End of Era

GM announced that it was shedding the Pontiac nameplate as part of its restructuring plan. Sad that the once proud Pontiac that built the first American "muscle car", the GTO, will be no longer. Bu GM and the UAW have no one to blame but themselves. The following is a letter written by a supplier to the GM/Saturn plant from its inception following the now infamous letter written by a current supplier to GM, Greg Knox:

About 20 years ago, my company bid and was rewarded the opportunity to provide indirect materials to a "bold new venture" within GM to compete with the Honda, Toyota, and Nissan for the American small car market called "Saturn". They bought hundreds of acres in rural middle Tennessee, built a state of the art manufacturing facilty, and forged a new, streamlined partnership with the UAW. Unfortunately, they transplanted 5000 UAW workers, UAW mentality, and GM practices to middle Tennessee as well and the rest is history. I was an account representative assigned to the plant where I worked with procurement, engineering, and UAW skilled trades to provide products and services. Our task as a "supplier partner" was to bring products, services, and ideas to provide quality, efficiency, and cost saving ideas to venture. I took my job seriously and felt that I was playing a small role in a great idea to bring back American inqenuity and know-how. Boy, was I to be disappointed.

As we all know to well, Saturn did not turn out to be a rousing success. Greg’s letter and stories brought back so many memories that I accrued in my 6 years working with Saturn:
- Spending vast majority of my day waiting on union electricians to "get around to" meeting with my myself and an engineer just in case we might need them to turn open an electrical panel even though the equipment was not yet running.
- "Team" centers where skilled trades would set reading newspapers and watching game shows and soap-operas throughout the day (no kidding!) so they could come in on weekends and holidays to make double or triple overtime.
- Instead of pride in this new venture for GM to reclaim some of the small car market, nothing but empathy and apathy toward the whole program.
- A permeating sense of entitlement.
- Instead of being thankful that GM had relocated them and their families to a new start, complaints about "Why in the hell did GM build a plant out here in the middle of nowhere?" and condescending comments…"I like the South, especially all of the 2nd place trophies on your courthouse squares…hehe."
- The mentality towards suppliers as enemies, not partners began creeping back into the picture. The we’re GM/UAW and you’re not attitude. The running joke between suppliers was, "How many GM/UAW employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?…Answer: Just one…they hold the light bulb while the rest of the world revolves around them."

As a result, Saturn never made as many cars, nor the quality of cars they expected. As a thumb in the eye, Nissan built a plant about 40 miles up the road in Nashville that employed local workers, at a competitive wage, and turn out twice as many Altimas (500K vs 250K / yr.) as Saturns, with better quality ratings and resell value. The Saturn experiment, although good intentioned, was a resounding failure in terms of gaining market share on the Japanese. Why? Because they simply could not breakaway from the old GM/UAW mentality. They were hancuffed by the UAW contracts and GM bureaucracy. No room for new ideas, concepts, or hard work.

One could see the end of GM 20 years ago unless something drastically changed. Obviously, nothing did. I as an American hate to see a once great company such as GM go by the wayside, but the management and the union doomed this company long ago. This dinosaur needs to die.

Speaking of cars, what a finish in the NASCAR race at Talladega yesterday! Shades of Ricky Bobby...Talladega Nights!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nlytg1bYI0