Many a times I wonder why US automakers have failed to maintain the leadership and remain contemporary in technology and management. Why couldn’t GM, Ford, or Chrysler, at least the former two, establish a brand GM Production System or Ford Production System that Toyota or Honda could do? Japan might not have the management schools of the ranking of Stanford, Harvard, or Wharton, but Toyota Production System (TPS) certainly has become something to envy for any global enterprise.

And perhaps Toyota’s built-in strength could make achieve what it did recently. As reported, ‘Toyota has surpassed GM to become number one in auto industry of the world. Toyota ended GM’s 77-year grip on the crown in 2008, according to numbers that came out on Jan. 21, and the Japanese juggernaut did it with authority, selling 8.9 million cars to GM’s 8.35 million. The margin of victory is two auto factories’ worth of production’.

Interestingly, it is not the same GM that had gone ahead of Ford in mid-1930s. Are the people associated with GM morose with the downfall of GM? At least I felt bad, as I was also nearer to GM because of my 37 years of professional career in auto sector with Hindustan Motors that had various collaborations with GM and its associates such as Vauxhall Motors, UK, GM Europe and Isuzu Motors, Japan. I had spent quite some time with the companies and learnt many things.

Surprisingly, Toyota also faced quality problems time and again, but overcame it fast and sustained it. The people working for Toyota develop the products using the inputs from the end users, techniques such as Quality Function Deployment and Quality Engineering. It has all the weaknesses of a big globally spread company, but it has overcome its problems successfully in time. Its response to the market requirements- be it style, price, technology, or quality– has been speedy enough to keep the spirit of continuous improvement alive at all the activity centres of the enterprise.

Its hybrid car Prius is the maximum sold cars with its leadership in the technology for fuel efficiency as well as emission.

It would have been an interesting comparative study if one could study in depth the production systems of Toyota, Honda, GM, and Ford.

Every auto enthusiast has a question today if the bailout to US car makers will succeed to bring them back on the right track. Unfortunately, the US automakers always resist and oppose the basic and necessary reform such as one by California’s emission norms for long years till it is imposed and the compliance is made mandatory. I am sure it must be having a demoralizing effect on the technocrats responsible to work for the reforms and to take proactive steps.

Ford has promised to raise its fuel-economy standards 26 percent above 2005 levels by 2012, and 36 percent above the same baseline by 2015. General Motors, for its part, has vowed fleet-wide fuel-efficiencies of 37.3 miles a gallon for cars, and 27.5 mpg for trucks, by 2012. Will they be able to comply with that? It will be interesting to watch if US automakers survive and lead or go down like the big US machine tools and equipment manufacturers.

Perhaps one sure way out for US with its superior R&D capability and great research institutions, may be through leading the innovation for powering autos through alternative sources of energy. Can Obama, the latest American hope, make US automakers change and win?