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NYT: GM CEO Has "Presided Over the Most Sweeping Transformation of GM Since the 1920s" (Visit this link)
William J. Holstein, Op-Ed Contributor to the New York Times: Mr. Wagoner has allowed his designers to recapture car design leadership with products like the Cadillac CTS, the Saturn Aura, the new Chevrolet Malibu and the revived and visually dazzling Camaro. The cliché that GM makes only gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles is years out of date. He has reversed management's long practice of meekly going along with the demands of the United Auto Workers, notably with a deal to transfer health care costs to a union-controlled trust over the next two years. During his tenure, as president, then as chief executive, Mr. Wagoner also put in place a previously unthinkable two-tier wage system to reduce the company's average cost per worker; halved the company's unionized work force in the United States through layoffs and plant closures; spun off Delphi Corporation, its largest parts supplier; and sold controlling interest of GMAC, its financing arm. The company has made enormous strides in imitating and improving upon Toyota's lean manufacturing system. At GM plants, gone are the mass assembly techniques pioneered by Henry Ford. Instead, workers are organized in small Japanese-style teams and encouraged to make sure problems are fixed on the spot rather than passed down the line.
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