Toyota VS Ford Options

[tomazws]

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) 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 8 people steering and 1 person 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, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person 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 rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses 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 trying to move all of 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 for 2007:

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

Senior managers at Ford are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.

This post has been edited by tomazws: Nov 13, 2008 - 12:51 PM

[RickJamesBish]

But just because a car is built in a certain country doesn't make it a car of that nationality. A car's nationality comes from the brand's source nationality...I.E. Audi was started in Germany by Germans, Lotus in England by English, etc. etc.

Just because the Jetta is manufactured mostly in Mexico doesn't make it Mexican.

[Taskbot]

But just because a car is built in a certain country doesn't make it a car of that nationality. A car's nationality comes from the brand's source nationality...I.E. Audi was started in Germany by Germans, Lotus in England by English, etc. etc.

Just because the Jetta is manufactured mostly in Mexico doesn't make it Mexican.

Hahaha I don't think thats the case either.

The 'new' GTO, G8 and G8 Sport truck are Austraillian (sourced from Holden)... are they American because they display the Pontiac emblem, or Australian because they were manufactured and designed by Holden(Vauxhall has stakes on the 'GTO' aswell)

Same with the Saturn Astra (Opel/Vauxhaul) and the Speedster (GM engine, Lotus Engineering)

What would be said about the Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe? Is it Japanese or American? Because its built in California along with the Pontiac Vibe, is the Toyota Matrix an American car? The Vibe has a Toyota engine in it, does that make it a Japanese car?

What I mean to say is that with badge engineering and manufacturing being outsourced, and the fact that we're dealing with multi-national corporations that most cars can't be decided by country, especially not the big 3. Ford is sourcing a fair amount of engineering from their agreement with Volvo and Mazda, Chrysler had that great agreement with Daimler-Mercedes that actually got them back on their feet for a little while, and GM is a major multi-national that has so many agreements with different manufactures and so many subsidiaries that it would be impossible to classify it.

They may have been started by Americans in America but the big 3 have branched into huge multi-national corporations, ending the age of Detroit and begining the age of the "world car"