Nummi And Gm Essay Example

prove management’s “intrinsic vision”, however, by focusing on achieving superior quality and productivity than GM; NUMMI succeed to have a good mix between “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” visions. At NUMMI people were encouraged to test and challenge existing processes, freely expose their thinking, propose a new solution or request new tools that cold improve the production process. New ideas were not just documented and rewarded, but new positive ideas were immediately implemented in the production process.

Toyota created a culture of constant follow-up and attention on details, but this culture was just part of an end-to-end Production System, which combined and integrated several systems such as the transportation system, assembly system, “just-in-time” system and worker responsibility and accountability system.

It is widely acknowledged that GM failed to learn from the NUMMI experience. If you were a GM corporate VP, what recommendations would you make to implement the lessons from NUMMI in order to make GM more competitive?

In my opinion, one of the main reasons for GM failure was the unwillingness to acknowledge the “cognitive structures” existing in GM for decades. These cognitive structures prioritized technology over the people and ignored the importance of mutual trust between workers and Management.

As a GM corporate VP, my first recommendation will imply removal of most GM plants management teams and institute new management teams composed of people involved and convinced by NUMMI’s effective system and success. These changes could convince unions and workers that GM management finally acknowledge the past mistakes by abandoning old cognitive structures and is finally ready to build a new organization culture based on trust, accountability, respect and teamwork.