How Toyota Turned Around GM’s Worst Factory

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[scottmanley]

While the NUMMI plant closed in 2010, it was still shown as a VFR landmark on local Aviation charts as NUMMI as late as 2019.

[makerspace]

I worked for a big semiconductor company that got into making calculators in the early seventies. At one time we had a technology exchange meeting with GM. GM was shocked that we simply scrapped an entire unit if it was beyond repair rather than spending valuable man hours to fix it. One of the GM engineers said, "We never scrap anything!" Maybe they should have scrapped some of those parts before they put in my Pontiac 6000.

[kurachan]

In 2016, when I was studying abroad in Japan, I went on a school trip to a Toyota plant in Aichi prefecture (in the city Toyota, renamed after the car manufacturer). After a whole presentation about the systems implemented, we got a tour through the assembly line. What struck me as most fascinating was how often the line would stop. Sometimes several times a minute you could hear the sound that indicated that someone had pressed the button and the line would stop shortly after. That meant that the line would only move for a few seconds before stopping again. It looked a bit like stop-and-go traffic. But the line would also never stop for long. Workers would only need a few moments to finish whatever work step they were on, and the line started again.

[almostanengineer]

On of the things Toyota does best, is it allows it’s assembly personnel to make suggestions on improvements, trials and then implements them if they work

[geraldarcuri]

My father, a former long time GM district service manager, was working for Toyota when the NUMMI plant was new in operation. Everything reported in this video squares with what my father relates to me. He knew Toyota's quality was far superior to the big three of Detroit. It was undeniable, as the warranty claims demonstrated. NUMMI was a test of whether Japan could re-export Deming's quality expertise, originally implemented in Japan after World War II, back to the U.S. They could. And they did. The rest is history.

[blankcrows]

I worked at NUMMI one summer. They hired college students to work on the production line during summer vacation season. Had to join the Union. The training was very thorough. I worked in the body shop making T Posts (the frame part between the front and rear doors) and also rear wheel wells for Toyota Corollas and Geo Prizms. While there I did hear some stories of GM Fremont shenanigans including weed smoking and drinking. Good group of hard working people I got to work with there. They called me back to work the following summer but I couldn’t do it because I was taking a summer school class. I still wear a scar I got at NUMMI. I was holding onto a part that was getting a repair weld and a welding spark landed between my glove and protective arm cover.

[jackchen]

Thanks for bringing this little known story (outside of the Bay Area) to light. I worked 18 years across the i880 from NUMMI/Tesla factory and drove one of the last NUMMI Tacoma. Great car, never had any issues with it.

[williamosgood]

It was considered to be a career killer for a GM manager to be sent to NUMI. All the knowledge Toyota gave GM was ignored, much to Toyota's amazment.

[bigheadfred]

14:00 This is an often cited story. However, in Spanish, the word "nova" and the phrase "No va" have two different meanings, just like "notable" and "no table" in English. The original production run of the 1962-1979 Chevrolet Nova was a very popular compact rear-wheel drive car. That popularity didn't transfer over to the new front-wheel drive version based on the Toyota Corolla which was also built at NUMMI, so the car was rebranded as the Geo Prizm and later as the Chevrolet Prizm when General Motors discontinued the Geo make.

[Sapp]

It's crazy how Toyota literally showed GM what to do and they still built trash afterwards.

[Stuartrusty]

Earlier this year, the production facility I work at in the UK (electronics) brought in Nagamatsu san, one of the guys who implemented the whole lean/just in time process at Toyota.
It was a Shingijutsu Kaizen and was good fun if a bit of a steep learning curve. An honour to work with Nagamatsu san.

[cavaleer]

They applied the DEMING METHOD, like all Japanese companies and even the public functions in Japan. American statistician Edwards Deming taught the Japanese how to build in Quality and Continually Improve the Process when he was part of General MacArthur's team that re-organized and re-constituted Japan post WWII. To this day the Japanese award an annual Deming Award to the company or department that has the best Process Improvement of the year. Prior to Deming "made in Japan" meant what "Made in China" means today. The Japanese were not happy with this state of affairs and gladly absorbed Deming's Methodology.

Meanwhile, American industry was NOT INTERESTED. The rest is history.

[BigBoiiLeem]

So, GM was having problems with the plant because their workers felt that management didn't care about them or what they thought, and therefore decided to raise hell. Toyota comes in, and fixes that in an instant by just giving the workers what they wanted: more agency. Wow, it's almost like if you treat your workers like human beings they actually do good work, so weird.

[boldone]

Sir, a very good video, I know that this GM plant was bad, I just didn't know it was horrible. Japan has a very good reputation for quality, but that was not always the case. Before WWII Japan was frankly known for junk. After WWII a man by the name Dr. William Deming, a quality expert and a professor from M.I.T. went to the American auto companys and wanted to show them statistical analysis and how it would improve car quality. They were not interested, becauce they could sell every car that came off the line. So then Dr. Deming approached the Japanese auto companies and they happily embraced the man and his knowledge. There is even a statue of him there. Statistical analysis is what you profiled in your video, seeing a problem and fixing it on the spot and treating quality as an never ending job. You might want to do a video on Dr. Deming and how he transformed Japan manufacturing. Only after losing great amounts of market share becauce of the Japanese dlid the Big 3 auto companies here start to imbrace iS.A. in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Much Success.

[michal]

Hey, I worked at this very factory for a short while in 2019! Tesla gave me 3 days of training and then set me loose, much different than what you described at Toyota.

[Ice_Karma]

The "Nova means 'no go'" thing is a business school story that's completely false but sounds too good to die.

[Thatdavemarsh]

I worked a the tesla plant and learned the lore and history. Thanks for the review. This plant has a wild history and also has some pretty neat legacy infrastructure - like the abandoned paint ovens on the roof.

[ebrombaugh]

Thanks for the history. I've driven past that plant along the freeway in Fremont so many times and it's cool to know what was going on there.

[danielclawson]

Another (apocryphal?) sub-story: after the plant was running, GM sent a team of production specialists to ovserve operations, and bring lessons back to GM management, supposedly for disemmination. They became admirers of the system and culture.
When they brought the lessons back to GM, they were not well accepted. Rather than stay with GM and watch inferior ideas be propagated, most of the analysis team quit to work for Toyota.

[shawndonnelly]

At the same time, all of this was going on at GM I was working in a wood products factory on the west coast. The company brought in the same Toyota management system: Total Quality Management and Just in Time production. We got all the special training, tools, management support, etc. We did the pre-shift stretching exercises and the special quality control crew meetings. I learned skills and concepts that I still use these many years later. What happened? Our union was resistant and slow-walked at every turn. Ultimately, the plant was sold to a non-union company, and many people lost their jobs and had to re-apply for the new company. The union mentality killed the entire concept. How sad.