Tag: GM

Closing Boeing’s “Shadow Factory” is Harder Than it Sounds

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For a long time, I've heard the phrase "the hidden factory" used to describe various forms of waste in a factory, including rework operations...

Accountability in Leadership: My GM Flashback Story and the Blame Game

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I've written before about Bob. He was the Plant Superintendent (the #2 in command, if you will) at the GM Livonia Engine Plant, where...

Alternative History: GM Uses Lean to Remain #1 in the Auto...

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Updated May 2024: I worked with ChatGPT 4 to create a longer, hopefully better, version of the alternate history story here. ChatGPT is still all...

The Book “Rivethead” and GM’s Demeaning “Quality Cat” Mascot

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I've updated and am republishing an old 2005 blog post that I wrote about a former GM assembly worker, Ben Hamper, who has some...

Podcast #363 — Crystal Y. Davis on the Business Impact of...

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For Episode #363, I'm joined by Crystal Davis as we discuss: What are you seeing in terms of how Covid19 is disrupting businesses? How...

On the Recent Passing of Two American Auto Industry Legends: Lee...

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Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of Chrysler, passed away on July 2. Ross Perot, founder and former CEO of EDS, also passed away a...

Bob Lutz on Tesla, Threats, & Communication About Quality – and...

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Hat tip to Stan Feingold from StoreSMART (a Lean Blog sponsor) for sending me this article: Bob Lutz Talks Panel Gaps, Tesla, and Why Every...

The One Where I was Interviewed on a Detroit Radio Station

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I was invited to be a guest on a Detroit radio talk show that's hosted by Dr. Paul Reeves, a show called "Dr. Paul's...

On Podcast Server Downtime, Scars from General Motors, and Taking Ownership...

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Ever since I started podcasting in 2006, I've been using a company called "Hipcast" to be the "hosting" company for the podcast audio files...

GM Shrinking, Laying Off People, Shutting Down Factories, and Cutting Costs...

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I take no joy in the troubles of any automaker, be it Tesla, Nissan, GM or any others over time. Of course, Nissan and GM have been in the news most recently, with the firing (and jailing) of Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn. And now, GM has announced major layoffs, the cancelation of some passenger car programs, and the shutdown (and possible closure) of five plants in North America. I was talking to a friend the other day and I predicted that we'd see news headlines about something like "GM to get Leaner." These headlines would be using the word "lean" to mean "get smaller" instead of referring to "Lean" (which I capitalize as a proper noun) as a synonym for the Toyota Production System. I was disappointed to hear GM's CEO, Mary Barra, a long-time GM employee using the word "lean" in the context of the company getting smaller.

Part 2: 20 Years Ago at GM, the Quality Death Spiral...

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Recently, I blogged about a quality catastrophe that I lived through at GM just over 20 years ago, at the now-closed GM Livonia Engine Plant. Bluntly, the quality problems were caused by poor management and the side effects of their decisions. Even though they constantly blamed workers, management directly interfered with workers and engineers being able to do the right thing for quality. Here is Part 2 of that story... the first quality "spill" took place in April 1996. As I wrote about last time, Angry high-horse memos were sent out by management. Workers were told to have pride and to pay closer attention to quality (as if those had been the problems).

20+ Years Ago at GM: The Quality Death Spiral of Bad...

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My first job out of college was as an Industrial Engineer at the General Motors Livonia Engine Plant. Blogging didn't exist then (I didn't even have email or internet access at work) or I might have started my writing career then. Oh, the stories. I've shared some of them on this blog over time. I've blogged about papers from the Don Ephlin files, a former UAW national leader. I have my own small collection of documents and artifacts from my days at GM that I thought to keep in a folder. I still have that folder today. A few of these memos tell the story of a quality and productivity death spiral that eventually led to our plant manager being replaced. And, by "replaced," I don't mean fired or given an early retirement. He was, at least in title, PROMOTED to a role at GM Powertrain headquarters. Thankfully, the new plant manager, Larry Spiegel, was one of the original "NUMMI commandos" and he made a huge difference to the plant and to me, personally.