The task restrictions drive up GM's manufacturing costs. But the automaker has been reluctant to pass those along to buyers and risk losing their business to lower-priced rivals. So it has eaten the higher costs and earned less profit per vehicle than Ford or Chrysler. We have to compete around the world. That's a fact of life.
Japanese automakers have that down to a science.
They charge inflated prices at home, where arcane rules make it hard for outsiders to compete, and use those domestic profits to underwrite expansions abroad. To battle such tactics, GM has no choice but to cut costs, Hackworth says. GM didn't invent globalization. GM contends that 1,500 workers there haven't kept a pledge to change procedures the automaker believes slow production. Overall, GM considers the plant one of its best but has to make sure each operation runs efficiently, Hackworth says.