Updated: NUMMI Plant Workers, Cos. Talk as Contract Deadline Passes

Updated 8/11: Looks like the plant has a tentative agreement.

Last post before vacation… still sounds like there could be a labor stoppage at NUMMI. I found this interesting:

“While GM and Toyota own the plant equally, most of its capacity is used by Toyota. In this year’s first half, 84 percent of the 205,563 vehicles the California plant produced were Toyota models.”

I remember, at one point, at the Toyota Corolla, while being practically identical to the GM Geo/Chevy Metro, sold at a nice ($500?) price premium over the GM product. People said this was due to Toyota’s quality reputation and reliability. GM was being punished by the market for poor quality.

That’s a great illustration of the Profit = Market Price – Cost principle. Although the “Cost” for the GM and Toyota NUMMI products were the same, I’d guess, Toyota’s profit was higher because the market placed a higher value on the Corolla over the Metro.

About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology, focused on improving quality and patient safety, improving access, reducing costs, and fully engaging healthcare professionals. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for KaiNexus.