[Dave Z]

Did Warren get a complete refit before starting production?

PS> Hi, Mr. Source!

 

[Dave Z]

Wasn’t trying to be funny - dead serious. Workers that are aware that they are building a defective product should report the problem to their supervisor and/or quality control employees.

I wouldn't assume they did not do so. In other words, perhaps they already reported it.

 

[Dave Z]

You can report it all you want but if someone that makes more money than you says it’s fine then they just keep going down the line.

Right. And that's why you never blame the guy on the line.

Even if the guy on the line is the one at fault, there are supposed to be systems to catch and fix that, including, I might add, firing the guy who's screwing up. Any supervisor or manager who can't do that is the one at fault, because that's their job. I'm not saying incompetent bums are blameless, but I am saying most of the guys on the line will do what the managers tell them to do - both in words and in actions. If the manager says "we care about quality" and you stop the line because you're hanging doors incorrectly because the machinery is off or you just don't have enough time, and the manager starts cussin’ you out, well, the manager's actions say "I don't give a crap about quality, just keep the line moving." That's the norm.

There's a reason why the same people - the same union people - made up GM's worst factory and one of Toyota's best.

 

[Dave Z]

I always had a feeling that you were pro-union and anti-management.

Only those who have no reason rely on labels.

I'm in the trade - I'm an organizational psychologist. You may recall this guy named “Deming” who expounded all this back in the 1940s. You can't observe organizations for any length of time and NOT come to these conclusions. I've seen the same people go into different companies and act totally differently in each one, depending on the local culture. Not to mention NUMMI when they switched from GM management to Toyota leadership.

I haven't been in a union since I stopped selling shoes.

 

[Dave Z]

I have felt for some time that many unionized workforce’s in the USA develop an “us against them” mentality, which is fostered by their leadership. Quality and professional work ends up taking a backseat to the “us” mentality.

Except no, research shows that's generally not the case except when management spurs it on. Why did you think unions were created in the first place? Because managers were too nice?

 

[Dave Z]

The company made a big marketing splash about its testing to improve quality (which was nothing magical as most of the industry does the same already).

As they did when Fiat came in and introduced its various tools for checking the alignment of each car's body panels.

None of this works if plant management tells people they have ten minutes per car and if it doesn't work, ship it and the dealer will do it.

That may work at Mercedes but Jeep dealers generally don't do any real prep. They only charge for it.

 

[Dave Z]

It has been my experience in life that marginal employees that do shoddy work often blame others, and do not take responsibility and have pride for their own work.

I have never worked in any type of assembly plant (auto or otherwise)

Seriously? You're putting these back to back, without any separation so we can forget the first one?

There is that ideal world, and then there is reality. And the reality is that in many places, the workers who are told they are 'empowered' to shut down the line are the first to be eliminated; and the line never really gets shut down.

That is the American auto industry reality almost 100% of the time.
That is why Toyota had much higher quality in their unionized Canadian and (former) American plants than GM did, even when they used the exact same workers.

 

[Dave Z]

Actually, what I've seen in my 37 years at the various iterations of Chrysler, is that the UAW guys DO care and it's short sighted management that doesn't.

There were studies done from the 1960s onwards saying that the people who build cars tend to care more about quality than the plant managers.

Volvo, when they let workers dictate more back in the 1970s, found that productivity stayed the same but quality shot up. Volvo went from a car with a dismal rep to one which was seen as very reliable and solid thanks to Pehr Gyllenhammar.

The next CEO after him decided Mitsubishi was the ideal to be worshipped, and now Volvo belongs to Geely.

Personally, having worked in many companies and having consulted in many more, I have found that the organizational culture is extremely powerful in changing the priorities of each person in the company.

 

[Dave Z]

I could be wrong but I recall seeing a video from the original Chrysler or maybe Diamler Chrysler saying and showing how they stopped the line when a worker sees an issue with the vehicle.

Chrysler around 1997-99. Yes, they did implement that, briefly, but Daimler killed it.

 

[Dave Z]

Well they had only one shot to launch this thing right—you can flush the toilet now, this thing is done

Hadn't we already decided it was a fake?

 

[Dave Z]

I do know enough people who bought Mercedes and BMW and Audi cars to know they are not exactly perfect... but Jeep has to do better because it doesn't have decades of cumulative snottery.

 

[Dave Z]

I would also say that whatever person or persons that are inspecting these on the line must need new glasses.

Or new supervisors, because they might be flagging cars only to have others pass them through.

 

[Dave Z]

Yes it's been a couple years. I don't think they were fired. I imagine most people do a lot of things they shouldn't do on break. What's dumb is to do it out in public.

They were fired and the union issued a statement saying "yes, they were fired."

 

[Dave Z]

I saw the local dealer's Wagoneer. Hatch looked fine until I looked very close. It was nothing like the ones pictured before, but it was... odd. Maybe if I stared that hard at a Lexus hatch it would look the same, but it seemed like it was a bit too far in here, a bit not far enough in there... the chrome seemed to stick out slightly... but you know how people are: if we expect to see something, we are pretty good at seeing it.

 

[Dave Z]

I wouldn't want to drop $80,000 and need a loaner in the first 60,000 miles.

That really limits your choice of cars to... none.

 

[Dave Z]

Yes, the thing is (despite people who think somehow they could be perfect developers/testers) things are going to go wrong. It's how you treat people when things go wrong that will influence people's perception of your brand. When service writers are taught to respond "they all do that" or "it's just the way a Jeep is" you're not going to impress them.

TARP research...

 

[Dave Z]

The more expensive a car, the more likely it is they will give you a loaner even for minor repairs if they have to send out for parts.

 

[Dave Z]

I don't know that cars have ever, as a class, been more reliable. The “simple” cars of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s were nowhere near as reliable as today's cars.

Since around 1990, certain luxury cars did provide fewer breakdowns, mostly Lexus.

 

[Dave Z]

The problem with personal experience is the influence of random chance...