Nummi Case Study

New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.

A Case Study

Leslie Ristaneo

Nova Southeastern University

Executive Summary

This report will discuss the human resources issues related to the Toyota Motor Corporation and General Motors Company joint venture of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., based at the Freemont Assembly plant located in Freemont, California. The plant was formerly owned by GM, and was plagued with personnel problems. After closing the facility in 1982, GM joined Toyota in re-opening the plant, with the goal of building vehicles for both manufacturers. The decision was made to re-hire a majority of the troubled workers that had formerly worked at the plant. While management knew it would be difficult to directly change the behavior of that many people, they did feel they could change the culture, which would then influence the workers themselves. After sending the employees to Japan for training, and changing many operations on the assembly line, the plant that used to make the most mistakes out of any GM plant, quickly became the GM plant with the fewest. Ultimately, the two organizations decided that, although they were building quality vehicles, that the profits weren’t high enough to keep the plant open. In 2009, GM pulled out of the venture, and Toyota followed in 2010. Although the plant was not a success, it did allow Toyota to enter the US manufacturing market, where it thrives today.

Background

New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. was a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corp and General Motors Company. Prior to its opening in 1984, General Motors used the site known as the Freemont Assembly, to produce Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile cars, as well as GMC trucks. Freemont was known for their employee relations problems from the beginning. A representative from the United Auto Works said of the union members at the Freemont plant “It was considered the worst workforce in the automobile industry in the United States. And it was...