"Let the data lead you..."

Dorian's Way

Shewhart Award winner and Rath and Strong guru Dorian Shainin pounded it into us....He insisted that we start first with the numbers.  He warned that sometimes clients misstate the problem or jump to a popular conclusion too soon, and numbers freak that he was, he believed that the questions and some answers lay in the numbers.  Sometimes you have to fight for the data to see what questions they raise and to spot the outliers on the histogram.  So Dorian's Way is the way we like to look at how well companies are running their operations. 

We love these numbers!  Net profit tells us so much about systems, leadership, strategies and managing costs, especially purchasing spend. 

"Let the data lead you..."

 Take a look at VW - emission software jimmying fallout -, GM,  and Tesla.  What do you think is happening here?  And how about Honda?  Some slippage there, but not dead weight.  And look at good old Ford!  What do you think?

                                             Dec. 2013          March 2014   June 2014 Sept 2014  December 2015

Honda                                 5.32%                5.51                  4.90                4.71          3.43

Toyota                                 7.98                   4.52                  9.20                8.22         8.56

Nissan                                 3.75                    4.1                    6.25                4.89          4.23

Volkswagen                        4.58                    5.01                 4.72                6.07         (3.36) Sept 2015

Ford                                     8.21                    2.76                 3.50                2.39          6.60

GM                                       2.57                    0.57                    .70                3.75        15.81

Tesla                                                                                                                (8.77)     (26.4)

BMW                                                                                                                                  7.04