At the Bash

At the bash

UP FRONT

David Edwards

A FEW MONTHS AGO, A JAPANESE Gov-

ernmental official called American workers lazy and illiterate. One of our officials was quick to respond that Americans were smart enough and diligent enough in 1945 to build and drop the Atomic Bomb. Which only goes to prove, I suppose, that there are tactless idiots on both sides of the Pacific.

Blame it on the recession, blame it on the trade imbalance, blame it on rampant xenophobia, but Japan-bashing is on the rise in this country. It seems you can’t open a paper or watch a TV newscast without running into the ugly phenomenon.

The practice is nothing new at Pub 44 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, 30 miles south of Daytona Beach, where for the past 10 years, some Cycle Week celebrants have been getting together to witness the sledgehammer destruction of Japanese motorcycles.

This year’s victim was a 1972 TX750, Yamaha’s promising but illfated parallel-Twin that was discontinued after one year’s production due to overheating problems and insurmountable difficulties with the engine’s “Omni-Phase” balancing system. As Japanese bikes go, the TX is rare, but not very collectible. In any event, it deserved a better fate than being led to slaughter at some roadside gin mill.

The destruction began when a volunteer approached the bike. “He revved the motorcycle, drained earlier of oil, and held the throttle wide open,” reported the Daytona Beach News-Journal the next day. “The bike screamed and buzzed for 2 minutes and 28 seconds, smoke pouring from the tortured engine. Then, with a pop from the tailpipes, the bike died-its insides fused from the tremendous heat build-up.”

The crowd of 10,000 roared its approval, the paper went on to report.

Next came the sledgehammer blows, led off by a World War II Navy veteran who had paid $20 for the honor of having the first whack at the Yamaha. “He quickly got carried away and hammered at it repeatedly until security guards stopped him,” the article said.

Apparently there was enough machine left for perhaps 100 other people-each paying a dollar-to take a swing at the bike, which was soon reduced to rubble.

One of the bashers, reported the News-Journal, wasn’t satisfied with the damage his hammer blow had dealt, and proceeded to stomp the TX’s remains with his boots. “I hate ’em,” he said of Japanese-made bikes, “I hate ’em. Buy American for Americans.” Look, I’m no economist or geopolitician, but this kind of behavior by Americans is silly and embarrassing. Like it or not, Japan is a world power. That’s reality, and it’s not going to change anytime soon, if ever. It was Paul Tsongas, that Elmer Fuddian presidential candidate, who put things into perspective when he gave the best sound-bite of the primaries. “The Cold War is over,” he said. “And Japan won.” Economist and author Jonathan Rauch, writing in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, said of Japan’s standing in the new world order, “Admiration is commanded. Awe, even. This was all rubble 45 years ago.”

Well, not much awe and admiration was being shown by the bike-bashers at Florida’s Pub 44, most of whom rode up on Harley-Davidsons. But they might be surprised to learn that their lack of respect doesn’t play at Harley’s headquarters on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee. In fact, in an ironic twist, the use of Japanese‘components (suspension systems, carburetors, electrics) and the adaptation of Japanese manufacturing techniques are two of the main ingredients in the current Harley-Davidson success story.

In 1982, shortly after the company had purchased itself back from parent company AMF, Harley managers and engineers toured Honda’s Marysville, Ohio, plant to compare manufacturing techniques. “At first, we found it hard to believe that we could be that bad. But we were,” said Vaughn Beals, then Harley-Davidson’s chairman of the board and one of the chief architects of H-D’s 1980s turnaround. Harley did more research, and the revelations continued. Listen to Beals, as quoted in Peter C. Reid’s excellent and insightful book, Well Made in America: “We discovered that the key reason for our lack of competitiveness was poor management-by worldwide, not U.S. standards. We were being wiped out by the Japanese because they were better managers. It wasn’t robotics, or culture, or morning calisthenics and company songs. It was professional managers who understood their business and paid attention to detail.”

Tom Gelb, senior vice president of operations in 1982, put it more bluntly. “We have to play the game the way the Japanese play it,” he told Harley employees, “Or we’re dead.”

The double-irony here is that the Japanese manufacturing techniques that helped keep Harley alive-bettermanaged inventory, meaningful employee involvement and self-inspection for quality-control-were actually developed by an American, W. Edwards Deming, in the late 1940s to help revive Japan’s war-ravaged industries. It would be another 35 years before complacent U.S. companies adopted Deming’s strategies, and then it was almost too late.

One of the lessons in all of this is that just as the Japanese learned from us after WWII, we are now learning from them, the result being better American products, which should lead to more American jobs. That’s just what happened at Harley-Davidson. I’m afraid, though, that supposition would fall on deaf ears and closed minds at Pub 44.

You see, the TX750 was made in Japan. But the lack of understanding, the misplaced anger and, yes, the false patriotism that destroyed it were, unfortunately, manufactured right here in the USA.