Toyota vs. Ford

[Sapiens]

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. . . . and Ford is seen to be the BRIGHTEST of the local bunch.. . . . .

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford Motors) 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 superintendents 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 all 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:

TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses... And now wants the Government to 'bail them out'.

IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY

......

[GRG55]

Re: Toyota vs. Ford

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......

Toyota's management isn't infallable either [nor is Honda's or Nissan's, all of whom pursued the same "let's-compete-with-the-Yankees-and-take-full-size-pickup-market-share" strategy at exactly the same, wrong, time] ;)

I find it quite amusing that those who are falling all over themselves to explain the demise of GM, Ford and Chrysler delight so much in pointing to their full-size pick-ups and SUVs as the reason for their downfall, while giving the much vaunted Japanese a free pass for being no smarter than to try to play in that same sandbox. What really separates the Big 3 American firms from their Japanese counterparts is the level of financial reindeer games they chose to play. When your finance arms become such integral parts of the imploding FIRE economy, it wouldn't matter what product mix they had today. Look at GE as an analogue. Unlike, GM, nobody can criticise GE's world beating product lines, yet it too is being dragged into the abyss by its decades of financial shenanigans.

...Toyota opened the new pickup truck plant in San Antonio in the fourth quarter of 2006 in a bid to end General Motors, Ford and Chrysler LLC customer dominance of the pickup market.

Pickup trucks, which are widely used by construction workers, farmers, ranchers and utility workers, account for nearly 15 percent of all vehicles sold in the United States.

Toyota, however, fell short of its bid to sell 200,000 new Tundra in 2007. Meanwhile, incentives have been creeping up according to analysts at Edmunds.com...

Wed Sep 3, 2008 4:13pm EDT
DETROIT (Reuters) - ...Toyota had said in July that it would suspend production of its redesigned Tundra pickup truck for three months beginning in early August.

The Tundra represents Toyota's attempt to break into the market for full-size pickup trucks, still dominated by Detroit automakers.

The Japanese automaker had called plans for its expanded production of the Tundra in the United States its most important vehicle launch ever.

But Toyota, like its American rivals led by General Motors Corp, overestimated demand for the heavy work trucks whose popularity had soared over the past decade when gas was cheaper and the U.S. housing market was strong.

Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:15am EST
TOKYO (Reuters) - ...Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, had already canceled all U.S. production of slow-selling light trucks for three months this summer. A spokeswoman said production would be reduced further in 2009 at three U.S. assembly plants...

[zoog]

Re: Toyota vs. Ford

...I find it quite amusing that those who are falling all over themselves to explain the demise of GM, Ford and Chrysler delight so much in pointing to their full-size pick-ups and SUVs as the reason for their downfall, while giving the much vaunted Japanese a free pass for being no smarter than to try to play in that same sandbox. What really separates the Big 3 American firms from their Japanese counterparts is the level of financial reindeer games they chose to play....

Kinda reminds me of the "decoupling" discussions we had here months ago (a year ago?) about whether the rest of the world would go down with the US, and if so would they drop less, same, more, etc. Toyota is struggling with sales as much as the US automakers:

Toyota, the second-biggest car seller in the U.S. behind GM, outsold Ford during November, but not by much. The company said its U.S. November sales fell 33.9% to 130,307 vehicles from 197,189 a year ago.

Passenger car sales dropped 32.3% to 76,954 units from 113,641 last year, and Toyota light truck sales fell 36.1% to 53,353 units from 83,548 last year.

Sales of the Prius, Toyota's one-time hot-selling hybrid, dropped 48.3% to 8,660 vehicles from 16,737 last year as gas prices fell hard from record highs.

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