????通用汽車（General Motors）近日宣布，計(jì)劃將全球汽車平臺(tái)數(shù)量削減一半，同時(shí)減少引擎型號(hào)。幾十年來，該公司一直致力于削減生產(chǎn)成本，以節(jié)約數(shù)以十億美元計(jì)的生產(chǎn)成本——曾象征著美國的繁榮昌盛的通用汽車一度淪落到破產(chǎn)境地，很大程度上正是因?yàn)榘装桌速M(fèi)的生產(chǎn)成本過多。

????得到政府注資后，通用汽車得以輕裝上陣，并實(shí)現(xiàn)盈利?？墒牵瑥娜ツ昶饟?dān)任該公司首席執(zhí)行官的丹尼爾??？松枰邆湫倥醢⑻崂菢拥臎Q心，才能成功推行種種提高效益的措施——盡管它們很明顯可以節(jié)約時(shí)間和資金，但肯定會(huì)受到這家汽車巨頭遍布世界的海外部門的抵制。

????8月9日，埃克森宣布到2018年全球平臺(tái)數(shù)量將削減到14個(gè)，現(xiàn)在則有30個(gè)，這意味著將來生產(chǎn)汽車的平臺(tái)將更少、共享性更強(qiáng)。為了保留不同車型之間的設(shè)計(jì)差異，這些通用平臺(tái)可進(jìn)行調(diào)整，無需費(fèi)時(shí)費(fèi)力地重造工具和系統(tǒng)。

????思邁汽車信息咨詢（CSM Worldwide）駐密歇根州諾斯維爾（Northville）分析師邁克爾?羅比內(nèi)特評(píng)價(jià)道：“這是未來的潮流，通用汽車或許終于能實(shí)現(xiàn)長(zhǎng)久以來的目標(biāo)了。”他以通用的Celta小型車為例說，盡管這款車是巴西最暢銷的車型之一，但現(xiàn)在的生產(chǎn)平臺(tái)遲早會(huì)被棄用。他指出，當(dāng)下一代Celta面世時(shí)，用于打造該車的基本機(jī)械架構(gòu)將與即將在美國市場(chǎng)推出的超小型車雪佛蘭愛唯歐（Chevrolet Sonic）相同。

????通用汽車今年稍早些時(shí)候任命瑪麗?芭拉為全球產(chǎn)品開發(fā)總監(jiān)，現(xiàn)在看來，這似乎是?？松拿钫?，旨在用管理層調(diào)整推進(jìn)生產(chǎn)成本的合理化。如果芭拉來自產(chǎn)品開發(fā)部門的話，這屬于常規(guī)升遷，可她原本效力于通用汽車的生產(chǎn)部門。

????從上世紀(jì)80年代起，打造通用平臺(tái)、工具和供應(yīng)鏈方面的不足始終是困擾通用汽車管理層的一大心病。豐田（Toyota）和本田（Honda）的生產(chǎn)工序相對(duì)簡(jiǎn)單，較為節(jié)約，從而影響深遠(yuǎn)地顛覆了汽車制造行業(yè)的經(jīng)濟(jì)環(huán)境。麻省理工學(xué)院（MIT）曾進(jìn)行過專門研究，分析日本汽車產(chǎn)業(yè)的生產(chǎn)成本遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)低于底特律同行們的原因，并寫成了著作《改變世界的機(jī)器》（The Machine that Changed the World）。然而，當(dāng)通用汽車高管們?cè)噲D強(qiáng)調(diào)通用性時(shí)，他們往往在要求維持現(xiàn)狀的強(qiáng)大壓力下敗下陣來。盡管有幾次行動(dòng)超越了計(jì)劃階段，最終進(jìn)入工生產(chǎn)層面，但最終都?xì)w于失敗。

????豐田旗下的卡羅拉（Corolla）是全球最暢銷的車型之一，在全球各大市場(chǎng)，該車型大同小異，只有一些微調(diào)；卡羅拉生產(chǎn)廠可以從同樣的供應(yīng)商采購工具；熟練的經(jīng)理人可以在不同工廠之間調(diào)動(dòng)——所有這些都大幅降低了成本。與此形成鮮明對(duì)比的是，早期雪佛蘭邁銳寶（Malibu）車型美國款與歐洲款的差異明顯，白白浪費(fèi)了許多開發(fā)成本。

????這一次，?？松桶爬型柚蚋鲊菩械男卤O(jiān)管標(biāo)準(zhǔn)實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)，這些新標(biāo)準(zhǔn)更接近于歐美的安全、空氣質(zhì)量和油耗標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。羅比內(nèi)特以新款Celta為例指出，新車型必須配置氣囊，才能要滿足巴西的監(jiān)管要求，這就排除了沿用現(xiàn)行生產(chǎn)平臺(tái)的可能性。今后就沒有這樣的外部助力了。

????通用汽車首席財(cái)務(wù)官丹?阿曼在上周二的電話會(huì)議上向分析人士透露，在生產(chǎn)方面厲行節(jié)約并提高效率是該公司財(cái)務(wù)穩(wěn)定的關(guān)鍵?！澳壳翱偟膩碚f，一切都在我們的掌握之中，”他說，“我們并不依賴于市場(chǎng)份額的大幅提高，也不依賴于經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇。過去，我們經(jīng)常在啟動(dòng)產(chǎn)品計(jì)劃后又將其取消，僅此一項(xiàng)每年就浪費(fèi)10億美元，就因?yàn)樵谝呀?jīng)開始的事情又開了倒車?！?/p>

????考慮到分析人士和其他人士仍在批評(píng)通用汽車，敦促其向豐田等其他世界一流汽車廠商看齊，阿曼的估計(jì)或許還有些保守。如果通用汽車這次能取得成功，帶來的可能是望眼欲穿的投資者從來不敢奢望的利潤。

????General Motors' plan to halve the number of its global vehicle platforms and reduce engine configurations is the latest in the automaker's decades-long push to save billions in wasted manufacturing costs -- waste that had a large hand in driving the American icon into a painful bankruptcy.

????GM (GM, Fortune 500) has fresh capital, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, and has achieved profitability. But Dan Akerson, GM's CEO since last year, will need the determination of Attila the Hun to impose the efficiencies which -- though they clearly save time and money -- are sure to be resisted by the automaker's far-flung overseas operating units.

????Akerson declared Tuesday, August 9 that the number of global platforms will shrink to 14 by 2018, down from 30 today. That means future vehicles will be built on fewer, shared platforms. To maintain design differences between models, those common platforms will be tweaked without requiring costly duplication of tools and systems.

????"This is the wave of the future," said Michael Robinet, an analyst for CSM Worldwide in Northville, Michigan. "GM may finally be able to accomplish what it's been trying to for a long time." He offered GM's Celta small car, one of the most popular in Brazil, as an example of a car now built on a platform that is destined to eventually disappear. When the next version of Celta appears, he said, it will be built on the same basic mechanical structure as the subcompact Chevrolet Sonic, which is about to be introduced in the U.S.

????GM's appointment earlier this year of Mary Barra to run worldwide product development now appears to be a management move by Akerson designed, in part, to enable the rationalization of manufacturing cost. Barra came from GM's manufacturing organization rather than product development, which would have been a more conventional promotion.

????The difficulties of creating common platforms, tools and supply relationships have stymied successive GM managements since the 1980s. Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC), with their relatively simple and spare manufacturing practices, profoundly upended the economics of automaking. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology study that led to the 1991 book "The Machine that Changed the World" famously analyzed why the Japanese auto industry was building cars at much lower cost than Detroit. But when GM executives attempted to institute commonality, they often stumbled over resistance from an entrenched status quo. Attempts that made it out of planning and into factories, meanwhile, failed.

????Toyota's Corolla, one of the best-selling cars worldwide, is much the same in most parts of the world with only minor variations. Corolla plants can buy tools from the same suppliers and move skilled managers from one plant to another -- all of which cuts costs dramatically. In contrast, earlier versions of the Chevy Malibu actually differed from European models enough that they duplicated lots of development costs.

????This time, Akerson and Barra will be helped by new regulations worldwide that more closely emulate the safety, air quality and efficiency standards in Europe and the U.S. The new Celta, for example, needs an airbag to meet Brazilian requirements, Robinet said, which precludes using the current platform. Not so in future versions.

????Dan Ammann, GM's chief financial officer, said in a Tuesday conference call to analysts that more disciplined and efficient manufacturing is key to the automaker's financial stability. "All of the things we need to do are, by and large, in our control," he said. "We're not relying on heroic market-share gains. We're not relying on economic recovery. We think just on canceled product programs we've probably blown a billion dollars a year, just by pushing back on things that already have been started."

????Ammann's estimate was probably conservative, based on the criticisms of analysts and others urging GM to match world-class manufacturers like Toyota. If GM is successful this time, the payoff could be profits long-suffering investors never thought possible.