Woody Manner and His American Dream Car

Flashback: 1986: Bethlehem Steel, Burns Harbor Plant, Indiana, USA

Woody Manner was a retired cold rolling mill operator of Bethlehem Steel and was working as a BIEC/USX consultant. (Bethlehem International Engineering Co./ US Steel Consultants). Standing at over 6 feet and well past 60, he's from Baltimore who spent the best and the longest years of his life in a steel plant.

We met Woody Manner in spring of 1984. We were sent by our company, National Steel Corporation to train on the operations of Bethlehem's 5std cold rolling mill which we bought. From March to May, daily except on weekends, we would meet Woody in a mobile house converted to training center inside the steel complex. He was our lecturer, trainor and mentor.

Woody drives a big American car, a Chevy 6 cylinder (or was it 8 cylinder?) with wood grain dashboard and interiors. He loved this car---big, long, spacious, but most of all, fast and powerful. He would brag to us about this to which we would always sneer and reject. "But Woody, it's gas muzzzler. And why would you like a fast and powerful car when you can't run it at top speed because you have speed limits. Bring it to the Philippines and you can run it to your heart's content. The limit there is just according to you to your limit."

But Woody then would not budge. To him, Americans love big American cars.

Woody's story somehow reminds me of the crisis American car companies are facing today. His attitude in fact sadlly reflected why the Americans lost their grip in the automotive market to the more efficient and convenient Japanese cars. Moral of the story? Well, look up continuous improvement and what does this really mean.