A Japanese company and an American company decided to have a canoe ra

[marcinmoka]

I first read this about 10 years ago. Since, it only became more true :-(

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford Motor Co.) 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 7 people steering and 2 people 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, 2 area steering directors, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people 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 rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid-off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.

The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles), so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold, and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

Sadly, the End.

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

TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US . The last quarter's results:

Ford folks are still scratching their heads and collecting bonuses.

[kimmy]

Ford is, if I recall, the only one of the US auto makers that still has a paddle left on their voyage down the proverbial creek.

I am having a hard time reconciling what I hear on the news with what I see on the streets. Granted, this is not exactly a typical Canadian market, let alone representative of the North American auto market as a whole, but I see a huge number of the new Malibus on the road, an enormous number of Impalas and Chargers, and huge numbers of "Big 3" pickup trucks built in the past year or so.

I have a hard time believing they're losing so much money, when each day I see so many of their newest vehicles on the road.

-k

[bush_cheney2004]

....I have a hard time believing they're losing so much money, when each day I see so many of their newest vehicles on the road.

They are bleeding on the pension and benefits side......no wonder so many people took the voluntary layoffs.

[Wilber]

I've worked for a couple of Japanese companies and frankly I didn't consider them all that efficient in comparison to other companies I have worked for. What they have excelled at however is attention to detail which makes their products worth a premium over those who have been less attentive regardless of price. North American car makers are paying the price for that lack of attentiveness even if they are no longer as guilty as they used to be. Reputation can count more than reality. Hundai is a good example. Their cars get top marks for quality and reliability but their resale values still suffer because of the dismal reputation of the original Pony.

[bill_barilko]

Whoever wrote that knows little about Canoeing-where one paddles not rows but even less about manufacturing.

I rent cars from Enterpise all the time and never know what I'll get/don't really care.

I've seen US made cars that were excellent and Japanese cars that were not.