toyota ua [nac]

[Fred Munro]

WWII destroyed the manufacturing capacity of much of the industrialized
world. Only North America was left untouched, and after WWII if you wanted
manufactured goods you had to come to NA to get them. Any decision a NA
manager made was a good decision and the profits rolled in. Why change when
the bottom line showed the existing system was working so well? Meanwhile,
in the rest of the world the destroyed manufacturing plants were being
replaced with the most modern technology and newest manufacturing systems
while NA motored on with the pre-war technology and systems. Fast-forward to
today; manufacturing has largely left NA for cheaper more efficient plants
with lower labour costs (lower not just because the workers have lower
wages, but also because fewer are required in automated plants). The new
manufacturing systems reduce variability and produce more consistent quality
products; whether you choose to produce high or low quality, it will be
consistent. NA will have some manufacturing base, but it won't be at the
level of the post-WWII glory days any time soon. We are just starting to
adopt some of the advanced quality control techniques that focus on
variability reduction. If our "Captains of Industry" can get over their
30-day bottom line fixation NA could rebuild manufacturing with the latest
technology and systems - probably take 20 years or so.
VW-Audi also benefited from this - they got new manufacturing plants post
WWII; new equipment, new plant layouts, new control systems.

Fred

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of hayes myers
Sent: February 26, 2010 6:02 PM
To: Grant Lenahan; quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Re: toyota ua [nac]

Just to further muddy the waters, the Toyota mindset originated post WWII
thanks to the American government.... too bad American companies waited
until early 90's to BEGIN to adopt the Toyota mindset... you know..the one
that was handily dropped into their laps by the finest manufacturing
theorists of their time. (post war manufacturing in America was pretty much
the peak..and all that info was gifted after the bomb drop.)  American
companies laughed at Lean, JIT etc and provided us with beautiful Caprice
wagons with 130hp V8 engines.  Audi's engineering prowess is certainly
post-war born as well.  North American companies? For some reason the war
effort gains were thrown away.  I'm sure many of us work in environs that
went through 5s / Lean ... using the Toyota model... trying to do it now
while having fallen behind so far... oh well. The Chinese and company have
the manufacturing now (or any that makes any real impact). So its a moot
point.  I'll buy a toyota anyday..now they are cheaper which is cool...and
they will start the days my good ol 200 decides not to.  As for RS6 and
Allroads..i have no idea..maybe they are much more reliable then my
venerable 200... but judging by my 05 A4 ...I'd say probably not up to
Toyota snuff for quality.

Cheers :)
Hayes

O

> On Feb 26, 2010, at 2:39 PM, Dave wrote:
>
> toyota have deficient software controls in their cars.  this has been a
> conscious development decision, and is therefore symptomatic of a mindset.
>
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