Wagon Feast Part 5: Equilibrium
I made up a word the other day: homogenuity. It happened when I was looking at the latest crop of SUVs and how their proportions were as similar as their specification. That has made it awfully easy for car companies to now make new models. To be popular you just need to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Get the focus group results and collate them on a global scale. Add them all up, divide by the number of participants and voila: Mr and Mrs. Average. The result is an average motor vehicle. This has been demonstrated in the Australian market with SUVs taking up a massive portion of the new car market, yet barely a single model in this segment ever makes it to the top ten. Why? Because the design of each new SUV is driven by the same thing: Mr and Mrs Average. You don't even have to engineer the new model because it's on the same platform as last time. Play it again Sam, ad infinitum. Homogenuity.
This VF Calais, however, is honed by local tradition, still free from the global average. Exclusive only due to circumstance, not capability, this is the cherry that I believe GM needs to share with the world. In the mean time, I'll just share it with you.
Have you ever heard the term, "there's no point re-inventing the wheel"? Essentially it means, do not invest more resources in a project when the result is more or less going to be the same. It is the catch cry of business efficiency and lean managers everywhere particularly when times are tough, and also echoes my new word, Homogenuity. This lean management reduces development costs and ensures that new products can get to market with less investment.
Often however, in application it stifles progress, lets sleeping dogs lie and essentially removes any chance at innovation.
Read More HERE
14 August 2013
Michael McWilliams
GMInsidenews.com
Australia Correspondent
Michael McWilliams
GMInsidenews.com
Australia Correspondent
I made up a word the other day: homogenuity. It happened when I was looking at the latest crop of SUVs and how their proportions were as similar as their specification. That has made it awfully easy for car companies to now make new models. To be popular you just need to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Get the focus group results and collate them on a global scale. Add them all up, divide by the number of participants and voila: Mr and Mrs. Average. The result is an average motor vehicle. This has been demonstrated in the Australian market with SUVs taking up a massive portion of the new car market, yet barely a single model in this segment ever makes it to the top ten. Why? Because the design of each new SUV is driven by the same thing: Mr and Mrs Average. You don't even have to engineer the new model because it's on the same platform as last time. Play it again Sam, ad infinitum. Homogenuity.
This VF Calais, however, is honed by local tradition, still free from the global average. Exclusive only due to circumstance, not capability, this is the cherry that I believe GM needs to share with the world. In the mean time, I'll just share it with you.
Have you ever heard the term, "there's no point re-inventing the wheel"? Essentially it means, do not invest more resources in a project when the result is more or less going to be the same. It is the catch cry of business efficiency and lean managers everywhere particularly when times are tough, and also echoes my new word, Homogenuity. This lean management reduces development costs and ensures that new products can get to market with less investment.
Often however, in application it stifles progress, lets sleeping dogs lie and essentially removes any chance at innovation.
Read More HERE
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