A Modern Parable-FWD

A MODERN PARABLE . .


A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American
company (Ford) 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 8
people steering and 1 person 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, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1
assistant superintendent steering manager.

"They also implemented a new performance
system that would give the 1 person 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 rower . There was discussion of getting
new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation
days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the
rower for poor performance, halted developmen t of a new
canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital
investments for new equipment. The money saved was
distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses 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 theUS. 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.

IF THIS WEREN'T TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY. ;


Edited by oldsoldier - 05 December 2008 at 2:00pm

Ford allowed Unions.

Hard to make a profit when the Union wages are so high.

Sad truth.

FWD:FWD:FWD

I see where it was trying to go...but it tried too hard and missed its mark

Regardless of format and structure, I think the message is clear and quite funny. It's why I don't buy Fords, mostly because they are horribly put together. I don't care what consumer reports has to say about them, they will never reach the same level of quality as Toyota/Lexus/Scion

The reason toyota can afford to make money on cars in north america is simple they are not union while ford is.   Ford CANT just say nope we aint gona be union any more as that is against the law.  So Ford is slowly moving all its factories out of north america to avoid the union.

Toyota has avoided the union simply by paying almost as much as ford with similare benifits as the union guys but with toyota you aint gotta pay union dues. 

Sadly the Auto Workers Union is the sole reason for the slow demise of the big three.  I myself think unions are a BAD idea and are no longer needed.  Back in my gradfathers time they provided a employees rights but now we have laws and such to prevent these problems now so unions really are usless money whores.

Unions had a purpose in the 20's thru 40's in order to finally secure workers rights and benifits from the corperations. Today unions are basically borderline criminal organizations collecting dues from the worker and holding hostage the corperations. Anyone here actually believe that the Teamsters have no ties to a certian criminal organization?
Having delievered parts to GM and FORD in Detroit and Subaru in Indiana there is a very distinct difference in worker attitude. From the attitude of the recieving dock workers, and then watching the assembly line at all three, Subaru workers had a tad bit more concern on product quality, and speed.
I went to Freightliner once to possibly buy a truck, I looked at a FLD XL Classic, having driven one for Werner and on my walkaround with the salesman I noticed that a frame cross member was missing on the one I was looking at. I looked at the same model sitting next to the one I was looking at and there was a frame member there, as well as others. The sticker on the door had a Portland OR assembly code and a UAW sticker. So all through this assembly process no-one noticed that the frame member was missing? Thats why at the time I bought a Volvo 770,with a Canadian made CAT engine.
My model on a corperation finally figuring out it had a problem is when the riders and a few backers bought back Harley-Davidson from AMF, and the success rate of the product, profit and company after that is lengendary.

ThatGuitarGuy wrote: Ford allowed Unions. Hard to make a profit when the Union wages are so high. Sad truth.

ya but the union is what saved Ford...thats why henry ford gave into the union.

either way, ill stay a Ford guy until the end...at least their not doing as bad as GM.

ThatGuitarGuy wrote: Ford allowed Unions.Hard to make a profit when the Union wages are so high.Sad truth.

Toyota plant near my house is unionized.