Engines of Democracy

An excellent article, a great division of a great company. i know many people who work at the Center of Excellence of the GE Aircraft division, and they wax eloquent when talking about them. As the tech mentions, they strive for 9σ when other divisions are struggling to pass the 4.5σ wall....i know, i was in one of them .

Regrettably, like all behemoths, GE has a seamy side. It may sound like sour grapes if i mention now, but growth in those divisions depends on how good one is at apple-polishing.

Having said all that, GE has outstanding examples of excellence. Worth emulating.

Yes great article, and good to know you've worked in a similar management environment. Cheers!!!!

Yes, that's the Total Quality Management way that somebody has taken to heart and proves that it works.

The problem is in most companies, they don't like change, they like their power over employees, so the concept of teams and empowerment is lost on them and they will continue spinning their wheels and never improve their situations. They business is never going to get any better than where it's at right now.

Any manager that thinks they are smarter than the collective intelligents of all the employees working under them is stupid, stupid, stupid. That pretty much identifies a good number of them doesn't it.

Toyota became the #1 Automaker because, they empowered their employees into the decision making process. Practically all improvements that went into the Toyota automobiles are all from suggestions made by the employees. Toyota gets about 3 million suggestions a year and implement about 85% of them because it shows the employees that their ideas and opinions count and that they are taken seriously, as a result, that suggestion box is taken seriously.

I've seen where the suggestion box is not taken seriously because managment doesn't take the employees seriously. OH YEA, this is a French owned company too. People put crap into the suggestion box like, "The bathrooms need softer toilet paper."

Even China is taking steps in picking up quality management practices like the Japanese did in the late 1940's, that eventually brought Japan's industries to the point that U.S. industries was eating their dust in the 1970's.

The Good Ol' US of A needs to wake up and take a look around. We can't afford to be prideful anymore, we're falling behind and are losing that Imperialistic power that we once enjoyed. But who cares? By the time the US falls like Rome, our current generation will probably all be dead anyway. We'll let be our kids' problem.

Toyota's management taking the suggestion box seriously is amazing. Thank you for commenting.