Sarkozy elected French president

[82ndtrooper]

When's the last time anyone purchased anything that said "Made In France" ?

Other than champagne, what are Frances major exports to any country ? Hence the low GDP and high unemployment and under employment.

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

Six-Sigma comes from Japan, not from Detroit.

Just curious, are you talking about Motorola Six-Sigma or something else?

When I worked at Circle M Ranch (AKA bat wings), late 80's through early 90's, we had another term of endearment for the process.

http://www.motorola.com/content.jsp?globalObjectId=3088
http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020815a.asp

.02

[mdb23]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

If Ford tries to retool or adjust to meet market...they have a union contract to contend with...if they shut down the plant because the horseless carriage is not in demand, they (Corporate) must continue to pay the workers full wage and compensation until the contract expires. If the workers are on year 2 of a 7 year gig, they just don't go into work for 5 years at full pay. My motivation is? If bolt A that fits in hole B is jacked up...we aint stoppin the line, we aint changin nothing...not without the shop steward saying so....

Sir,

I understand your points, but must slightly diagree.

I grew up in a UAW household, and saw dad undergo several retooling processes. They occur quite often (relatively speaking), and do not entail the employee being off (paid) for years at a time. Dad would usually get a week or two off (granted, it was paid), but it still seems that it would be better (for the business) to pay a couple hundred employees 2 weeks salary than to produce a failing model for years on end.

Also, the companies can (and do) simply shut down plants when it is no longer profitable. The workers are merely told that they are being transferred to other plants, where they will then (based on seniority) bump out the new employees (who are laid off-- no pay).

For example, my father worker the Union-Natural Bridge plant in StL for 27 years. When they shut it down, he was offered Wentzville Mo or Bowling Green KY. He took Wentzville for the last 3 years. It was not the case that they simply paid him his salary to stay at home and do nothing. That, to my knowledge, does not occur.

My point is that change does occur, even with a union in place.

IMHO, what is crippling the US companies (economically) are the agreements that the companies made with the unions years ago.... For decades, the auto manufacturers offered the unions increses in benefits instead of salary increases. Why? Because it was a cheaper ""future" cost (lifetime healthcare, lifetime dental, etc), and did not affect them immediately (in the manner that an across the board salary increase would have).

What they did not expect was the astronomical increase in health care costs, coupled with higher than expected numbers of retirees (people were living longer, on average, than the company planned). Next thing you know, they were spending 5-6 billion a year on health care.

When you start out 6 billion behind your competitor (who has socialized medicine on his side), it can be an uphill battle to say the least. Think what GM could have done with an extra 6 Billion a year for R&D, retooling, etc..... probably nothing, but you get my point.

Back to France.......

Did anyone else see the figure that 85% of the French voting population turned out at the polls? French bashing aside, that is quite impressive.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

Trying to keep it focused on Sarkozy....but....

Rant on

If Ford tries to retool or adjust to meet market...they have a union contract to contend with...if they shut down the plant because the horseless carriage is not in demand, they (Corporate) must continue to pay the workers full wage and compensation until the contract expires. If the workers are on year 2 of a 7 year gig, they just don't go into work for 5 years at full pay. My motivation is? If bolt A that fits in hole B is jacked up...we aint stoppin the line, we aint changin nothing...not without the shop steward saying so....

Corporate heirarchy continues to ignore the market by churning out more of the same...to the tune of Toyota taking over market share from GM. Mind you these vehicles are "assembled" in the U.S. Engineering is still done overseas.

Should Quality Control be done during design or after the recall?

Six-Sigma comes from Japan, not from Detroit.

Adapt or die

Rant off

It will be interesting to see if Sakozy can change a mindset that has been years in the making. It will be telling as he forms his government. The French have spent so long being the anti-US-policy people I am unsure how quickly that attitude can change.

I would think that the worker's motivation (union or otherwise) would be on doing the best job that he can, so that the company profits and he keeps a job (and his cushy retirement). Non-UAW employees in some foreign-owned plants make more than their union counterparts, thanks to profit sharing.

Negative on the overseas engineering. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Hyundai all have expanded their U.S. design and research-and-development facilities.

The only UAW organized foreign-owned plant that I am aware of is the NUMMI facility in California, the joint Toyota-GM venture.

I do not see the French people changing any more than we can reform Social Security and Medicare without it becoming the third rail. As the American population ages, it will only get worse, as people tax their grandkids to death to get their share of the free lunch.

mdb, I was amazed at the turn-out as well.

TR

[jatx]

Originally Posted by mdb23

Back to France.......

Did anyone else see the figure that 85% of the French voting population turned out at the polls? French bashing aside, that is quite impressive.

IIRC, it was 85% of registered voters, not the general population. Still impressive, though.

Nice post, BTW.

[Ret10Echo]

Any changes would require a fairly long period to implement. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this either internally or externally. I am more interested to see how French foreign policy may or may not change. They face some fairly serious domestic issues that spill over into that area.

Apologies for going off half-cocked.

Pegasus….The name was from Motorola, but the concept preceded them In the auto industry the application of the idea was executed by the Japanese the big 3 lagged behind in the concept minus the brief flare during the gas crisis.

http://www.asq.org/pub/sixsigma/past...2i4folaron.pdf

1798: Eli Whitney, Mass Production and Interchangeable Parts
• Need for consistency.
• Identification of defects.
1924: Walter Shewhart
• Process oriented thinking.
• Control charts (assignable and common cause).
1945: The Japanese Quality Movement Begins
• Statistical methods and use of statisticians.
• Continuous improvement (plan-do-study-act)
methodology.
• Active engagement of management and involvement
of everyone.
• Diagnostic and remedial journeys.
1973: The Japanese Make Their Move
• Quick response to changing customer needs.
1980: Philip Crosby and Quality Is Free
• Methodology to achieve companywide quality
improvement.
• Improve product, process and service. Strive for
perfection.
1987: International Organization for Standardization
• Widespread sharing of basic elements of sound
quality systems.
• Organizational rally cry for improvement.
1987: Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
• Sharing best practices.
• Strong focus on customers and results.
1987: Motorola and Six Sigma
• Focus on customer needs and comparison of process
performance to those needs.
• Structured methodology with discipline and proven
business results.
1960-1995: Other Initiatives
• Tools to be used by everyone in the organization.

Mdb23……My view of Detroit comes from an immediate family member who worked at corporate in what was supposed to be a Six-Sigma group that was quickly dissolved when gas prices started to squeeze and the reorganization started. He was frustrated over the uphill battle in trying to bring into practice the concepts and the fact that hands were tied due to contractual obligations that no one was going to budge on (labor or management). Interesting in the different perspective based on what side of the table you are sitting.

[82ndtrooper]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

Any changes would require a fairly long period to implement. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this either internally or externally. I am more interested to see how French foreign policy may or may not change. They face some fairly serious domestic issues that spill over into that area.

Apologies for going off half-cocked.

Pegasus….The name was from Motorola, but the concept preceded them In the auto industry the application of the idea was executed by the Japanese the big 3 lagged behind in the concept minus the brief flare during the gas crisis.

http://www.asq.org/pub/sixsigma/past...2i4folaron.pdf

1798: Eli Whitney, Mass Production and Interchangeable Parts
• Need for consistency.
• Identification of defects.
1924: Walter Shewhart
• Process oriented thinking.
• Control charts (assignable and common cause).
1945: The Japanese Quality Movement Begins
• Statistical methods and use of statisticians.
• Continuous improvement (plan-do-study-act)
methodology.
• Active engagement of management and involvement
of everyone.
• Diagnostic and remedial journeys.
1973: The Japanese Make Their Move
• Quick response to changing customer needs.
1980: Philip Crosby and Quality Is Free
• Methodology to achieve companywide quality
improvement.
• Improve product, process and service. Strive for
perfection.
1987: International Organization for Standardization
• Widespread sharing of basic elements of sound
quality systems.
• Organizational rally cry for improvement.
1987: Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
• Sharing best practices.
• Strong focus on customers and results.
1987: Motorola and Six Sigma
• Focus on customer needs and comparison of process
performance to those needs.
• Structured methodology with discipline and proven
business results.
1960-1995: Other Initiatives
• Tools to be used by everyone in the organization.

Mdb23……My view of Detroit comes from an immediate family member who worked at corporate in what was supposed to be a Six-Sigma group that was quickly dissolved when gas prices started to squeeze and the reorganization started. He was frustrated over the uphill battle in trying to bring into practice the concepts and the fact that hands were tied due to contractual obligations that no one was going to budge on (labor or management). Interesting in the different perspective based on what side of the table you are sitting.

Is there really any difference between the automobile sector and airline trasportation industry ? Not really. One is transpo and one is manufacturing. However both have similar problems that are restrictive to growth and earnings. Remember, the shareholders own the company and the bottom line is to increase per share earnings on a quarterly basis. Shareholders rarely are patient and they rarely like to invest in UAW and Airline Unions. If the price of Delta Airlines is not indicative then what is ? It's currently at .04 a share. That's market efficiency at it's best and Delta is willing to what ever it takes to begin to show shareholders a quarter worth writing up in the Wall Street Journal. Market efficiencies are present. I haven't flown Delta for about 15 years. Air Tran and U.S.Air is alway's half to a third of the cost of flying Delta if your willing to stop over in Charlotte N.C. or Chicago Midway. This is akin to buying a Japenese car vs an GM. Competition gives the consumer what they want and need for a cheaper price. However, the if the airines are bailed out like Lee Iococca did with Chrysler then the tax payer get hit with IOU that is later written off and then given loans approved by congress to further their debt on the balance sheets, still yet to be payed by Chrysler. The same hold true of how NYC has stayed afloat for all these years with entitlement programs for the minorities. It just simply neve works and robs the tax payers of much needed money.

France has stumbled around for years trying to give it's citizens the Health Care entitlement and to improve it's GDP, but with a sluggish work ethic and little incentive for growth, what's the use? Just keep sipping wine and eating crumpets.

The 85% voter turnout figure was for registered voters which accounts for rouphly only 60% of the nations citizens. How does that compare to our numbers ?

[mdb23]

Originally Posted by 82ndtrooper

The 85% voter turnout figure was for registered voters which accounts for rouphly only 60% of the nations citizens. How does that compare to our numbers ?

I understand this, which is why I said that 85% of the French voting population turned out.

In contrast, according to the US Census Bureau, only 72 percent of those eligible to vote even register to do so, and about 64 percent of that group voted in the 2004 Presidential election.

President Bush received 51 percent of that vote (62 million votes), which puts the total number of votes at 124 million (roughly). The total US population is 300 million,

The French certainly outdo us when it comes to voter participation.