Issue of Business Week entitled "What Drives Consumers Not To Buy GM Cars."

 Read the Article from the July 8, 2007 issue of Business Week entitled "What Drives Consumers Not To Buy GM Cars."

Source : https://logistics.asia/toyota-to-slash-september-production-due-to-global-chip-shortage/

Source: https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/passenger-vehicle/cars/general-motors-to-boost-electric-vehicle-profile-with-40000-charging-stations-in-us-canada/87286587

One contributor writes: "Americans have switched from Detroit Big Three vehicles to Honda and Toyota vehicles not for visual design features but for durability, reliability, good fuel consumption, and the lower full cost of operation. Detroit needs to offer five-passenger, 35-mile-per-gallon vehicles with 100,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranties over 10 years of ownership to cause satisfied Honda and Toyota buyers to switch.”

What drives quality in these comments I think is that the customers of GM Cars are expecting much more durable, reliable, and higher fuel efficiency products. It appears that GM Cars did not meet the expectations of its customers and it can be even worse if GM Cars does not understand what consumers want it to provide. Moreover, according to such comments, these issues have been ignored for a very long time because durability has to be evaluated over a very long period.

The General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit. It is the largest automaker in the United States and was the largest in the world for over 70 years. However, General Motors (GM) officially loses the title in 2009, when it announces worldwide sales of 8.36 million vehicles in 2008, compared with Toyota's 8.97 million vehicle sales that same year. 

This automotive giant was originally thriving along with the standardization and mass production era which work become progressively deskilled and more repetitive. The inspection might be the primary focus for GM to ensure that its products are performed well. However, there is a defect in this practice. This kind of inspection probably ignores what consumers actually need and do they feel satisfied after purchasing a product that is cost them large amounts. Purchasing durable goods such as cars or houses typically costs consumers a lot of money. Therefore, their expectations would generally be higher or do a lot of research before making such decisions. From the consumer's perspective, durable, reliable, and higher fuel efficiency are the elements that GM did not do well. In addition, GM believed that designers and engineers create the car, and the assembly line just follows the instructions to produce. However, manufacturing staff have more expertise than designers when it comes to creating the end product. Toyota, on the other hand, empowers its assembly line workers to identify problems, devise solutions, and get management to quickly make changes.

So, what does this demand for quality drive innovation? Generally, when we trying to solve a problem, we must understand and identify the issue first and then be willing to solve it. Secondly, when the issue is actually solved, the solution will become a long-term strategy and finally back into the beginning of the circle and keep discovering new issues. During this circle, organizations innovate when they trying to solve an issue or find a way to remain competitive.

Reference

Four valuable lessons from GM's failed experiment. Salesforce.com. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2, 2022, from https://www.salesforce.com/workdifferently/articles/four-lessons-for-working-differently-gms-failed-experiment-with-toyota/ 

Knowles, G. (2011). Quality Management. London, UK: Ventus Publishing ApS; Bookboon.