"Don't Stop The Line" and the Courage To Stop
"If you have these two things – the willingness to change, and the acceptance of everything as it comes, you will have all you need to work with."
- Charlotte Selver
"Don't stop the line." For many years this was an agreement, almost an unwritten law of the General Motors assembly lines building cars and trucks. Management believed that keeping the car assembly line going at all times was essential. Keeping the line going was clearly more efficient than stopping the line. According to a 30-year GM employee, management assumed that "If the line stopped workers would play cards or goof off." As a result of this philosophy and way of working, problems were ignored instead of addressed. Defective cars, some missing parts, or cars with parts put on backwards were put into their own special "defective" lot. This lot grew to enormous proportions. At some point, addressing and fixing these problem cars became too costly.
