VitalAccurateThinking

Ford Layoff Plan

Ford is offering to buyout 75,000 union workers. This sentence tells it all:

The buybacks are aimed at helping Ford cut costs as its sales shrink under fierce competition from more fuel-efficient models from Asian automakers.

I used to blame the unions, but it is management who failed to use the best management tools to keep their plants competitive. The American worker in Toyota plants gets within 4% of Japanese workers. And yet, Ford, GM and Chrysler just don't get it. Toyota showed GM the way with its JV plant in California (NUMMI) and they still did not get it.
It is sad really. We have the knowledge, but refuse to admit that big bureaucracies just don't work. It is our own damn fault.

posted by Jim VAT @ 4:10 PM