

G.M. and Ford, Channeling Toyota's Focus on Quality - MikeCapone
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:http://www.nytimes.com/+G.M.+and+Ford,+Channeling+Toyotas+Focus+on+Quality&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

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Tangurena
> _Cost was the No. 1 concern - generally, if you were the low bidder, you won
> - and when mistakes were made the supplier was fired_

This was a legacy of Lopez when he was the chief buyer at GM and later VW.
Most companies followed that style of squeezing your supplier's nuts as tight
as possible (then clamping a visegrip onto them).

The NUMMI venture with Toyota had potential, but I think GM flubbed it
continuously as the managers didn't really want to change GM's culture as much
as needed to be done in order to save the company.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI>

Direct link to the story:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/business/07quality.html?pa...](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/business/07quality.html?pagewanted=all)

Disclaimer: I used to be an engineer at GM.

