4. Why Love is in the Air
+
• U.S. Lobby for restrictions on imports
• Federal emissions regulations
5. Lets not forget about the UAW
The United Auto Workers Union
GM closed Fremont California
Reasons for closure
Frequent strikes
High absenteeism
Bad quality
Open markets in factory
Drugs / Alcohol
Prostitution
6. The General Motors Way
Mass Production Method
Factory is divided in two groups
Production, Production, Production
14. To Little To Late
GM was unsuccessful in renovating their plants
Opened Plants oversees
Marketing of new vehicles
15. Lessons Learned
What Toyota learned from the joint venture
Motivation
Workers and Unions
16. Works Cited
Gonzales, R. (2010, April 1). NUMMI Plant Closure Ends Toyota-GM
Venture: NPR. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from
http:www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1254430405
Langfitt, F. (2010, March 26). The End Of The Line For GM-Toyota Joint
Venture: NPR. Retrieved February 8, 2011, from The End Of The Line
For GM-Toyota Joint Venture: http://www.npr.org
Ranney, G. B. (2009, January). The Lean Thinker. Retrieved February
7, 2011, from Http://theleqanthinker.com/2009/02/03/remmberingnummi-gipsie-ranney
Wilms, W. W. (1996). Restoring Prosperity. New York: Times Books, a
division of Random House.
Editor's Notes
The joint venture between General Motors and Toyota started in 1982. General Motors was the largest manufacturer of cars in the world at that time and Toyota was the 7th largest manufacturer of cars in the world.Insiders in both companies did not want to do the joint venture.
The Joint venture of General Motors and Toyota was known as New Union Motor Manufacturing Inc. It began in 1984 at one of General Motors closed plants in Fremont California. This plant had historically been one of the worst plants in the country and was closed due to quality issues and hostile labor-management relations. At the time there were reports of GM employees drinking and gambling while working at the plant. There was also many reports of plant workers purposely tampering with cars on the line.The Fremont California plant had a notorious record for problem employees and bad quality of productWhen two competitive car manufactures join up to make cars together people begin to think that there is a snow storm in hell.What makes this joint venture so remarkable is the blending of two cultures, not just of countries but of management and labor
GM could make great trucks and muscle cars but the company had problems in manufacturing small fuel efficiency cars that were reliable.Toyota at this time was manufacturing its cars out of Japan. Toyota operations needed to expand to the united states or face import limits. They needed to open factories in the US but they did not know if their manufacturing process would work with the American workforce. What they saw was a combative relationship with management and workers. Toyota could not afford to open a factory in the US and have it failIt was not love that bought General Motors and Toyota together but fear of new legislation from the United States CongressThe legislation would have a impact on both companies operations
Managers and Workers ( active form warfare between the two)Keep the line moving no matter whatWorkers were rumored to be fired for stopping the lineLet the defects go through the production lineFix all defects after vehicle has cleared the lineProduction numbers are everything
If your boss asked you to clean your area file a grievanceFlood management with grievancesHave work rules for all activities in the factory, making it difficult to get anything doneShut down the line with wild cat strikesAt the Fremont plant with union benefits worker could earn more on strike then on the line.Us vs. them attitude, fight, fight, fightBusiness of the Union workers was fight Management not make cars
Roger Smith would not allow any of GM mangers to kill the deal and Eiji Toyoda would not allow any of his managers to do the same “We grow or die”
For the first time general motors and UAW union realize the interdependence between management and workers. Toyota bought trust into the plant where pride of workmanship was everyone’s responsibility
Teamwork management and workers worked togetherKaizen"improvement" or "change for the better", Kanbanlean production or just-in-time (JIT) productionAndonreferring to a system to notify management, maintenance, and other workers of a quality problem.
The laid off General Motor Workers flew to Japan to be shown the Toyota way manufacturing. Many of the workers had not been outside the US let alone CaliforniaThe workers Learned that quality was emphasized not production numbersIt was very motivating to do things right for the workersThe leaving of Japan was a tearful event for the US and Japanese workers
The quality of cars produced in the Nummi plant was equal to the quality of cars being manufactured in Japanese plants.
GM tried to instill what nummi had in its other factories only to learn that so much of what nummi had was not only the processes used in the factory itself but the support network that toyota had around the factory. GM had success in the plants it opened outside of the USGM made the nova and the pontiac vibe both were very poorly marketed because GM hire ups did not want to spend money on cars that did not make them much profit off of the sales
Toyota successfully opened its first US plant with a year of Nummi’s openingToyota saw what it took to motivate US workers and learned the processes it would have to use to keep materials flowing into the factory
