Thursday May 24, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

GM ending Nummi joint venture with Toyota

Business Jun. 30, 2009 - 02:18PM JST ( 7 )

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7 Comments

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torsoahoJun. 30, 2009 - 03:49PM JST

Smart move by GM. Toyota, with all their recalls, has been nothing but a ball and chain the last few years. GM is ready to move on to EV's and I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to share the technology or rewards with a company like Toyota.
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KwaabishJun. 30, 2009 - 08:14PM JST

NUMMI was an example shown by Toyota that it could turn around GM's worst plant that it had at the time by implementing the Kaizen program. It pulled it off inspite of having to deal with the old luggage brought by GM called the UAW.

That being said, now that it's "Now endeth the lesson" with GM, Toyota may want to seek to shut this plant down completely so that it can get rid of its only UAW smear in US operations. No need to keep it aroud, even for Prius production; they should move forward with the planned Mississppi plant instead and turn totally UAW free.
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BadseyJun. 30, 2009 - 08:42PM JST

Pontiac Vibe = Toyota Matrix
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usaexpatJun. 30, 2009 - 11:16PM JST

I thought that was one of GM's most efficent plants.
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zurcroniumJun. 30, 2009 - 11:24PM JST

This was a very successful plant after toyota took over a massive failure from GM. Its been run for 25 years with UAW cooperation proving the anti-union folks wrong once again about how labor and management need to work together. Toyota works with labor in Japan at all its plants.

GM has no idea what to make at this plant so they are pulling out. Another management failure dating back to the Roger Smith days of the financing first, fight change second and think about cars third business strategy.
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sfjp330Jul. 01, 2009 - 02:53AM JST

California and western U.S. is still the largest market for Toyota. The location reduces substantial cost for shipment of these autos to these areas. Also, it's centrally located near the port of Oakland (20 miles away) for parts from Japan. Toyota will probably end up negotiating with UAW for a better deal. There are over 11 percent of unemployment in this area and most of the 5400 workers prefer to hold on to the job. At this point, UAW has no leverage on what Toyota wants. If Toyota finds it cost effective and the UAW is flexable, they will stay but at substantial concession.
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sfjp330Jul. 03, 2009 - 02:13AM JST

NUMMI is the only one of Toyota's 12 operations in North America that is unionized, resulting in higher cost to the company. The union's contract expires at end of August 2009. NUMMI also lacks nerby suppliers, which contributes to highest cost plant for Toyota in North America. Gov. Schwarzenegger should offer Toyota the necessary incentives to keep the manufacturering plant in Fremont. Last year NUMMI churned out nearly 300,000 Corollas and Tacomas.