Very interesting PBS News report on how German industry has come to dominate Europe.

How Germany Became Europe's Richest Country - YouTube

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

They are known as engineering innovators who aren't afraid of work. Here, they want to work one hour and get paid for eight while texting their friends and wanking around on facebook.

What jumped out at me the most was the concentration on relatively small family owned businesses concentrating on specialised high tech products with very little debt to outsiders such as banks etc. The return of their profits to their own organization for RandD purposes and their emphasis on growing in house skilled apprentices. Also the fact that most of them spoke English rather well. Their 10th grade apprentices are probably better educated than US high school grads.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Stihl in Virginia Beach is a perfect example of what you outlined.

Yep. I didn't realize till recently that Andreas Stihl invented the chainsaw but it was pretty obvious they were world leaders in the technology. When I was growing up in SA I used to watch parks and city employees cutting down trees on occasion and at first the saws of choice were McCullogh and Homelite when I was about 5 or 6. Within a few years there was nothing but orange and white in evidence.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Substantial observation.

__________________

Americans work much harder, longer days and shorter holidays then Germans do, just not as efficient. And they are also known for there powerful trade unions that are a part of the German success...

__________________
1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

This is relative in perspective. Work "smart" not "hard" is what culminates into efficiency. It's over-simplified but true.
As to Huskyman's comment, I am observing this as well, even throughout "BigCorp". Employees spending an horrendous amount of time and attention to/with their mobile devices. In reality, this is a complete novum. In the past there were clear company policies as to the use of electronic communication systems esp. during scheduled work hours and in regards to work related value.
Last time I looked I have not noticed any policies regulating the use of personal mobile devices on the work place.
Huskyman's observation also runs a lot deeper. It's metaphorical in a sense.

__________________

It is interesting that right out of school, most americans have a 100k in student debt, and germans come out debt free with a full time job.

__________________
Eugene

10 E63 AMG
93 300te 4matic
07 BMW X3
14 Ford F-150 Fx2

We seem to lack the ability to do whatever has to be done in comparison to the germans. They got going again after the second world war by resorting to break manufacturing into many smaller segments. Not enough factory space had survived. Plus the funds where not available to build new.

We sit around and complain that we are failing instead. Yet we have not been bombed almost out of existance. We are in far better shape to try new approaches but do not. The ideal perhaps that the old days are coming back again and all we have to do is wait seems to be our answer to the issue. That to me is really stupid but yet what it basically is. No stupid is not too negative a word.

Most segments or parts where produced in peoples own basements by subcontractors in germany as there were few spaces accessable. This may be the reason today still that they have a very large smaller business component that is very sound from an economic perspective. All those basement operations expanded as they could on a sound basis.

Small business does not tend to structure large debt so the fundemental economy is sounder. Also change or flexability is much easier as the costs are divided up so much.

Changing production may be very cheap in comparison with centralization like we employ. Quality control is easy to understand. The subcontractor being a small business wants to keep his contracts.

I remember years ago during a tour of some gm facility in Oshawa, Canada.There was one single plastic injection machine cranking out endless tailight lenses..

The obvious issue was it had a space of about 1/2 an acre in size to do so with forty foot ceilings. The machine was perhaps seven feet high. That machine could have functioned in a double garage in my opinion. To financially support the area in that facility that held this single piece of equipment would have been rediculous.

No human worked around this machine yet the whole half acre was heated and lit well. No obvious insulation even on the ceiling. This was just an indicator in how poor efficiency was in that large corporation. There was none or very little perhaps overall.

If you can save a hundred thousand to a million easily a year with one small obvious item how endemic to their empire was this lack of concern?

It would not seem to take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Yet they seemed not interested at all. Their attitude then was perhaps nothing could really upset their apple cart. No matter how inneficiently and lack of common sense was used. I have to wonder if all the combined inneficiency amounted to hundreds of millions a year in total in that corporation. Or even more.

Enough to have put a really world class car out there? I do not mean a propaganda type world class car either. It would have cost no more or even less to manufacture if efficiency was employed. Nice they could blame their ultimate failures on outside conditions and labour unions instead. I am not particularily pro union either.

Rotten at the core comes to mind. The real question of the times is do you save something that is rotten. If the inneficiencies are not really dealt with it is still going to be rotten. Saving some money on labour is not going to cure it.

Facing this continiously escallating potential bill in the future. Many couples will decide to have fewer children or none I expect. Student loans in Canada I think are only basically available to really poorer families. Or the kids expect the family to foot all the costs.

Recent graduates in many fields are experiencing real difficulty in getting decent jobs. For the first time I remember there are public warnings not to enter certain fields as there are no employment opportunities or they are few and far between.

Their 10th grade apprentices are better educated than most US persons with a B.A./B.S. degree.

I think I was the last generation in US universities to have to pass a comprehensive examination to get my B.A. degree. I also had to pass one for each graduate degree I got.

Now this is no longer required.

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

speaking of GM, anyone remember when Ross Perot worked with them to realign their business model? Seems there was a heated parking garage for the board of director's parking needs that cost $140K to heat. Ross saw waste everywhere he looked and yet the GM board was insulted by his suggestions for developing a more efficient business model. This is the same crew that flew in their private rather large and luxurious business jet to Washington, DC to ask for a bail out.


from the following article;

To: corporate managers, re: bureaucracy; don't send memos! | Washington Monthly | Find Articles

"Ross Perot captured the spirit while he was at General Motors: 'In Pontiac [Michigan], GM executives' parking garages are heated, while the poor guys who work in the plant freeze their tails off walking to work in the snow. It costs $140,000 a year to heat one parking garage. I'd shut that thing down.'"

"During a visit to Columbus in 1986, a Worthington employee and I struck up a conversation about the American steel industry. It was right after LTV declared bankruptcy. The guy just couldn't fathom how the chairman of that company had the nerve to bring home a $700,000 salary, and pay himself a whopping bonus to boot, for driving a firm over the edge. Neither could I. In fact, the final break between Ross Perot and GM came when that firm's problematic performance in 1986 led it to refuse to pay $1,000 profit-sharing bonuses to hourly workers--while giving executives all they were "entitled' to by traditional practice. "You can't look the troops in the eye and say, "It's been a bad year; we can't do anything for you,' but then say, "By the way, we're going to pay ourselves a $1 million bonus,'' Perot said."

What Germans lack in terms of humor and artistic proclivities, the seem to make up for in terms of engineering and efficiency. Isn't it interesting that the two main Axis powers in WWII were Germany and Japan, who are also very proficient in engineering and good at efficiency?

Just sayin' . . . .

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

last I checked, the top five car companies are Japanese. Both the Germans and the Japanese may have lost WWII, but today they are winning the economic war.