al Motors begins developing a new product, it starts by assembling a new team to coordinate the production. After this team is assembled, millions of dollars are spent on dispensing and analyzing public surveys, private firms own research, government research, and past car sales to determine what the consumer wants. These specifications include physical dimensions, cost, fuel efficiency, comfort, market price, appearance, and performance. GM then would go on to begin producing the car. The most time consuming step when creating a new model is supplying the specialized pieces of the new model. Some of the parts can be carried over from previous models or other cars, but many times the company has to either create the new pieces themselves or buy them from a large scale supplier, like ITT Automotive. The company then looks for the supplier that will supply the parts the cheapest. After the model car has been created and approved, the plans are made for it to be made on the assembly line. The car is then ready to be sold to the public through private dealerships which, in the US, are not linked with any major automobile manufacturer. GM would then sell its cars to whichever dealership is willing to buy from them. In many Japanese firms, like Toyota, a new system has been created and has been coined lean production. The basic manufacturing ideas are the same, but it emphasizes developing relationships between the company and those it deals with. When Toyota begins developing a new car model, it already has a team assembled which has worked on previous models. The Toyota team then collects the same information about what the public wants just like the GM team but has a much cheaper way of going about it. Unlike the GM firm, Toyota has formed business ties with car dealerships, and in some cases even owns them. These dealerships use a new set of techniques to sell their cars, called aggressive selling, in which a very permanent, personal, and...
