A Savage Factory: An Eyewitness Account of the Auto Industry's Self-Destruction

Loved this book! I think it is an easy read, written in a language easily understood by anyone, it is funny and keeps you hooked. His story is a lesson in management styles and how some are more effective than others. It is also a lesson on how a dream or goal can fuel your motivation enough to help you overcome any roadblocks you may find along the way to achieving it. I'm not going to comment on the authenticity of data and dates, as it is a after all a "memoir," and he is recounting what was important to "him". His memoir is written in a way so as to be a timeless example of what is wrong with some "big businesses". Some may say this type of management no longer happens, but unfortunately poor people today, even in the United States, still face this type of abuse.Big names like Ford have changed the way the perform business, but more obscured employers still have not. I just recently hired a young man. After working with him for a few weeks we were discussing his old job, and he started explaining his experience at "that factory" in San Diego, and how everyone stayed because they felt trapped. Some stayed because they were undocumented workers, but the majority, whom had proper documentation, stayed because jobs for uneducated people are scarce. He mentioned a number of violations, including below minimum wage pay, no overtime pay, no breaks, not even allowed to look at some personnel in the eye! I asked how come no one called the labor board, and he said people there were desperate, they have families that depended on them and they couldn't find other jobs due to lack of skills, and others worked so many hours, they didn't have time to look for other jobs."He" felt trapped because he couldn't find another job for months after graduating high school. I think people stay in situations like this for many reasons, one is their legal status, but more often than not, it due to ignorance. Ignorance of the law and your rights, and also the help that is available. I asked how come he wan't in college and he said because of his age and his parent income, he didn't qualify for financial aid. I said but what about community college? it is cheaper! He didn't know that a community college was not only cheaper, but also a stepping stone to getting into the university he wants to go to.

As described, arrived quickly. Book in excellent condition, worth it. Good read too

This book, as some other reviewers have noted, should be a text book in schools. If not high school then college.I heard an interview with someone, who wished to remain anonymous, who had worked for GM. His job was at the GM proving grounds near Phoenix Arizona. He and his co-workers got the first vehicles off the production line for the next model year. They would take a great amount of time fixing every problem that was there from squeaks and rattles to poor running and distorted window glass. Sometimes the cars would get completely disassembled and rebuilt. Then the top GM execs would fly in from Michigan, which was not yet bankrupt then in the 70s and 80s, to test out the cars. Of course the top management would find the cars excellent and head off to the golf course. That management would be so insulated from what reality their customers faced is another side of what is described in "A Savage Factory".As another reviewer mentioned, management, in most places, is like the comic strip Dilbert. The managers are not very competent and rely on the employees to run the company. That is described in excruciating detail in this book. Essentially the main reason anything works is the integrity and dedication of the people who actually do the work. Management is often a hindrance.However, many managers are not so much like the boss in Dilbert, I'm thinking of the guy with the spiky hair. They are more like Dogbert. Cunning and Machiavellian.What many reviews of this book seem to miss is that US industry had a good deal for most of the 20th Century. Sure there were tough times, like the Depression of the 30's, but if looked at overall US companies dominated until the mid 70s (and still do in many ways, just not as much as before). US companies created the assembly line, see Henry Ford who's company is the subject of this book, and so had a head start on the industrialized world. WWII destroyed production most everywhere else so when anyone, anywhere in the world, wanted to buy something a car, tractor or airplane in the 50s and 60s they bought US production. This gave a false view to management, that they could do nothing wrong. As everything that was built, sold.To say that US industry was caught by surprise with the, so called, Energy Crisis in the mid 70s is a joke. In the early 50s, M. King Hubbert had predicted that US oil production would peak about 1970 . He was off by about a year. Yep fracking has increased production, but it has not returned to the before 1970 level. Any person familiar with how things work could predict that oil prices would rise and "shortages" would occur.So the notion that the Japanese and European automakers were able to takeover market share from The Big Three is a joke. Detroit beat themselves and "A Savage Factory" explains a lot of it.I have read most of the reviews here and it's clear that some of the negative reviewers do not like their icons being exposed for the greedy frauds they are. After all the media, mostly TV, tells us again and again that the failure of US manufacturing is because of the greedy, incompetent, lazy, union workers.As I mentioned above the opposite is more true. Are there lazy, incompetent, and corrupt workers? Certainly, but its important to note that Management runs the show. As Dewar recounts, the assembly line workers had to deal with worn out equipment, incorrect raw materials (such as steel sheet that was too thin) and ridiculous requirements to "Make the Numbers".One thing in the book gets more attention than anything else, except for the profanity (too real for some), The Cos. There are complaints that "the dates are off". As one comment noted, you can find a Ford commercial from 1977 with The Cos with a short search on you tube.I'll refrain from commenting more on Bill since this book was written and published long before the revelations about sexual assault.A good motto for this book would be " Illegitimi non carborundum" which seems like Latin, but apparently is not. Translated it's supposed to mean "Don't let the Bastards Grind You Down!".I think everyone should be as disgusted and opposed to the auto industry bailouts as they are about those for the Banks and Insurance companies. This has been as crazy as the actions of the S & L regulators back in the 1980s where they let malfeasance, fraud, and incompetence continue with the excuse that the S & L s could "Grow out of trouble". Just as with the auto makers, the taxpayers ended up on the hook for at least Half a Trillion, adjusted $.I'll end with a quote from the man himself, Henry Ford (the 1st) "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

I'm only 1/3 through this book but so far it is AMAZING. I ordered it on the basis of "Car and Driver" journalist John Phillips' review. It is an eye-opening narrative describing one Ford factory foreman's experience in a place that helped bring the American automotive industry to its knees. His writing is intelligent in its easy-to-read style. His ability to stick to the facts is what provides a fast-moving story. So far I have not seen him go off on any opinionated tangents or needless descriptions of processes, details, or thoughts. I normally only read fiction, but this is just as good. The only downside--it is disturbing to learn that the people he worked with really treated each other the way they did, especially the way incompetent, power-trippy management waged war on hourly employees. While painful to read the truth, it has given me a new level of sympathy for factory workers and the conditions they face. So far I highly recommend this book.

The book has certainly lived up to expectations. It is a no nonsense first hand account of a foreman at the Ford Sharonsville transmission plant and describes the horrendous practices going on, not as a one sided tirade against one or the other party but from the perspective of a well educated and very perceptive observer.The dance between the Ford factory floor management and the UAW is described in great detail, with the author lso making observations on the long term damage this caused. The management failed to grasp the long term distrust their managerial methods were creating, especially the molestation of the hourly worers when the need for production was low (economic crisis years), and then reverting back to turning a blind eye to what happened at the shop floor when sales were good and they needed to get high outputs from the plants.The one aside on working and managerial practices going on in Procter and Gamble, another one of the author's previous employers is both highly amusing and rings very true, having observed several such companies from the inside myself. It is actually also surprisingly good at describing automotive management at the non-plant level (you might want to read or for further corroboration of that).I can only recommend the book as an essential reading for anyone interested in the automotive industry generally, as well as in some of the issues plaguing it today.

Im only half way through, but fully deserves 5 stars, an accurate and eye opening account to factory life under FMC.... dinosaurs, treating other humans disgustingly... ive worked for them for 25years but no longer... coronavirus pkus my facotry closing has released me, yes the money was good but i feel like an extra in the shawshank redemption... finally released from a life of servitude.... anyone with a conscience should stay well away from this company, it beats you down and spits you out without giving a damn...