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How to Buy Friends & Motivate People.
Due to the age of the average worker in Germany becoming increasingly older, there is a higher level of wisdom and patience in the workplace. Unfortunately, there is also a lack of strength and good vision as a result. Similar to the Toyota Production System, BMW has decided to implement a friendly solution: by respecting their employees, they were able to generate a more positive attitude from the workers. This consisted of simply asking the workers what would make their jobs more comfortable, and then fixing the problem. For example, when a worker complained that their feet started hurting, BMW installed high quality floors and special shoes. Afterwards, production went up by 7%, and the defect rate dropped down to zero.
Overall, BMW spent $50,000 on making these slight changes. That is not too bad considering that the added 7% a day could make an extra $5,000 from the extra car being produced!
The real victory for BMW, though, has got to be the halo effect that they are receiving from their good ethics. Today’s consumers are mostly concerned with the companies they buy from. For example, are they friendly to the environment? Do they treat their workers nicely? If so, this can be an incredibly strong marketing effect. BMW has certainly bought friends with their $50,000.
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/09/video-bmw-plans-for-tomorrows-older-workforce-today/