A Modern Parable
Posted by: meikah | 27 January 2009 | 10:00 pm
I got this from the email, and I thought of sharing it here. The story has a ring of truth. What do you think?
A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the ‘Rowing Team Quality First Program,’ with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to ‘equal the competition’ and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale-boosting programs and teamwork posters.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.
The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles), so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year’s racing team was out-sourced to India.
Sadly, the End.
Here’s something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US , claiming they can’t make money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US . The last quarter’s results:
TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses…
IF THIS WEREN’T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY
Filed under: Ford Motor Co., Manufacturing, Processes, Quality, Toyota
1 Comment |
Ford Continues with Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 12 August 2008 | 10:34 pm
Despite economic crisis and dwindling sales, Ford Motor Co.‘s VP for Global Quality, Bennie Fowler says, “we’re playing to win!”
How? By increasing their efforts on quality improvements.
Fowler said Ford was aiming for an average of 800 errors per 1,000 vehicles among its small cars launched in Europe, a rate better than Toyota’s in that class and 500 less than the industry average.
Fowler said each U.S. Ford plant will send 5 to 10 hourly workers to Wayne State University this fall to train for Six Sigma black belt certification.
In another story on Motor Trends, Ford plans to be global quality leader by 2010.
… to boost accountability, the automaker is implementing an intricate Early Claims Binning system that will help track quality issues straight to the source. Warranty claims are quickly sent to a car’s original assembly plant, where the problem is analyzed to see whether its cause is a manufacturing flaw or a problem with the overall design.
In addition Fowler says Dearborn is training an “army of problem solvers” throughout the company, using the Six Sigma management strategy originally pioneered by Motorola to improve quality. The automaker currently has 60,000 Six Sigma “green belts,” more than 7000 “black belts,” and 400 “master black belts working around the world,” and will also offer a course this fall through Wayne State University to help UAW workers get certified for Six Sigma black belt status.
If you see a company embarking on efforts like these, it’s hard not to take notice and give support. Way to go, Ford!
