Ford Revealed
Norman Frank (nfrank@cap.gwu.edu)
Fri, 11 Nov 1994 07:38:25 -0500
I was hoping someone would come to my preconceived but unspoken
conclusion when I posted my observations. Two people seem to
have seen through the flack to the core issue.
It's not the consultants that have made Ford great; it's Ford
itself.
Mark Tablidillo rightly points out that it was Ford that decided
to embark on these different paths and use the tools available to
improve. These tools (and the sequence for implementation) have
been combined into a fairly solid working model for how a
corporation can use the tools now being expanded upon by today's
gurus.
Phil Crawford also points out that Ford used many consultants to
achieve their improvements. Phil goes on to say that (1) people
in the company who made the changes and do the work need the most
credit for "saving" the company and (2) change and ideas are
dynamic; there very likely is no one best, long lasting system or
approach.
Ford has probably been a learning-organization since it embarked
on its quality improvement program back in the 70s, but since
there was no word to describe what they had become, Ford simply
used the latest word available. Senge's contribution to the
field was to coin the word (concept) "learning-organization" and
tie some of the tools together into a coherent whole or system (a
good contribution), thus allowing people, like us, to discuss the
concept and build from here. Like Phil says, change goes on, and
I expect something new and better to come from where we are right
now.
--
Norman C. Frank
MCI Mail: 4573434
Internet: 4573434@mcimail.com
Internet: nfrank@cap.gwu.edu