"E. Julius" (soonerfrommi)
12/11/2014 at 17:12 • Filed to: General Motors
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"E. Julius" (soonerfrommi)
12/11/2014 at 17:12 • Filed to: General Motors | 2
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Whether you're a big fan of the General or you think they haven't produced a good product since the V-16 Cadillacs, we can all agree that there are few companies whose corporate culture is as often maligned as GM's. Here's an interesting article from The New Yorker which describes GM as the Google of the 20th century, at a time when the company's management practices were the most innovative in the world.
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> E. Julius
12/11/2014 at 17:24 |
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Just read that yesterday - there's also some interesting stuff on GE under Jack. Good article.
Racescort666
> E. Julius
12/11/2014 at 17:43 |
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I just skimmed it but the bits I read were still fairly interesting. I think the auto industry as a whole but more so major players like GM and Ford (or take your pick of foreign manufacturers) are still at the forefront of engineering process development. The tech industry (Google, Apple, et al) are very good at doing the "outside the box" thing when it comes to developing a product and getting the right people in the right places but I would argue that they are not developing a product that is nearly as complex as a car. Nor do their products involve as deeply so many disciplines.
Cars are largely mechanical devices but with all of the technology developments over the years, they require tons of software developers and electrical engineers to integrate the systems. There is also material development, huge. Auto is constantly trying to develop materials that are high performance but cost effective.
They are trying to reduce development time as well. Yeah, a new iPhone comes out pretty much every year and there are incremental changes along the way. GM and Ford are doing the same thing to something like 16 different product lines. Plus, they have a hand in the assembly line development. Manufacturing engineering is an entirely separate discipline with it's own nuances. Usually trying to build 3-4 different vehicles on the same production line requires modular tooling that can handle the changes quickly. Especially when they are looking at cycle times in the <60s range.
This was kind of an ill-constructed rant about auto development but I think it's one of the few industries on earth that creates such a complex product consistently in a short timeline with fair to excellent results.
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E. Julius
> Racescort666
12/11/2014 at 17:51 |
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Not to mention regardless of how complex any piece of software is, the supply chain requirements will be infinitesimally smaller. Not only does any automaker need to do all the things you mentioned above, but they also need to ensure quality standards among thousands of suppliers, ensure that all of these disparate products are delivered quickly and regularly, and ensure that the final product is delivered all over the world as well.
Automotive definitely plays an integral role in advancing manufacturing and design processes that ripples through many industries. This article mostly treated their corporate and management practices, the kind of "general business" stuff in which the automakers have definitely fallen a bit behind the curve. That being said though, an extremely complex manufacturing operation and one constrained by so much regulation on the product side couldn't be run 100% like a Google or an Apple.