And on the flipside ...
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even more to come if you believe this prediction:
blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/peterfoster/aug06/me...m
" .... merchant banker who specializes in mergers and acquisitions. Don?t nod off at this point, particularly if you live in Europe and think the world owes you a living. There?s a nasty shock coming up. ..... ..... stagnating wages for the professional classes, job losses for the lower and middle orders and (it goes without saying) massive profits for the Private Equity men. .....
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Swindon due to demand of the new Honda Civic.....
No no NO, that cant be right., All the doom mongers and soothsayers on here claimed that Honda had married the spawn of satan with the devils womb to create something as hideous as the new civic, and we would be drowning in fields of unsold Hondas.......
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Management is a British diesease.
Other countries have their most productive and experienced emplyees running their specialist areas, whereas we put people who are useless in management positions, this is also what soviet regimes did. Hence the Trabant and Yugo and Rover.
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Civic seems to be selling well in my part of the world - keep seeing more every day, mind you there is a Honda dealer only about 5 miles away.
On the topic of management, I am fortunate in working in Germany a lot of the time. They have properly educated managers over there who often have shop floor experience and understand the processes and technology they are dealing with, not to mention reasonable people skills.
Most British managers are totally useless and most have their heads so far up their own backsides its unbelievable. Their main talents seem to be overweening ambition and networking (i.e. pretending to like people they actually don't like for the sole purpose of career progression).
I am currently working on developing a small item of assembly equipment with a medium size British company. The manager of the branch I am working with is about 30 and appears to have got the job soley because his father is someone important in another part of the company. He is ignorant of the technologies involved, arrogant, rude and abrupt toward the (very good and much more experienced) engineers who he 'manages'. He seems to think its smart to publically dress down employees. The company have a potentially excellent product, but this guy is going to sink it before its even launched.
On another theme, I well remember being in a meeting at Rover when the new mini was in the final stages of development. There were German (BMW) and British (Rover) department managers at the meeting. I was sitting next to the wonderfully named Dr Holzapfel (it means 'wooden apple' in German) who was leading the interior trim. One of the British guys opposite announced himself as the 'Kaizen Expert' (Kaizen is all about continuous improvement and the elimination of waste). Dr Holzapfel asked how much experience of Kaizen the guy had - 'six weeks' came the reply. "In Germany it usually takes much longer than that to become an expert, but then this is England of course", came the response!
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Great post Aprilia.
I too have experience of UK managers, like you say - no shop floor experience and utterly appalling people skills. My friend who works in IT is nearly at breaking point due to one, and i almost walked out of my post several years ago for the same reason.
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A neighbour turned up last night in a new Civic, thankfully it was in the garage this morning so i didn't have to look at the hideous thing :-).
He must have reversing sensors as he was playing 'reverse up to the garage door and hear the bongs' for ages last night!
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Workers need good management............period.
If the above is in place then the unions are not necessary, so I believe you cannot really blame the unions.
Look at the British motorcycle industry of the late 60's early 70's. No investment, along come the Japanese and bang....you're history.
I know a motorcycle road racer from this period who went to ride for Yamaha. He was a time serverd engineer in the aircraft industry and when he visited the Japanese factory he couldn't believe the state of the art engineering. He said it was years ahead of what he was used too. The manufacturing tolerances that Yamaha could built their production machines too "blew his mind".
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I know a motorcycle road racer from this period who went to ride for Yamaha. He was a time serverd engineer in the aircraft industry and when he visited the Japanese factory he couldn't believe the state of the art engineering. He said it was years ahead of what he was used too. The manufacturing tolerances that Yamaha could built their production machines too "blew his mind".
All very true. There is a quantum difference given to the importance of engineering in Japan, Germany and other countries. If the Japs and Germans have problems they throw some engineers and money at the problem and try to design and innovate their way out of it. The British do things differently - we sack a few engineers to save money and then employ some extra accountants to juggle the figures and make the balance sheet look better for the shareholders.
I understand that the UK has tenfold the number of accountants that Germany has - and don't we know it!
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I firmly believe that if you tell a layman in Britain that you are an engineer, most will imagine you in a boiler suit with a open-ended spanner hanging from your back-side pocket!
In Germany at least this profession carries some respect.
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In Germany at least this profession carries some respect.
And generally a very good salary!
It often amazes me that so many British people take a pride in their ignorance of engineering, and also maths. I'm also dismayed at the way the British equate use of CAD packages with engineering prowess. CAD is a useful tool, but is not a substitute for a sound knowledge of engineering principles. CAD of course is relatively cheap to teach (you just need a roomful of PC's and some 'educational' software licences) so cash-strapped colleges and universities tend to shut their traditional engineering labs, sack the technicians and park the kids in front of Pro-Engineer, or whatever. The old labs can then be refurbished and filled with students from the oversubscribed Business Studies courses who do 'case studies' on how management gurus like Tom Peters managed to turn around a near-bankrupt sausage making company in Alabama. Sorry to sound so cynical, but its sadly true.
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Maybe I'm being paranoid, but when I go into mainland Europe to work on-site, the receptionists at factories generaly seem more accommodating than the ones in the UK?
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I have noticed that in Germany ,I am sure they realise without you nothing works even themselves.
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One can only judge my ones own experience but my experience of German workers was entirely negative.
In 2001 I was sent to look at a German company that would go bankrupt if they did not change.
When any change was proposed the response form the workers would be either:
1. No. or;
2. Where is my re-training and my re-grading and pay rise?
We decided not to invest and the company went bankrupt.
Too young to remember much of the unions 70's heyday, the only thing I know about Red Robbo is what I read in books but seems similar.
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Too young to remember much of the unions 70's heyday, the only thing I know about Red Robbo is what I read in books but seems similar.
Hardly.....
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i think you'll find that Germany has gone through the pain that we did... and France come to that. There has to be a decent balance between preventing workers exploitation and receiving unsustainable demands that eventually won't be afforded, by either the company or even the country. I'm no Economist, but i'd hazard a guess France will have to change dramatically in the next 5 - 10 years, maybe even Germany.
Red Robbo was a thorough pain in the backside..... more interested in his politics than truly looking after the car workers...... what was the point of striking to get another unaffordable pay rise, if the future for the company was doom and failure.
Real shame, because British car products before that era were the envy of the world ( before anyone thinks i'm summising about Allegros, Maxi's, Marina' etc i'm not........ more along the lines of: Jag XJ6, Rover P6 2000/3500, Jag E Type, Mini, even the moggy minor)
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">British car products before that era were the envy of the world<"
The world couldn't get enough of British cars and 'bikes after WW2. British senior management sat on their backsides and refused to invest in new products whilst watching the money rolling in, good short term profits but the approach killed large scale British-owned car/bike manufacturing.
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i don't understand any of this carpin against british workers and management.
especially with this good news story, we should be celebrating the success (even if the company in question is honda, because the ownership is not entirely non-british; our pension funds have holdings in their shares via japanese funds).
also, remember britain is the 5th largest economy. usa and japan are very big, but the difference betwen germany, china and uk is marginal.
if we look at gdp per capita figures then we are in the top 20, and the difference between britain, germany, and france is wafer thin. on that measure the top5 such as the usa, norway, iceland, and a few other countries outdo us by 50% or more. china drops way down in this measure to somewhere near no.90.
so be happy, and rejoice in britains strength.
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also, remember britain is the 5th largest economy. usa and japan are very big, but the difference betwen germany, china and uk is marginal.
Oh Strewth. Six or seven years ago the Chinese economy was half the size of ours. Now it's about the same and their growth is accelerating. The state of California's is bigger with half the population. And we no longer compete with Germany and France, but the Eurozone. A couple of years ago people were jumping up and down and saying "But we're the fourth largest economy!" The truth is we're small fry and our impressive per capita gdp is down to the "output" of of the City of London. Maybe we'll figure it out some time soon and think of a way to live with it. We'd better, because the gamblers in the Square Mile have no national loyalty. And why should they?
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But it's the individuals as opposed to the profession who are the blame for the downgrading of the term 'engineer'.
The youth who turns up at my office to fix the photocopier calls himself an 'engineer'. There's a car repair garage not far from here that calls themselves 'Automotive engineers'. They are not. Important though the work they do is, they are technicians.
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as opposed to the profession
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so how is it that other professions, eg. architects, pharmacists, dentists, doctors, barristers, are able to protect their status but the engineers are unable to do so? in the end, it comes down to how protective any profession is of its hard earned status.
in germany, it is considered an honour to be able to use the title/designation "ing" - to signify that you are an engineer.
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This topic comes up in every issue of Professional Engineer, the newsletter of the IMechE. It's a little bit like some of the recurring threads which pop up on here.
The list given by Dalglish is dominated by professions which have legal protection. If I started calling myself an architect, it wouldn't be long before I was in court. There's no similar protection for the title of engineer.
As you may know, I am proud of my status as an engineer, and I do tend to correct people when they say "The engineer came out and fixed my washing machine". Grrr!! But, I think that some companies have given their staff the title of engineer, mainly to justify charging out for their labour at a higher hourly rate - think BT, British Gas, photo-copier companies, etc.
For my own view, I think it is too late to protect the title of engineer - it has already been corrupted and misused. I think a title more along the lines of mechanical / electrical / electronic architect would be easier to protect, and perhaps closer to being a transparent explanation of what engineers really do.
Number_Cruncher
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The manufacturing tolerances that Yamaha could built their production machines too "blew his mind". >> All very true.
Yamaha perfected the 2 stroke and, when they turned their heads to 4 strokes they were soon at the top of the tree, they arguably make the most advanced motorcycle engines currently, no other manufacturer has 15000 + rpm engines that dont need a valve clearance checks for 27,000 miles, and from what I hear of the 2007 models they will retain that advantage. They are also acknowledged as the best outboard motors.
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