Toyota vs Ford


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 development 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 outsourced to India.

Sadly, The End.



Here's something else to think about. Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all it's factories out of the U S, claiming they can't make money paying American wages.

Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the U S. The last quarter's result: 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 so true it might be funny.

It takes a lot more management to try to get union workforce to do anything...but the union workforce still won't get anything meaningfull done because they know they don't have to.

Toyota hasnt had any problem with their union workers affecting their profits.

Only goes to show the problem is corporate greed.

a union can't just come in and force a company to do what it wants. the company has to empower them. the union can't just sign a contract and tell them that's how it is.

the big 3 have empowered the UAW, it's their fault too.

of course, the japanese companies have the edge of not having a philosophy of "screw the worker in the name of profits" like american corporations do. their culture preaches loyalty to the company, and in turn the company will take care of you. no real need for a union there...of course, we do things differently here. the company looks out for itself, and not its workers, you have to take whatever you can get.

Toyota doesn't have any union workers!!!! That's why they and every other foreign auto maker is setting up shop in the south. It is also why Boeing will probably never build another airplane in Washington.

I for one fully support Corporate greed every other week when I get my paycheck!!!!! Do you buy high and sell low because you are not greedy????

And please explian your bumper sticker "the problem is corporate greed." Are you saying Joe and Todd are greedy for starting Rvrfshr? Are they greedy when they sell their 1 million'th unit? Are they greedy when they earn 1 million in gross profit? Are they greedy when they make their first 1 million in profit? Or are the greedy when they put Yakima Bait out of business or is it when they put Shimano out of business? At just what point are they "Corporate Greed" and the Gov should regulate them out of business just like they have the US auto companies. At just what point do they lose your support as they've become greedy sons a bitches.

I see that the Big 3 drove hybrids to DC today which just so happens to be cars that no one wants to buy, are sold below profit, will never re-coup thier R&D and are only being built because of laws written in Congress! Trust me that if Ford could close down everything but their trucks they would since that is the only product they build for a profit or that any of us care to own!

And as for the CEO's. I worked for Alan Mullaly and he was the best manager I ever worked for. 700+ 777's out the door with a new one rolling out every 3 days and after 12 or so years only one hull loss and zero in flight deaths! So the guy gets a HUGE pay reaise to leave and run Ford. For the crap he has to put up with he derserves every penny. Especially when he has to go beg for a loan from the same asswipes who are doing their very best to run them out of business!

Funny how it's evil Corporate Greed right up until the time they are going to go out of business and then all of a sudden it becomes a National emergency! Thank God for beautiful politicians to save us from this evil!

Ford started assembly line production. Toyoda studied Ford and improved production by going to what is now called lean manufacturing. Ford has increased the quality of their products recently. It will be interesting to see how all this pans out in the next couple of years.

In 2003 Ford replaced their excellent Powerstroke diesel engine with a new design p.o.s., in 2008 they unveiled it's replacement...another p.o.s. I have always been a Ford truck guy, but I wish I had never seen my 2005 Powerstroke and will never buy another new Ford. A new Toyota truck would not scare me a bit...........and it meets the same govt rules as Ford is held to.

I can't wait until someone accuses me of corporate greed, I'm sure my employees can't wait either.

It is time to bust up the UAW. They provide great when you are part of them, but they are a huge part of the demise of those outfits. Have a look at this graph.



I love my ford truck (1994, F150), but I drive a Corolla everyday, and my wife drives a Sequoia.

Toyota has sold over a million Prius hybrids this year to those no ones.

RR, that graph is not accurate. That figure is not compensation, but rather total average hourly labor cost. That includes all pensions to retirees, health benefits, hourly compensation, etc. to include even the toilet paper placed in the factory restrooms. All of that adds up to $73 an hour to build a car. The median hourly compensation for a line supervisor is about $32/hour. Still sounds pretty middle class to me.

Following that, GM's CEO makes about $4,800/hour just in compensation. Add in the cost of his jet, corporate parties, limo, etc., and the labor costs skyrocket.

One of the biggest reasons Toyota's labor costs aren't as high now is because they are relatively new here in the U.S. so they don't have the pension costs.

That's because the only true Hybrids are the Toyota products and the Honda civic.

Toyota started the Prius technology in 1995 in Japan, 2000-2001 First Prius generation in the U.S...2004 Second generation Prius produced until present. Toyota is going on 15 years via Hybrid.

It's not so much the product that the big 3 put out, I love the Heavy Duty trucks etc...But the way they ran their business put them into the ground. Huge rebates, ""employee pricing programs destroyed resale value and customer confidence.

They need to file BK and restructure..

I'm sure the Chevy Volt will rescue GM when it finally hits the market in 2010

Late to the show again.

Ha, that's funny.....

Keith

Wow, a two second google search reveals that Toyota has sold 151,025 Prius's thru Nov '08. Year to date for all hybrids=268,042. Hmm......I guess these CEO's had plenty just laying around to choose from for the drive to DC!

http://www.electricdrive.org/index.php?tg=articles&topics=7

Does it seem at all condecending to you....the fellas driving the little fak-a-loo cars to da big meeting ?

Take a closer look. Last time I looked, both Toyota and Ford sell their vehicles worldwide. That means the no ones of the world purchase over a million of them in just the first four months of the 2008.

http://www.toyota.com/about/news/product/2008/05/15-1-prius.html