At 08:17 PM 12/2/97 -0800, Peter Landy wrote:
>Keith Wheeler wrote:
>Keith, over the years I've owned both Japanese and American made cars.
>Currently my main transportation vehicle is Japanese made. I would have
>GLADLY given my money to any American car manufacturer if there was
>something worth spending on. No matter how hard I looked all signs
>pointed to "made in Japan". Although, Japanese, are starting to build
>them from American factories. Japanese quality used to be explained as
>something having to do with the way they run things on the island. But
>now they are "here" building with similar quality on American soil which
>makes me wonder. Why is it that Japenese can beat us to the game on
>their soil or ours?
Remember that in the early years of the japanese imports they were pretty
cruddy cars, underpowered, and prone to many problems. The japanese simply
accepted the criticism of their cars, went back to their drawing boards and
started again, and again, and again. Finally they got it right. That
process became known in the west as TQM (Total Quality Management). They
have the process down, they don;t shout their own staff down when
criticisms are amde by line workers. It works so well that Ford got the
Mazda people to come over and start redesiging the Ford work process.
Greg
"But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
Yeats
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