It wasn't the new factories that enabled Japan, it was an American Quality
Control expert. And a set of managers that would listen to him.

Detroit refused to listen to Edward Demming who was telling American
automobile manufacturers that the American people wanted cars that would not
only look good but run well, too. When the manufacturers failed to listen,
Demming took his ideas to Japan and for the next decade the Japanese owned
the American car market.

Roger

http://home.insightbb.com/~derbyrm

wrote in message
...
On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:24:51 -0500, withheld
wrote:

Everybody tends to forget that Germany and Japan both had all brand new
factories that (by enlarge) we paid for in the late fourties, but the US
plants all got seriously beat up making the hardware to win that war.

I always said the best thing we could ave done was bomb all our own
factories in 1946 so we could all start fresh.

I agree 100% it was the Japanese who made us stop making the same
basic car we started WWII with. The same is true of outboard motors
(to give this thread a "boaty" spin)
My mercury is still a Yamaha design and a lot of the parts are
interchangable until you get down the US designed "big foot".

derbyrm wrote:
It wasn't the new factories that enabled Japan, it was an American Quality
Control expert. And a set of managers that would listen to him.

Detroit refused to listen to Edward Demming who was telling American
automobile manufacturers that the American people wanted cars that would not
only look good but run well, too. When the manufacturers failed to listen,
Demming took his ideas to Japan and for the next decade the Japanese owned
the American car market.



Plus the rust problem in the '70s.
The Big 3 .,especially Ford, deserved to be run out of town on a rail.
They smugly sat back and let the imports get a toehold which grew into
an avalanche.