NUMMI joint venture in California was a classroom for change: From Toyota, GM learned the importance of consistency and communication

摘要

Pivot Point: Learning the Toyota method firsthand. In the early 1980s, General Motors quietly negotiated an unprecedented deal: GM, the world's largest automaker, would build cars jointly with fast-rising challenger Toyota. Both parties had something to gain from the talks, which created New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., known as NUMMI. Toyota wanted to learn to build cars in the United States. In a sense, GM wanted the same thing. Lulled by years of dominance in the United States, GM had allowed lean Japanese competitors to surpass it in manufacturing efficiency. GM needed to learn how to build cars in the United States, too.