Detroit and Michigan are ground zero in terms of fallout from the decline of the U.S. automakers. The tax base is decreasing, municipal deficits are soaring and the United Auto Workers union is looking terminally ill.
But for the U.S. economy, the rise of non-U.S. automakers -- especially the new No. 1 -- has been, on balance, a positive. From 1986 to 2006, vehicle production in the United States beyond the Big Three domestic companies grew to 3.37 million from 426,000, while imports by those automakers to the United States have fallen to 2.55 million from 3.47 million, according to the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group. U.S. production by Detroit makers shrank by 3.7 million in the same period.
GM, Ford and Chrysler employed 377,000 U.S. workers at the end of last year, compared with 95,000 employed by Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and other foreign automakers, according to the Automotive Policy Trade Council, a trade group.
Although comparisons are rough, the numbers imply that last year the U.S. automakers needed almost four times as many workers to build twice as many (6.84 million) vehicles as the foreign companies operating in the United States. The disparity hints at one of Detroit's ailments: bloat.
Of all the non-U.S. automakers, Toyota, Japan's biggest automaker, has most famously exemplified an efficient, disciplined approach to manufacturing, one that is studied and applied broadly by U.S. hospitals, libraries, automakers and businesses of all types.
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