Future Toyota Prius Hybrid

A MODERN PARABLE . .

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

Sadly, The End.

Here's something else to think about:
Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages.

TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results:

TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WEREN'T TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.

 

Dang, I love that.

 

You would not believe how similar Motorola is to that story. I mean frightenly similar. They had 3 managers for every worker in the South Florida location. When the higher ups in Illinois (headquarters) saw how much labor costs were (because the staff was composed mostly of overpaid managers) they laid everyone off and moved the work to India.

What was funny is before the work was moved to India they were told to reduce the labor costs (while still in South Florida). So of course the managers were to make the decision who stayed and who left. So the managers banded together and layed off most of the engineers. In the end the ratio was about 6 to 1 (Managers to engineers) That lasted about a year and then the work was moved over-seas.

But even that was a disaster. They initially moved the work to Russia. But after a year they figured out that the Russians could not get a stable electrical grid. So they had to move the work again to India. What a cluster @#ck. Anyway the higher ups in Illinois got huge bonuses after everything settled, when the labor costs went way down.

 

I am still hoping that Toyota will eventually offer a PLUG-IN Prius. Just think, with it all of your local errands would be polution free - and not a drop of gasoline would be needed.

Hopefully, Toyota will offer one by 2012.

 

Not an alternative for those of us living in a condo...

 

Yes Jim, That's what I was trying like everything to hold out for but it just didn't happen soon enough. I figure if the PHEVs are a couple of years off we'll just trade the 2010 in on one; here's hoping!

 

It won't be pollution free. Coal/oil is used to produce electricity.

 

You might be interested to read article #2 in this link: Plug-In Hybrids (or Plugin Hybrids)

radio

 

Not mine. I pay a premium to my chosen electric company to get 100% of my household electricity from renewable sources (hydro, solar, wind, biomass). I do a lot of short errands (small town) so if I could plug in my Prius I could go nearly pollution free, other than oil changes and longer trips. If I could get a 40mi range on electric-only, 99% of my driving could be zero emissions.

 

Yes, reduced CO2 emissions is the important part, but unless someone takes the step rachealseven did, it's technically still not pollution free.

 

While it is true that a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) such as a Prius would not be 100% pollution free, it would be a far, far cry from the gasoline gulping vehicles on the road today. Hopefully PHEVs will gradually replace these polluters. When that happens, our planet (and us) will be much healthier. Power plants do not pollute nearly as much as the millions of gas hogs now in use. Go to CALCARS for the numbers, if you so desire.