Previously posted were discussions about GM's Mona Lisa room, created by one who would later start the Saturn division. It was and still remains an example of why GM products are so bad.
Maryann Keller again writes, in waves, of problems in GM. An informed person best never misses what she writes about cars. Even the LA Times article (that created GM revenge) was not so damning. From the Washington Post of 12 Jun 2005 on page B1:
Quote:
Dull at Any Speed
In a Detroit suburb in the late 1980s, General Motors established a large technical facility it called the Mona Lisa center, where its engineers disassembled Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys in a desperate search for the secret of their Japanese competitors' success. They analyzed the smallest pieces trying to figure out the best attributes to include in future GM models.
The reasons for GM's decline could have been found there on the floor of the Mona Lisa center, but not among the parts. It was the whole approach. Taking apart existing cars is a backward-looking exercise; it doesn't tell you what's going to sell four or five years down the road. So while GM was staring in its rearview mirror, its competitors were zipping ahead.
What ails GM today is much the same as what ailed it then -- and it's not just a matter of big pension plans, health care costs for workers or undervalued Asian currencies.
|
06-12-2005, 07:30 PM
Threaded Mode