After one consultant presentation too many about driving time out of the process, Jan went digging in her basement and found her Allied Signal facilitator's guide. Total Quality through Speed. The page that asks what the whole industry is asking again right now: what's the cause for the pause? Simplify, eliminate, integrate.
With it, a letter from Bill Wilcock, then president of Allied Signal Braking Systems, thanking Jan's team for taking an aftermarket lining assembly for the 1994 Acura Integra from months down to nine days. They did it by cutting approval levels and bringing suppliers in with them. A second letter admits the team was never officially chartered.
So why can't we do it now? Jan says the barrier was never the methodology. It's leadership and culture, and stripping out approval levels means trusting people to decide.
Start with one process. The RFQ process is a good place to begin. Map it, find the white space, take 50 percent out, then do it again.
China didn't invent speed. They just didn't allow the approval chain to eat it all up.
Episode Highlights:
00:00 Intro
00:30 None of this is new
01:05 Digging in the basement for a 1993 binder
02:33 What's the cause for the pause
03:13 The letter from Bill Wilcock
04:07 Nine days, and how we did it
05:48 The team that was never chartered
06:58 Technology helps, but it is not the answer
09:03 The answer is culture
09:43 What actually changed since 1993
10:43 Are you ready to empower people
11:25 A program with a binder or a culture with a spine
12:35 Did the culture kill it
13:30 Start with one process
15:10 Lead with conviction, not compliance
16:23 China didn't invent speed
#ChinaSpeed #AutomotiveLeadership #AutomotiveCulture #AuthenticLeadership #supplychain
------------------------------
The Automotive Leaders Podcast is hosted by Jan Griffiths, the champion for culture change in the automotive industry. From a farm in Wales to the C-suite of a $3 billion Tier-1 supplier, Jan built her career inside this industry. Now she's out to transform it.
Her argument is blunt. The pressure on this industry isn't letting up. The survivors will be the ones who reinvent how they work. Speed wins. Everyone else gets left behind.
Every episode, Jan sits down with the leaders driving that change. Real conversations about tariffs, supply chain shocks, EV uncertainty, AI, and the shift from command-and-control to authentic, human-centered leadership.
If this episode hit home:
👉 Subscribe to our YouTube channel
👉 Turn on notifications
👉 Share this video with a fellow automotive leader who needs to hear it
Connect with us:
LinkedIn Page: www.linkedin.com/company/automotive-leaders-podcast
Jan's LinkedIn Personal: www.linkedin.com/in/jangriffiths
Facebook www.facebook.com/GravitasDetroit
Instagram: www.instagram.com/gravitasdetroit
