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hello everybody i'm Quest i'm Brendan
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Hazen Leader and we're going to talk
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about the NUMI case study um first on
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the agenda we got the background and
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then um we got the introduction
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evaluating the case proposed solution we
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have any further actions to take the
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conclusion and then our reference
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page uh so for the summary we're going
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to start out with uh they had a they had
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a GM had a problem in Fremont which is
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in California this is the plant that was
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having some troubles uh there was sex
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drugs alcohol uh gambling going on at
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the plant um and they had a big thing of
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quantity over quality which is not good
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you want to have good quality products
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um they never stopped the line that was
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going on they if there was any safety
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issues or anything that happened at the
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line they decided to keep going and
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which is not right um and they shut down
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the plant in 1982 and they laid off
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thousands of workers because of that
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um so then in 1982 Toyota provided an
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opportunity for GM because they they
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needed each other um GM needed help with
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their production and Toyota needed help
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with importing and navigating the US
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market gm sent workers to Japan to learn
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the Toyota way um that's that's when
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they learned how to understand quality
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over quantity making a better product
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and um making a good car and uh they
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reopened the plant as new new United
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Motor Manufacturing Incorporated aka
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NUMEI in
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1984
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yeah continuing on they had near perfect
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quality ratings after 3 months uh and
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they tried to recreate NUMI at the plant
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in Van Noise but it did fail because
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they refused to make changes and accept
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this Numei way um they did not believe
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in the Japanese principles that NUMI was
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teaching them um and GM ended up losing
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$23.5 billion dollars in 1992 because of
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this um it is hard to get plants on the
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same page because of GM's
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decentralization which means that
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they're not very a centralized strong um
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central business in like the federal way
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but they kind of spread everything out
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into many plants and let them do their
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own thing and this was a problem because
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they it was hard for them to get um
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plans across to every plant because of
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how spread out they were
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um they developed production model for
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all plants in the early 2000s uh but by
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then it might have been a little too
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late
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um Numi was making 6,000 car 6,000 cars
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a week for over two decades and as I
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said it was a little too late to try
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they tried to implement these practices
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the Japanese principles a little too
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late um and they went bankrupt in 2009
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and then when they went bankrupt GM
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pulled out on me leaving Toyota to fend
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for themselves um and Toyota decided to
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close the Numi plant in 2010 and um yeah
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like as I stated before it took GM too
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long to take the NUMI strategy seriously
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and it end up costing them a good uh
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partnership and yeah
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uh so for the timeline of this whole
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thing that happened in 1982 the Fremont
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plant did shut down um in the spring of
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1984 they sent groups of workers from
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the Fremont plant to Japan to learn the
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new Toyota system in December of 1984
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the first car rolled out of the assembly
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line um for the new for the NUMI plant
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um in 1985 they attempted to the NUMI
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exper they attempted the NUMI experiment
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again at Van Noise without Toyota this
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time um and in 1992 Van Noise is shut
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down due to quality not being improved
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and in 1992 GM also lost $23.5 billion
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in 1994 Mark Hogan took over the gym in
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Brazil and brought Numi principles took
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him a minute but they kind of figured it
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out over there the early 2000s they
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developed a production model based on
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Japanese principles and to go in every
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single plant all around the country GM
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um 2009 became the largest industrial
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bankruptcy um which cost taxpayers it
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cost taxpayers $50 billion to pull um to
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pull GM out of that monk bankruptcy and
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then uh GM ended up pulling out of New
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because of that in April 2010 NUMI
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produced the last car toyota officially
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shut down the NUMI
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factory so now going into the
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introduction the key problems one of
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their main key problems was their
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failure to implement uh practices across
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the board like we talked about their
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decentralization
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um and their cultural resistance to
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change they were uh scared to make the
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changes and there was ineffective
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communication between GM and Toyota they
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were both kind of separate companies in
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this joint venture and sometimes they
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had trouble communicating certain things
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because they had different goals um and
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GM GM's withdrawals from the joint
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venture um was also a big problem and
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there's also high operating costs and
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location
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changes um this statement we had NUMI
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had initial success but they never moved
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forward with it like they didn't
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progress they had commandos um that they
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were supposed to send out to every plant
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to make up make them better um but they
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never they just GM never really had a
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plan for those people um the failure of
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LUMI can be traced to not implementing
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strategies into all plants the
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resistance to change just stubbornness
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um poor communication between Toyota and
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GM high operating cost and specifically
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in California and then GM failed to
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change and adapt to these new standards
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that they learned um as for for the
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strengths um they combined Toyota's
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production and then GM US market
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presence which made that a very big
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strength and helped them do well in the
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US um and they stress quality over
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quantity this was a huge strength that
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allowed the reputation to be built back
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up and for good quality cars to be made
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and not worrying about quantity and also
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prioritizing safety as well um for some
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weaknesses there was some cultural and
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communication difficulties because of
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Japan and US and they have different
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cultures um the Toyota and GM are
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different cultures in communication and
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languages so that was difficult um to
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navigate um and they also had limited
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development from decentralization and
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stubbornness from the managers a lot of
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the play managers didn't want to adapt
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this new way of changing like you
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mentioned the
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decentralization the opportunities um
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presented a blueprint for innovation um
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they were able to reshape the culture
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around teamwork and safety and hard work
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in their plants um the threats Toyota
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and GM had certain disputes and um
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there's pressure to diff differentiate
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from other um others adopting like
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similar systems
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um and for the SLO strategies um they uh
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we they said one of the strategies was
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to expand the NUMI model to other GM
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plants even though it was kind of
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difficult with the decentralization um
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they do they should do their best way to
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or they should have done their best way
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to expand this because I think it would
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have had them be successful um and they
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should have they should enhance
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relations with the UAW um which is the
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United Auto Workers and this would help
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them uh gain that relationship with them
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uh and the WO strategies um this is a
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program to bridge communication and
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culture gaps they should work on that
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and they also should define their
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long-term goals because they had
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different goals um with these two
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companies was kind of how had them have
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a draw a fallout but if they define
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those long-term goals it would help them
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out
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st strategies um to address concerns
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with adopting Toyota's production system
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that the GM that GM had um to create a
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clear understanding of NUMI's benefits
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and how it could better GM as a whole
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and then for the WT strategies to
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implement surveys and feedback
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opportunities to ensure a smooth
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transition into the NUMI way the
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Japanese way um and then review Num's
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performance across all other GM
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plants and now getting into the
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evaluation of case on the mission
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statement this was GM's uh mission
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statement that they have um which is our
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goal is to deliver world-class
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experiences at every touch point and to
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do so on a foundation of trust and
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transparency um so the present
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components that are already in this
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mission statement are one the customer
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they talk about the customer um the
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third which is all in parentheses in the
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mission statement talks about the
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markets getting in every touch point um
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and the philosophy talking about trust
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and transparency
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this is our revised mission statement uh
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at General Motors our mission is to
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create innovative and sustainable
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products um that better the lives of
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customers around the world through
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advanced technology will lead automotive
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success to generating growth and
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profitability and competitive markets we
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are committed to maintaining a strong
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corporate philosophy founded on ethical
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principles fostering culture of respect
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in our work environment for our
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employees and build a strong reputation
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general Motors um continues to lead the
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global auto automotive industry for no
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other reason than prioritizing customer
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satisfaction advancing technology and
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promoting employee
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well-being uh and so the added
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components um into this new mission
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statement was two or had the parentheses
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around it as well was the product or
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service uh which it said to create
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innovative and sustainable products it
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also mentioned technology which is the
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fourth parenthesis saying though through
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advanced technology um and also concern
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for survival growth and profitability
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which is to lead automated success
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generating growth and profitability
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um some more added components were seven
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which was self-concept uh continue to
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lead the which was the part they said
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continue to lead the global automotive
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industry and number eight was the
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concern for public image which was the
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part where we say build a strong
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reputation and then number nine concern
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for employees which was the fostering a
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culture of respect in our work
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environment for our employees
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uh continuing on for the evaluation of
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the topics focused on one topic was lean
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manufacturing and productive system uh
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another was cultural integration and
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workforce collaboration um the next was
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management and leadership alignment
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these are all very important um
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operating costs and location challenges
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um and lastly GM strategic commitment
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and exit
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the main problem and uh that we decided
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on was failure to scale Numi's numei to
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the broader organization play managers
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did not accept the new way of like
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learning the NUMI way um GM suffer from
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quality and productivity issues
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following this numi should have expanded
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sooner and more efficiently like it
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should have the project should have went
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from 1984 starting in 1984 and trying to
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get it across all other plants ASAP in
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the 80s um GM would have been way more
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successful had that happened um instead
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of trying to get it like they tried it
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in 90s but like it didn't really get
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implemented until the early
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2000s the entire corporation could have
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been resurrected if they did and tried
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it
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earlier uh some proposed solutions
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changes um the first one being train all
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employees in lean practices they should
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have taken this more seriously or this
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is a solution they could take seriously
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is training all their employees to
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understand these practices it would have
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helped them out a lot um to also build
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teams that work across apartments um
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next being get strong leadership support
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for change um that's important because
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having that leadership to push towards
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change people will start to respect that
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that new way of life and they will
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likely adapt to it um faster than if
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they didn't have any leadership
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um also improve communication and
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employee feedback it's always nice
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having employees that can give feedback
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and give their honest reviews on certain
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parts of the business and that would
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have been a very nice solution to some
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issues um and lastly to choose a better
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location for the plant um so they they
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were located in California which is very
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west um it would have been better if
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they were located in more central or
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southern states and they would have had
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more access to more parts of the of the
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country um and just been able to get
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more work done
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um post solution change final
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recommendations um develop a
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standardized lean curriculum um like
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like make across the board for everybody
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to follow um established coaches and
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mentorship like as he said leadership is
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very important and that would uh that
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would have made it better for Numei and
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everybody else to um make the program
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better and uh start pilot pilot programs
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and like startup programs lean
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plans uh so some further actions that
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could have been taken um that could have
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happened was continuous employee
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training and development uh like we kind
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of mentioned having developing your
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employees and training them so they
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understand the business well is very
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important uh this is action they should
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have taken cuz when they can understand
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the concept of you know all the all the
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philosophy and all the the hard work
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that goes into it it definitely helps a
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business uh be better um that also
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builds stronger leadership commitment um
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like you said when you have those
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actions it'll have leaderships that are
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strong and more committed to this work
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um and also strengthen communication and
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collaboration across plants i think that
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if they centralized a little bit uh more
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this would allow these plans to go
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across better um than these
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decentralized plants as it was hard to
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get information relayed to every plant
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and every um the you know the HQ makes
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decisions and having to transfer a lot
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of information across multiple different
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locations is also difficult for
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everybody to get on but if there was a a
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strong law that everyone followed then
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it would be easier for them to get this
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information across and collaborate
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better
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these are references we had uh the NPR
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podcast we used
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yeah we we had a case study we had um
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other sources that we've researched on
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Google Scholar and found some quality
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sources of studies and everything um and
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there's also a podcast from NPR like
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Quest mentioned um and just more
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information about learning about this
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topic thank you thank you
