Interesting Radio Story About GM

[Pat Germain]

On the weekends, I typically listen to Public Radio while working in the shop. Saturday, I heard an absolutely fascinating story about one particular GM plant in California. In the 1980s, GM actually teamed up with Toyota to produce a car at this plant.

The story includes the perspective of employees, union bosses and management. Overall, I think the producers did a good job of presenting a well-balanced story. I must admit even I was shocked at the deplorable conditions at the plant before the Toyota deal. Workers admitted they were drunk and high on the job and purposely screwed up cars on the assembly line. Management admitted they were overtly hostile toward workers.

If you're interested, you can find it here:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radi...sode/403/nummi

[Greg Peterson]

I always enjoy listening to This American Life. Even though this particular episode examines the issue from multiple angles, this program doesn't generally engage in journalism.

If you liked this episode tune in next weekend. Or download the current episode on ITunes every Sunday afternoon.

[Darius Ferlas]

I must admit even I was shocked at the deplorable conditions at the plant before the Toyota deal. Workers admitted they were drunk and high on the job and purposely screwed up cars on the assembly line. Management admitted they were overtly hostile toward workers.

I heard similar stories locally from some who worked in a GM plant nearby. One of the first things taught to newbies was how to sabotage the production line to put it out of business of a few hours for repairs. That gave the workers some time to goof around and forced the management to offer overtime (extra pay rate) so the plant could catch up with the schedule.

[Pat Germain]

I always enjoy listening to This American Life. Even though this particular episode examines the issue from multiple angles, this program doesn't generally engage in journalism.

Good point, Greg. I too enjoy the human stories TAL typicaly has. I especially liked the story about the guy who crashed driving drunk and had a chimpanzee with him.

[Greg Peterson]

Pat, episode 295, Act II, "SMALL FISH, SMALLER POND". One of my favorite stories.

Of course not all stories are happy or have happy endings. But they almost alway move you in unexpected ways.

[Charlie Reals]

Pat, I listened to the same radio program and chuckled all the way through it. I worked for GM in Fremont Ca. for a very short time in the late 70's. I could fill a book with what I learned then and what I have heard over the years. It was a common saying not to buy a car finished on Friday or monday. Assembly line is not my gig. I personaly saw sabotage on the line to shut it down. I have several friends who are affected by this shut down. Nummi has been ( according to friends ) a great company to work for.
Charlie

[Carlos Alden]

I always enjoy listening to This American Life. Even though this particular episode examines the issue from multiple angles, this program doesn't generally engage in journalism.

If you liked this episode tune in next weekend. Or download the current episode on ITunes every Sunday afternoon.

Slight hijack... If you like TAL you'll like The Moth, another free podcast. It's a series of real-life stories, told in front of audiences, some of which pop up in TAL if they fit with the show's theme.

Carlos

[Ben Hatcher]

When I was a production supervisor for a GM parts plant I experienced some amount of line sabotage as well. Of course, as management, I was upset that my line was down because it was my job to keep it up and make production. However, as a human and an engineer, I can’t say that I blame all of it on the workers.

Perhaps they were just soft, but I think some of the sabotage was because they actually needing a break. The conditions in the plant weren’t all that great. The roof leaked, there was no insulation, no A/C, and the work was hard. My people would be sore, tired, and sweat up a storm on the line in the summertime. Had I been able to give them more rest breaks especially during hot days I probably would have been able to reduce overall downtime. I wouldn’t want to work that hard in that kind of environment every day for years on end.

The parts design got better over the years. GM put in place design reviews, looked at best practices, etc. The problem that I saw was that the machines designed to build and assemble those parts weren’t given the same attention. Lines were still mostly designed by one person who’s main goal was to rework an existing line to build the new part. The result of this was that line breakdowns weren’t at all uncommon. It would be much harder for a saboteur to get away with shutting down the line if that’s the only way the line ever went down. I think that the lack of climate control played a role, too. In my assembly department a machine that was perfectly calibrated in the evening would end up needing recalibrated by noon because of the temperature swing. Of course, this often required 3 different trades and could take a long time to complete. Stuff like this becomes normal and people expect that out of their day. If the line were to run perfectly all day every day, then that would be normal and they’d be less likely to try and shut it down.

Of course, these are only the problems that I had with good employees who wanted to work. I had plenty who were just screw offs and didn’t want to work. They hated the job and could care less about the product. I hated them, the union hated them. The problem was that the union had to defend them just like any other member or face litigation. When I was a new supervisor, I actually got help from some of my employees to nail the bad apples. Even so, it wasn’t easy.

[Pat Germain]

Interesting perspective, Ben.

One of the issues mentioned in the TAL story was Toyota had a much different parts supply system. When a manager who had worked at the Fremont plant tried to bring the same practices to the Van Nuys plant, this was a major obstacle. He would get parts that simply didn't fit. When he called the supplier, their reaction was, "Everyone else is dealing with it. What makes you so special?". Whereas, in the Toyota system, the supplier would work very hard to fix the problem; and it was OK to shut down the line until the problem was fixed.

At the end of the story, it was also mentioned that Toyota has suffered recent problems very similar to GM's problems back in the 80s. Toyota executives were focusing so hard on growing their business, they lost sight of their quality controls. (As has been mentioned here in other forums.)

As Alton Brown likes to say, "There's a lesson here...".

[Chuck Wintle]

very interesting report on GM. Since they are part of the government it was ironic that Toyota was put through the wringer earlier this year. I wonder if that was a coincidence?

[Paul Ryan]

very interesting report on GM. Since they are part of the government it was ironic that Toyota was put through the wringer earlier this year. I wonder if that was a coincidence?

Toyota's current problems are self induced for many many reasons.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Would you make the same statment about GM's past and present problems Paul?

I think it could be the nature of large corporations and the labor supporting them. Each group gets greedy worrying primarily about their own selfish desires and both forget about 2 primary factors.

1) The customers 2) the product.

I am firmly convinced if a company will take care to produce a good product at a reasonable price and be responsive to the needs of the customer and the company's employees......always keeping in mind what is "reasonable"....business will prosper.

I don't believe the old adage that the customer is always right. That is ridiculous. There are a number people out there who will always want something to complain about. If you gave them a $1,000,000 they would complain because they had to pay taxes on it. In some case with these kinds of customers you are better off losing their business as you will never satisfy them and the amount of negative advertising you get as a result will far outweigh the few dollars you might make from the sale.

But....while the customer isn't always right...they are always the customer and I think a company has to go out of their way to meet "reasonable" expectations to satisfy the customer.

Part of the problem is the culture of corporate management and manner in which the board of directors allow them to operate. Even that relationship is incestuous. The board hires and/or promotes the CEO.....and the CEO and management recommend who gets elected to the board. In today's world management doesn't necessarily answer to the shareholders...they answer to the price of the stock on Wallstreet. Too many decisions made are short term solutions to problems without any analysis of possible long term effects. Too many corporate managers are ladder climbers....decisions are made....the individuals know well it was a short term solution but they don't care as they will be up the ladder, sideways or have moved onto another corporation before the decision is found to be faulty and they can be held responsible for that decision. It's the corporate culture of dodging responsibilty or palming the responsibility off on someone else.

Then there is the corporate culture of self analysis and self aggrandizement where you write your own annual review and oh....BTW.. be sure to puff up your accomplishments.....beating your chest....shouting "How great I am".

Beyond this, engineers are not usually known for running a profitable company. Yet, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if your main deciding factor in most decisions is maximizing profit to the point of being greedy....even in the design process......you could end up with a poor design that is profitable until it catches up to you.

There has to be some reasonable expectations on the part of management, engineering and manufacturing....and yes.....labor..too!

Everybody has to keep in mind what is reasonable.

BTW.....I don't watch the program mentioned nor do I listen to NPR, FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN or any of the other news channels. In general there is little or no unbiased reporting today.
Almost all of it has a bias. It burns me up to think that any of these biased groups think that they have to produce a commentary so they can "SPLAIN" what is going on to me. Just give me the facts. I can bias it or mistaken it for myself.......Thank you!

[Chuck Wintle]

Toyota's current problems are self induced for many many reasons.

and with the help agenda driven media blown up out of proportion but GM, now a branch of the US gov't, may just enjoy some "protection" from this kind of bad press since both have a vested interest in selling cars.

[Pat Germain]

BTW.....I don't watch the program mentioned nor do I listen to NPR, FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN or any of the other news channels. In general there is little or no unbiased reporting today.
Almost all of it has a bias. It burns me up to think that any of these biased groups think that they have to produce a commentary so they can "SPLAIN" what is going on to me. Just give me the facts. I can bias it or mistaken it for myself.......Thank you!

This program is a radio program, Ken. I would encourage you to check it out. I won't say it has absolutely no bias whatsoever. But I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. The program just presents the story as told by people involved. The narrator adds only a few details here and there. I think you'd find it interesting and refreshingly factual.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Pat,

I have listened to the program once or twice....I was channel surfing while drivng and came across it.

I believe there is a version of it on Public Television too.

I have yet to hear little on NPR or Public TV that is unbiased with the exception of NYW, TOH etc. A lot of the broadcast material is not only biased but in accurate at best. When something is incomplete...it's inaccurate. When you report only one side of a story....or a biased commmentary without equal time for the other argument, the article is inaccurate.

I am tired of an elitist, self-agrandizing media deciding what is the correct perspective on a subject or how something should be reported to me. Give me the cold, hard facts. I can make up my own mind.