If the managerial bureaucrats in the other departments were to earn their keep, they needed a thorough understanding of the shop floor, or gemba (roughly “place of making value”). The so-called Gemba Walk required their routine presence at each step until they could comprehend the assembly of the whole. Otherwise they risked becoming muda—waste.
Unionization never happened.
Excellent article - and we can thank our Labor UNIONS for Boeing wanting nothing to do with that bunch.
Mad Magazine Proudly salutes American industry...June 1972, issue 151. a personal fav IN ‘72! Dei, equal opportunity or whatever the term du jour is didn’t just happen overnight. a good friend summed up perfectly what the major problem in these United States of America is in One Word over 40 years ago...Mediocrity. there are still some who choose to try to be their very best but mostly very few even try to be outstanding in their field. except maybe those who ARE standing in their field. like farmers. most just want to be adequate but either can’t or won’t push the proverbial envelope to be better. society today seems to wants everyone to strive for mediocrity so the slackers and less bright don’t have to work so hard. don’t believe me, just look around.
We will produce nothing.
Good article.
The outsourcing mentality has hurt the US auto companies as well.
In their case it is just unreliable crap that coasts to the side of the road.
Not crash and die.
Boeing became our only remaining airliner manufacturer as the rest fell by the wayside. It has had a magnificent run with world-class and safe aircraft. Its only major competition has been Airbus and they are heavily subsidized by its European consortium - which pushed Boeing to start acting like any other company run by MBAs instead of airplane people. Now people have been killed and there have been a bunch of near-misses.
Does Boeing resume what made it the best for decades, or do they keep hiring bean counters?
rather shocking to see the atlantic writing a story like this ...
Boeing and other pioneering industrialists focussed on quality and customer satisfaction, not profits
Many of today’s CEO’s only focus on next quarter’s profit, and how much bonus they’ll personally make ...
Boeing and other pioneering industrialists focussed on quality and customer satisfaction, not profits
Many of today’s CEO’s only focus on next quarter’s profit, and how much bonus they’ll personally make ...
Never trust someone who doesn’t get their hands dirty.
The *only* place executives should ever come from is the shop floor.
Never met an honest person who didn’t sweat and get dirty at work. Never will.