Academic study on changing production techniques at Porsche (Japanese consultants!)

[PSportoVeloce]

Well, as some of you have seen, I've written an academic study on how production techniques have changed at Porsche, particularly when the Japanese consultants were retained to introduce "lean production".

Here's the finished draft of the paper of those interested. I bet this is going to start some controversy...where's the popcorn?

http://www.stanford.edu/~dtscott/mse181.html

[the]

It's a good read, by IMO hardly controversial. Well written, but no new info there, IMO.

[PSportoVeloce]

Originally Posted by the

It's a good read, by IMO hardly controversial. Well written, but no new info there, IMO.

I would have thought so too but check this out:

Originally Posted by rusnak

I have to categorically refute the statement that any Japanese consultant has ever saved Porsche from bankruptcy. That is overstating for dramatic effect, and not only is not supported by fact, but completely misleads. Porsche has probably THE strongest brand identity in the business, and especially among independent car companies this brand identity is the very reason for their success over time. The reason I say that is that no company can remain stagnant and maintain any positive image. You have to evolve and adapt with the times in order to maintain excellence.

Today Porsche the company, not any one model, is known for quality, performance, and reliability. How did the acheive that? How was that image maintained, and in many ways, enhanced? Was it racing? Was it mere aesthetics? I don't think you can say any Japanese consultant had anything to do with it, and to say any one car model is responsible is to completely misunderstand what Porsche has done, and why it is a respected company in so many ways.

I think your paper would be much more interesting if you look at the way Porsche adapted itself to different times and changing needs with different models, different model features such as the impact bumper, the vario cam, antilock brakes, and it's failures such as sportomatic which eventually led to success. You can look at how Porsche has helped other companies such as Harley Davidson maintain it's customers by improving it's quality.

Having said that, "Excellence was Expected" is a great place to start if you want to understand the genesis of the 993. Internally the 964 was a failure. 993 was the result of a lot of navel gazing and was the model that Porsche introduced in order to re-introduce its core values to the market. Chief among those is that a Porsche is agile, as summarized by Peter Falk, former racing department head. Forget about micro issues such as which model is this or that. When you look at batting averages, you look at whole careers, not a single inning vs another single inning. Porsche has an amazing batting average. Who cares about a single inning or a single game? I think the bigger picture is Porsche the brand image, not the 993 brand image. Such thinking is counterintuitive to me.

see this thread for more fireworks: Please vote on which generation of recent 911 has the strongest brand identity