Porsche Back in the Fast Lane

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Business Management Name _________________________________ A Case for Critical Thinking Porsche—Back in the Fast Lane The German automaker Porsche enjoyed a long ride of success with its sleek, high-performance sports cars, cruising straight into the hearts of both consumers and racing fans with the introduction of its first model back in 1948. Producing such classics as the 356, the 550 Spyder, and the legendary 911, Porsche garnered a winning reputation for engineering excellence and for its victories in the racing world. Owning a Porsche became the ultimate fantasy of car lovers around the world, and the company's annual sales grew to more than 50,000 cars by the mid-1980s. Then everything changed, driving Porsche toward a collision course with disaster. Headed for a Crash Faced with a global recession during the early 1990s, consumers postponed buying cars—especially expensive sports cars. Demand dropped sharply for Porsche's 911 model, and sales plummeted by nearly 75 percent. By the time Wendelin Wiedeking took over the company's production and materials management, Porsche was racing toward record losses of $150 million. Few people believed Wiedeking could get Porsche back on track. After all, the German engineer was the fourth person in five years to manage the company. But Wiedeking was determined to save Porsche from bankruptcy. "It was a question of 'to be or not to be'—as simple as that," Wiedeking recalls. Steering Away from Disaster To start the process of implementing changes, Wiedeking obtained benchmarks on every aspect of production by measuring the amount of time, money, and effort that was being spent on making a Porsche. Then he compared Porsche's production methods to those of Japanese automakers. After touring the production facilities of Honda, Toyota, and Nissan, Wiedeking and his managers were convinced they could apply the

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