We're back to basics. 
So...what are the basics?

by Jim Womack

Then the boom ends and they discover that they are really just...car companies.

So, as we slug through the 2002 recession, everyone agrees that American car companies should get back to basics. But what are the basics?

1. Focus on the product by installing a real chief engineer for every platform. Even when Toyota publicly advertises the role of their chief engineers – like Kosaku Yamada for the new 
Camry/ES300 – no one in Detroit seems to get it: Put someone permanently in charge of making money and growing share for each product, make sure that person knows a lot about cars, give that person lots of responsibility but little staff, and have the CEO tell all of the functions to get behind the chief engineers or else.

2. Rethink purchasing to focus on the actual process of engineering and making components and look at the entire value stream of activities running from raw materials to complete vehicles. Then, jointly remove the wasted steps and co-locate the remaining value-creating steps to pursue big cost-downs (rather than margin shifting) and make-to-order vehicles.

3. Rethink assembly to make it much more flexible and ask why OEMs should even do assembly. Toyota has always outsourced up to half of its assembly in Japan, and its specialist assemblers are also experts in body and manufacturing engineering.

As a result, the chief engineer often has a choice in who is best suited and most eager to assemble the product.

4. Rethink the links between the factory and the customer to find a constructive role for dealers. As we get serious about build-to-order, there shouldn't be any metal on car lots for dealers to move. What dealers should be doing instead is helping customers solve their mobility problems by delivering, maintaining, repairing and recycling vehicles as needed, using brilliant processes.

5. Rethink the location of production and engineering for price-sensitive products to co-locate most steps in low-cost locations that are still close enough to customers to permit build-to-order. This means Mexico for North America, Eastern Europe for Western Europe, China for Japan.

And this is where Detroit falls down. In the most striking recent example, Jac Nasser expended his best energies on finding brilliant outsiders to manage broken processes at Ford, while average insiders got brilliant performance from bullet-proof processes at Toyota.

So, as the economy begins to turn the corner, let's unleash our chief engineers, focus on the key processes, and get creative about the fundamental value-creating relationships. And, for a change, let's stick with these basics through the next cycle and far beyond.

Jim Womak is the president of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). LEI is a consulting company, information resource and host of multiple seminars regarding lean manufacturing. He can be reached at jwomack@lean.org.