How GM can repay the government and taxpayers.

The bailouts have become a huge political issue. I wrote a paper for school about why Japanese automakers produced cheaper cars and outperformed American companies. The biggest reason was the Japanese use of "lean manufacturing".
Basically, by giving their factory workers autonomy to stop the line to fix errors, use their ideas to work more efficiently and listen to their ideas for overall better practices, by allowing their factories to quickly and easily retool to produce different cars, and simplifying the manufacturing process they were able to avoid losing time and wasting product because of mistakes(>5% compared to roughly 30% of total cars), produce more cars in a shorter time, and waste less product by adjusting output to meet demand, an area of huge loss to GM. When the market demanded more of a certain model over another they could retool cheaply and quickly to meet demand. Their focus on labor also provided a better employee leading to better products. Like German companies, Japanese workers have flexibility, responsibility, and input in their jobs, which gives them pride in their work. The pride and allowing them to work how they thought was best and the responsibility of stopping the line to fix problems ended up saving billions compared to GM. Overall, the Japanese were more efficient, flexible, and wasted less, allowing them to produce cheaper cars.

GM has since caught on and started implementing lean manufacturing processes and they have returned to profitability. Repayment of their bail outloan money was good, but what would be invaluable would be introducing lean manufacturing techniques to the government. Quite simply, teach the government how to be more productive and provide better service using less resources by cutting waste and becoming more flexible and efficient.

The government is notorious for beaurocracy. It takes 20 people, 15 forms, $50, and 3 agencies a year to order toilet paper. Just think of all the intelligence and law enforcement agencies, all of which overlap to some extent. If the government consolidated them all into one agency each it could save billions of dollars and an unimaginable amount of time by eliminating all the time, resources, and manpower wasted on doing the same job 10 times rather than the one time required. I understand the reasons behind a separate naval air force, but imagine the billions that could be saved by consolidating the naval, army, and air force's flight programs under the air force. One pilot school, one research and development program, and less equipment(planes, helicopters, maintenance equipment, ect), resources(land, fuel), and manpower could cut billions from the budget and promote inter-service cooperation. The opportunities for "leaning" are endless.
Making the government more efficient would also have an enormous on the economy, government, and society. Cutting out unnecessary administrative, executive and legal red tape and processes in getting things done would save time and make it more productive. The IRS and our mind-numbing tax code is the most obvious example but there are opportunities to cut unnecessary bureaucracy everywhere. The 3,000 page health care bill is a great example. Do with 100 pages what it used to do in 3,000. Instead of making it impossible to get anything done, for example getting jammed up in court with loop holes or having to jump through 20 hoops for social security the government needs to make the processes more efficient by cutting out redundant unnecessary steps, which would free up resources to catch fraud and find waste. Even the principle of giving employees more pride and responsibility will help make the government more lean. If each employee were given the authority to make decisions on how to improve their job and to decide on when/how to act, rather than pass it up the bureaucratic ladder, and being responsible for the outcome government agencies would get more done with fewer mistakes and poor decisions. For example, giving the low level social security employees the flexibility to collect the information they need the best way possible and to make quick decisions based on that information, being held responsible for both positive and negative results, rather than following inefficient protocol and sending the info to one or more different people who are unfamiliar with the person's case, it would make the notoriously bad process of getting help easier, faster, and with less mistakes, and allow resources to be used to catch those cheating the system.

I know this sounds obvious but GM had to go into bankruptcy before it implemented similar changes. American thinking is often that bigger is better, but not in this case. I'm not suggesting the government cut programs or services, but rather provide those services cheaper and more efficiently. It has the potential to cut the deficit down a large amount, even completely, without having to cut services. I think a big miscommunication between democrats and republicans happens when the right says government is too big. Yes, the right is often opposed to new programs, but few would cut any of the existing ones. Instead I think most would agree that cutting the waste and multiple programs and employees doing the job of one is far more important. The government isn't the only one who needs to learn from the Japanese; we all need to tighten up and live within our means, from the health care industry(they need this badly, prices are out of control) down to the average family(e.g. Cut food waste, unnecessary gas use). At the end of the day, like GM, the government and the people aren't going to have a choice. It's time to lean down and live within our means to become an efficient, sustainable society. If we don't start making these tough choices soon it'll be too late and the American dream will be over.


(please excuse any mistakes and the quality. I wrote this on my iPod, the lean idea came to me and the mood hit me to write about it, I couldn't stop it. I'll revise it this weekend. Thanks.)