Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
When it was successful in the short run, GM discontinued its work on its prototype of a battery-powered car, the EV1 that ran 100 miles on a single charge. Toyota, in contrast, continued to work on its hybrid line, and the resulting Prius shows the fruitfulness of the Toyota approach (Lifton 2008). Discontinuing research on battery-powered technology was not simply bad business sense on GM's part, but also showed how one part of the company (management) could thwart the efforts of another part of the company (R&D). The focus of systems theory is synergy rather than such discordant behavior. Systems theory stresses that "the system's overall behavior depends on its entire structure (not the sum of its various parts)" (McNamara 1997). It also stresses the need to take input from forces outside the system, including the global pressures to minimize the effects of climate change.
Despite its sale of its unprofitable brands and development of the Chevy Volt, industry analysts still say that GM's thinking remains limited and mired in the past: "Ever notice how an organization seems to experience the same kinds of problems over and over again? The problems seem to cycle through the organization. Over time, members of the organization come to recognize the pattern of events in the cycle, rather than the cycle itself" (McNamara 1997). Even after returning to its R&D on electric and hybrid models, GM has failed to maximize the efficiency of its supply chain "home town advantage" despite "having the very first nickel metal hydride battery manufacturing facility," Ovonic Materials, in its backyard...
Instead, GM, in 2005, announced it would use a lithium-ion battery in the Chevrolet Volt rather than a nickel metal hydride battery. "In 2008, in the 9th year in which the nickel metal hydride using Toyota Prius is being manufactured, now at the rate of 1000 cars per day, there is still no Chevrolet Volt" (Lifton 2009).
Toyota has consolidated control over its battery supply chain. It recently bought "a Japanese trading company specializing in sourcing the rare earth metals critical for the manufacturing of the nickel metal hydride battery" (Lifton 2009). Toyota manufactures all of its own nickel metal hydride batteries and now has a regular source of the material for its energy-efficient vehicles. Unless GM can find similar ways to streamline its supply chain and find new ways to answer the cries for stricter emissions standards in the industrialized world, even its new inroads in China and niche spheres of the global economy will not sustain the company in the future. GM has yet to form a cohesive strategy and business mission for the 21st century.
References
Bunkley, Nick & Bill Vlasic. (2009, October 1). G.M. To close Saturn after deal fails. The New
York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/business/01auto.html
GM plans to cut 10,000 Opel jobs. (2009, 5 November). BBC. Retrieved November 27, 2009 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8343517.stm
Lifton, Jack. (2008, December 10). Toyota's business model is the reason that Detroit should not be bailed out. Gershon Lehman Group. Retrieved November 27, 2009 at http://www.glgroup.com/News/Toyotas-Business-Model-is-The-Reason-That-Detroit-Should-Not-be-Bailed-Out-29852.html
McNamara, Carter. (1997). Systems theory. Management Help. Retrieved November 27, 2009 at http://www.managementhelp.org/org_thry/org_sytm.htm
The other important function of the plan was to shift responsibility for the pension obligations from the company to the United Auto Workers. While smaller creditors and contractual partners need not be satisfied with the reorganization, it is difficult to believe that the reorganization could have been done with the cooperation of the UAW. It would not have been politically expedient for the federal government to become involved and without
" (Tripathi, Ansolabehere, and Snyder, 2002) Additionally, groups that place emphasis on lobbying tend to may more attention to the position of power that members hold inside Congress and pay less attention to the electoral circumstances of member than do other groups and as well groups that place emphasis on lobbying "also appear to be more bipartisan and less ideological than other groups, giving more equally to both parties and more
The big three will likely weather the tsunami, as completely different entities than they have been in the past, possibly even more strikingly different than they were before and after the Japanese management style implementation in the 1980s. With these and other changes likely in the industry in the near future The industry will once again prove flexible and innovative in changing with the times. Works Cited Brown, Shona L., and
Japanisation in the United Kingdom: Experiences From the Car Industry This report aims to analyze and compare the systems of power and control in the Japanese and western automobile manufacturing industries. The method was to use a wide range of theory and to support the analysis. The world has become an extremely competitive global economic battle ground. Automobile manufactures from both the east and the west continue to search for opportunities that
VRD industry, located in Singapore, offers manufacturing services of components for the auto industry in both GM in the U.S., Europe and other U.S. automakers. In the recent past, this industry expanded in the exporting its products to GM in China. This illustrated a massive growth in terms of marketing for its business. The VRD industry operates as a three product divisional strategic businesses, located within the same business complex,
4). 2.4 Effects of Environment: Concerns related to carbon emission were heightened in mid-2000s and in 2007 Al-Gore in his book 'An inconvenient Truth' condemned the big three saying "They keep trying to sell large, inefficient gas-guzzlers even though fewer and fewer people are buying them." In comparison to other developed countries in Europe and Asia, American standard for distance covered in one U.S. gallon was only 25 mpg (miles per gallon).