🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 30 Apr 1998 11:35:48 -0400, Privatepages Webmaster
<webmaster@privatepages.com> wrote:

>NightSerf wrote:
>> 
>> With all due respect, it is shear idiocy to blame the auto
>> workers for the problems with american cars.  The problems lay
>> with the design more than the manufacture and with the decisions
>> about what kind of cars to build--all clearly management
>> decisions.  How can you possibly blame the workers and their
>> unions?  what measure of control can you possibly imagine that
>> they had in the process?
>
>Agreed, up to a point.... it's not the *management* who's on the
>production line putting in components backwards, leaving off
>nuts, bolts, & screws, mis-wiring dashboards, etc... :-(

That point may be considerably beyond where Privatepages Webmaster
imagines it might be. Quality control is a function that must be
shared between management AND the labor force because ... nobody's
perfect. I would tend to agree with NightSerf in that American car
designers of the 70s into the 80s seemed to be out of touch with
consumers. However, the designers often shared responsibility with the
workers for some (but certainly not all) of those missing screws,
miswired dashboards, etc. Who is responsible for a missing bolt if
half the bolts holding a piece onto the vehicle have to be inserted
blindly during assembly? Could be the worker, but clearly the designer
shares some of that responsibility for such a scenario. I'm not
involved with the auto industry, so I can only hypothesize that many
American auto designers of that period paid far more attention to the
looks and the top speed of the vehicle than they did to whether or not
it could be assembled  reliably.

Other quality control factors include such items as how much time does
management, who sets the speed of the assembly line, allow for wiring
that dashboard? Perhaps it's sufficient to get it right every time,
and the worker is at fault, or perhaps there was a management decision
to speed up the line and accept the resulting defects. I dimly recall
an advertisement from years ago that indicated that there was a period
when a worker was powerless to do anything about an incomplete job
once his or her "time" for that job was up, but that in the new and
improved plant, any worker could stop the assembly line so that a
defect could be addressed. Another factor is that management also set
the number and intensity of quality control inspections designed to
catch and fix those bugs that still get through.

Please understand that this is meant neither as an apologia for the
UAW nor as an indictment of managers or designers. Rather, it simply
reflects that all three groups have a role to play in turning out
quality products. I think Ford learned (relearned?) this simple lesson
in the mid-80s, with the result that Taurii were the no. 1 sellers,
outselling even Accords, several years later.

George

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Dr. George O. Bizzigotti                 Telephone: (703) 610-2115
Mitretek Systems, Inc., MS Z310          Fax: (703) 610-1556
7525 Colshire Drive                      E-Mail: gbizzigo@mitretek.org
McLean, VA 22102-7400
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