Giant

The Giant world headquarters visit was one of my favorites. One reason is because I like biking and the second is because we got to see the jidoka concept in action. I studied the Toyota way in operations management and it was nice to see it working. The assembly line works different than most American assembly lines. In America, if there is a defect along the line, the line keeps moving and they deal with it at the end. At Giant, and many other Asian plants, if a problem is discovered on the line, they pull a rope (Andon cord) to stop the line. The problem is addressed and the line is restarted once the correction is completed. This delays production, but insures quality and eliminates the same problem from repeating itself.

Giant makes some extremely nice bikes. Expensive too. One of the most popular bands in America is Trek. I didn’t know it until the visit, but Giant makes the frames for Trek. Then like most all bike manufacturers, all of the other parts are purchased from suppliers and then assembled.