"Listen to Robert Dewar...A Savage Factory, describes the factory floor like a constant war between rival street gangs, management vs the union and workers. His book is well worth the read"--Forbes
"Dewar's tales make you want to sledgehammer a 1975 Ford the way angry UAW workers smashed Hondas for sport...Ford's biggest mistake was to not hire more Bob Dewars." --Cincinnati Enquirer
"According to Dewar, it wasn't poor fuel efficiency, bad design, or foreign cars that rocked the nation's auto industry. It was poor management which resulted in higher and higher labor costs in the auto plants that spawned the beginning of the end of the American car." -- China View
"You portray the situation very fair, don't take the unions side, don't take managements side....an excellent read. It reads more like a novel --America Talks, David Zublick
The NJ Star Ledger Sunday June 7,2009, Paul Mulshine
"Robert J. Dewar.. "A Savage Factory: An Eyewitness Account of the Auto Industry's Self-Destruction" ...tells the tale of his six years working as a foreman in a Ford transmission plant in Ohio back in the 1970s. He describes a Hobbesian world, a war of all against all.
The book is based on copious notes Dewar took back then, but it wasn't published until last month. Dewar says he saw the roots of our current crisis more than 30 years ago, when the Big Three were riding high.
Peter Bronson
Cincinnati.Com » Peter Bronson Last Updated: 11:32 am | Friday, June 5, 2009
Workers at Ford's Sharonville Transmission plant from 1974-79 knew him. He was foreman of Dept. 258. Boss of torque converters. The bleeping "college boy" from Procter & Gamble. The maverick manager who took notes and stuffed memos in his pockets, waiting to save enough money to escape and write an autopsy of the auto industry.
Stubborn unions, a culture of conflict, poor quality and bad political decisions helped cripple Detroit.
Listen to Robert Dewar, who worked at Ford's Sharonville, Ohio, transmission plant in the late 1970s: "Final quality fluctuated with the amount of power granted to the Quality Control Department. When sales were strong and growing, QC was treated like an annoyance that was getting in the way of making the numbers. If a QC supervisor tried to be a hero, and made a stand, production simply went to engineering and got an 'engineering deviation,' which allowed the use of defective parts in the interests of production. So much for control of quality."
Re-Broadcast of Robert Dewar, author of "A Savage Factory: An Eyewitness Account of the Auto Industry's Self-Destruction" joins us to discuss The GM and Chrysler Bankruptcies. Let's talk Monday night!
According to Dewar, it wasn't poor fuel efficiency, bad design, or foreign cars that rocked the nation's auto industry. It was poor management which resulted in higher and higher labor costs in the auto plants that spawned the beginning of the end of the American car.
"Ford took a huge bet on the economy that would recover in a V shape. But if it does not happen, the company will be in big trouble," Bob Dewar, author of the book "A Savage Factory -- An Eyewitness Account of the Auto Industry's Self-Destruction," said.
Tags: General, auto industry, Detroit, Ford, Robert J. Dewar, The Great Debate, UAW
Robert J. Dewar, a former Ford Motor Company general foreman, cites personal experiences as he argues that on-going wars in the auto plants lead to the demise of the industry.
