From: jim@mwhhlaw (James P. Cavanaugh III)
Subject: Re: saturn/OLDs speculation
Organization: Martin Wade Hartley & Hollingsworth
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 13:35:39 GMT

	Has anyone noticed that GM's only successful division (Saturn)  
is the only division that operates the way all GM divisions used to  
operate (ie- independently)?
	Back when Alfred Sloan built GM into the greatest industrial  
enterprise on the planet, he did it around this theory:  Centralized  
planning, decentralized operations.
	GM headquarters was there to position the 5 car divisions in  
the market and to set limits so that, for example, Chevy wasn't  
building cars in Buick territory.
	From there, with each division sure of it's mission, it was up  
to each division to engineer, style, build and sell the cars.   
Component sharing was quite limited even through most of the 1960s.   
The primary shared component was the inner body structures.  The end  
result was a Buick wholly different from an Olds, with different  
engines, transmissions, brakes, etc.
	Somewhere in the 60s, those roles broke down.  GMs central  
planners began to take more and more control over the cars themselves.   
By the mid 70s, there was very little difference between, say, a Chevy  
Caprice and a Buick LeSabre.  All cars were built by the GM Assembly  
Division.  Engines and transmissions (and most other parts) became  
"corporate" parts, rather than those of a single division.  The result  
has become 3, 4 or 5 flavors of a single car, with no differences other  
than exterior trim.
	While GM brass was micromanaging the work of the divisions,  
they were not looking at how their cars fit in the market.  In the 50s,  
GM blanketed the market with 3 platforms (the A, B and C bodies) built  
by 5 divisions.  Today, I've lost count of the number of platforms  
used, and the number of variations of each.  I am amazed at how they  
have allowed Chevy and Cadillac to share a platform (as in the new  
Fleetwood).  Why is Chevy selling the Caprice?  Why is Buick selling  
the Skylark?  (My guess?  Chevy wants to fight with Ford.  Ford has  
never had an effective medium price market presence, so Ford division  
must necessarily be broad.  GM central planners have never stood up and  
told Chevy to let Olds or Buick battle a particular Ford model, and the  
result is an over broad Chevy range, plus the cars from the other  
divisions too.)  It seems to me that they either need to stake out  
market territory for each division and limit the models available from  
them, or follow the path of Ford, Toyota and Nissan and turn the low  
price brand into a contender in all but the very high end markets.
	Saturn is the one GM product that is unique from other GM cars,  
which is how all GM cars once were.  The whole operation is done "in  
house" so that Saturn management is responsible for the final product.   
If the car isn't well built, or well engineered, it's not "somebody  
else's fault".  The difference between Saturn and, say, Olds, is that  
Saturn can make a commitment to quality and keep it.  Olds doesn't  
design most of the parts and doesn't build the car.  Olds only styles  
it and sells it.  Olds can have all the quality commitment in the  
world, but it has lonly limited power to make it happen.
	In my view, GM either needs to become a 2 division company with  
one division being the full line producer and Cadillac staking out the  
high end, or stick with the 6 divisions and severely limit the product  
available to each (I mean 2 or 3 models apiece).  (and this means that  
Chevy says bye bye to Caprice, Corvette, Camaro and several other cars.   
Those cars may still be built, but by other divisions).
	Just my 2 cents.

Jim Cavanaugh
Newsgroups: rec.autos