I think I read just about every book ever written about my clients at GM and Chrysler from the mid-80's to the mid-00's and I also read 'The Machine That Changed The World' about Toyota's lean manufacturing system in the 90's. 'Machine' remains the best book about the automotive industry that I have read. This book could be sub-titled "how Honda and Toyota differ". The difference is meaningful. It describes Toyota as a structured, rigid and top-down company where there is a plan, program or system for everything. Yes, Toyota receives feedback from the factory floor but everything is done the Toyota way. In contrast, at Honda the goal is established and then a very flat, decentralized system, staffed from top to bottom with 'gear heads', achieves the goal. And the accomplishments have been many: largest motorcycle company in the world only a decade after establishment; first automobile engine to meet new 1970's EPA requirements while the industry was saying it couldn't be done; first successful foreign auto plant in the US (Marysville, Ohio in 1982); first company to manufacture in China; etc. etc. Nonetheless, I had trouble with the structure of the book which uses sequential chapters based on some of Soichiro Honda's unique philosophies. That said, I loved my Honda Accord and Acura RL (both over 10 years old and running like new). Honda was the third foreigner and first Japanese to be admitted to the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit in 1989.
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