissions, so they didn’t run well and got lousy gas mileage.
The japanese had little market penetration in North America until the oil shock. (unlike the UK where they were significant by the late 1960s). Japs had the same emissions and power issues. But they were able to put in larger engines (for them) into what has still very small, light cars and still get good mileage.
The japanese cars rusted just as bad (even in Vancouver BC). But their mechanical and electrical components were better, and that was the beginning of the japanese reputation for durability.
I am driving a Toyota Sequoia. Built like a tank. Manufactured in Kentucky. The plant at the time was non union. The UAW is targeting them so who knows how the quality will be affected. For now, I have a keeper.
I think it comes down to the management, how the operations of the plant are designed and maintained, and the quality of the components, and whether the vehicles go together easily.
When toyota took over the Fremont Plant formerly operated by GM, things improved dramatically, even with largely the same UAW workforce.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a5514/4350856/
Boeing and other pioneering industrialists focussed on quality and customer satisfaction, not profits
Many of today’s CEO’s only focus on next quarter’s profit, and how much bonus they’ll personally make ...
Boeing and other pioneering industrialists focussed on quality and customer satisfaction, not profits
Many of today’s CEO’s only focus on next quarter’s profit, and how much bonus they’ll personally make ...
Thanks for your reply and your service as a Marine.
That is exactly what Atwater Kent did with his radio business.
The workers unionized, he gave the workers a pay raise, but told them if the union interfered with his business at all, he would close it.
They did and he did.
There's the heart of the problem. An MBA program teaches the students how to run a generic company, and to do it with expertise based on "best practices". But there is no such thing as a "generic company", and "best practices" may sound great in a conference room while having to recognizable relationship to reality.
A company, any company, exists for a particular reason: to manufacture some things, or to provide some service. A person, MBA or no, who does not in his bones understand those things or services will never be able to run the company effectively. The MBA has become a plague on American industry.
Many of us still drive cars with Japanese nameplates, made in America by Americans, due to that reason.
Ralph Nader did exactly one good thing in his life: he ran for President in 2000, thus preventing "President Al Gore".
Still Japanese cars.
Please define your terms.
Specifically:
What makes a “Japanese car” Japanese?
What makes an “American car” American?
What makes a “Korean car” Korean?
Etc.
Please offer an objective justification for your answers.
Thank you.
The cars were not made by the UAW labor in Detroit. As simple as that.
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