We keep talking about China speed as if it were a new discovery. Early supplier involvement is presented as a fresh idea. Consultants are back in the building with slick decks about taking time out of the process, and the industry is nodding along as if none of us have seen this before. Jan has seen it before, so she went digging in her basement and came back with proof.

A facilitator's guide from Allied Signal, dated 1993. Total Quality through Speed. One page asks the exact question the industry is asking again right now: What's the cause for the pause? Simplify, eliminate, integrate. Alongside the binder, two letters from Bill Wilcock, then president of Allied Signal Braking Systems, congratulated Jan's team for reducing the time to get an aftermarket lining assembly for the 1994 Acura Integra from months to 9 days on the shelf. They did it by mapping the process, stripping out approval levels, and bringing the suppliers in. The second letter admits the team wasn't even officially chartered. They just went and did it, and then the tools went back in the basement.

In this solo episode, Jan makes the case that the barrier was never the methodology. It was leadership and culture. Speed was a value at Allied Signal under Larry Bossidy, something you were measured on, and somewhere along the way, it became a program with a binder instead of a way of operating. The one thing that has changed since 1993 is that we now question whether an approval level should exist at all, and that question carries a price. Fewer approvals mean people have to be trusted to decide. Plenty of leaders talk about that. Far fewer are ready for it.

Jan also hands you the starting point. One process. Map it, find the whitespace, take out 50 percent, then do it again. China didn't invent speed. They just refused to let the approval chain eat it.

Themes Discussed in this Episode

• Why China speed is not a new idea
• Total Quality through Speed and the cause for the pause
• Nine days: what speed looked like in 1993
• Concurrent engineering and early supplier involvement since the 80s
• Why the tools stalled, and the culture killed them
• Empowerment as the real price of speed
• Where to start: one process, one value stream
• Leading with conviction instead of compliance

This episode is sponsored by Lockton, click here to learn more

🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jangriffithsautomotiveleaders

About Your Host – Jan Griffiths

Jan Griffiths is the champion for culture change and the host of the Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive executive with a rebellious spirit, Jan is known for challenging outdated norms and inspiring leaders to ditch command and control. She brings honesty, energy, and courage to every conversation, proving that authentic, human-centered leadership is the future of the automotive industry.

Mentioned in this episode

• Allied Signal, Total Quality through Speed: The Facilitator's Guide (1993)
• Bill Wilcock letter to Jan Griffiths, February 7, 1994
• 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership
• Catalyst | Detroit: When AI Meets Manufacturing Reality (September 22nd 2026 | Detroit, Michigan)

Episode Highlights

[01:08] None of this is new, and the trip to the basement: Transformation, China speed, early supplier involvement. Jan lays out how much of today's urgent agenda has been available to us since the 80s and 90s, and how one consultant presentation too many sent her digging through her own basement for proof.

[03:11] What's the cause for the pause: Total Quality through Speed, and the page Jan loves. Focus improvement efforts, then simplify, eliminate, and integrate.

[03:48] The letter that proves it worked: September 16, 1993. Bill Wilcock thanks the team for reducing an aftermarket lining assembly for the 1994 Acura Integra from months to 9 days by attacking the cause for pause, cutting approval levels, and bringing the suppliers in alongside them.

[06:45] The team that wasn't chartered: A second letter, February 7, 1994, recognizing a team with no official mandate that went and did it anyway because the leadership made people want to.

[10:00] The answer is culture: Jan states it plainly. This is a leadership problem, and the Chinese OEMs have already taken share in other markets while we work it out.

[11:15] The one thing that changed since 1993: Back then, we worked on speeding up the approvals. Now we question whether the approval should exist at all, which means decisions move down through the organization, and Jan puts that readiness question directly to the listening leader.

[13:00] When speed stopped being a value: Larry Bossidy put speed on everybody's values list, and people were evaluated on it. Jan asks when it went back to being a program with a binder instead of a culture with a spine.

[14:07] Did the culture kill it: A harder possibility Jan raises about her own story. A team taking months out of a process may have looked like a threat to the people whose jobs depended on those steps.

[15:08] Start with one process: Put it on the wall, map it, find the white space and the duplicated workflows, set a goal of 50 percent, and do not let it be a one-and-done. The RFQ process is a good place to begin.

[16:42] Lead with conviction, not compliance: Trust people instead of defending a system designed in 1911 by Frederick Taylor. The silo model has run out of road.

Top Quotes

[13:15] Jan Griffiths: "When did speed go back to being a program with a binder, literally, instead of a culture with a spine?"

[17:55] Jan Griffiths: "China didn't invent speed. They just didn't allow the approval chain to eat it all up. That's a big difference."

[18:06] Jan Griffiths: “ Now we've got the tools. We've got technology that we can use with those tools. What we need is the leadership that goes with it.”

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Send us your feedback or questions — email Jan at [email protected].

[Transcript]

[00:00:39] This episode is brought to you by Lockton. Rising benefit costs aren't inevitable for you or your employees when you break through the status quo. Independence matters, it means Lockton can bring you creative, tailored solutions that truly serve your business and your people. At Lockton, clients, associates, and communities come first, not margins and not mediocrity.

[00:01:08] We talk about transformation. We talk about China speed. We seem obsessed with China speed right now. We talk about early supplier involvement. I've heard presentation after presentation from OEMs talking about how they want to bring suppliers into the process.

[00:01:43] I've seen these consultant presentations lately talking about speed. How to drive time out of the process. How to get at this China speed that we so desperately crave, and something in the back of my mind said, "Wait a minute. We've been here before." And so I went digging. I went digging in my basement, and I'm gonna share with you what I found and explain why we've had these tools available to us for over 30 years, yet why have we not been able to use them?

[00:02:51] Yes.

[00:03:11] And look at this. This is the page that I love. It says, "Focus improvement efforts.

[00:03:34] Now, I was so happy that I found this binder because we've had these tools available to us, and then I found an example of where I actually used these tools.

[00:03:58] We'll put a copy up in the show notes.

[00:04:20] And it's titled Aftermarket Lining Assembly for 1994 Acura Integra. And basically, what he's talking about is he's thanking the team for reducing the cycle time of putting the aftermarket brake pad on the shelf. Because if I remember rightly, in aftermarket, it's all about speed to market.

[00:05:18] And as I look at this letter, it's CC'd to Capital Tool & Die, LAC Tooling, and Affiliated Customs Brokers. At the time, they must have been the suppliers that we were dealing with. And then there's a bunch of names, and I don't remember everybody who's on this list, but I can remember that it's a list of cross-functional engineering teams and business teams.

[00:06:03] Wow. Well, okay. I don't know, Bill Wilcock, if that actually happened because we were able to do that on one example through sheer will and force, but why have we not been able to make this the operating system for the industry?

[00:06:41] Learn more @seraph.com.

[00:06:51] The 1993 letter was to the team, and this letter was directly to me, and he says, "Dear Jan, I just read the breakthrough bulletin featuring your team's accomplishment and wanted to congratulate you, and the Acura launch team on your exceptional performance.

[00:07:27] So at the time, that wasn't even a sanctioned team, but we were so motivated by the leadership and the desire to change at the time that we just went out and did it anyway, and he's recognizing that.

[00:07:42] Why are we not able to do that now? Why do we need a whole bunch of expensive consultants to come back into our world to show us how to use tools that are literally in our basement?

[00:08:07] We crave this idea of China speed, and yes, it's true, the technology has a part to play. The digital tools that we have in place help us take the cycle time out of the process. I would not deny that. Technology that we didn't have available to us in 1993.

[00:08:41] So why have we not been able to adopt them? Why is it only one project? So there's two examples now in my career. The one that you've heard me talk about before from BorgWarner with the early supplier involvement and concurrent engineering for a torque converter in Sterling Heights, which happened in the 80s.

[00:09:10] That was in the 80s. So we've had the concurrent engineering discipline since the 80s.

[00:09:35] So why have we not been able to take these tools and make them a reality? We're talking about China speed like it's something new, something we never knew before. We talk about early supplier involvement like it's a whole new thing. We're going to bring suppliers in early. But we have not been able to do it in the last 30 odd years. So what makes us think that we can do it now?

[00:10:24] If we don't get this right this time, then we know the Chinese OEMs are going to take this market. They've already taken it in other countries. You know that. They will take the market in the US. The time to get serious about this is now.

[00:10:43] Everyone wants AI in quoting. UHY's benchmark study says fix governance and data first, then scale AI.

[00:10:57] Tariffs, disruption, uncertainty. Your supply chain has answers. Tradeverifyd helps you ask why and what to do about it.

[00:11:15] The only difference that I can see from my 1993 Total Quality Through Speed: Facilitator Manual, and the processes that we're looking at and talking about implementing today under the banner of transformation and ChinaSpeed is more emphasis on the approval levels.

[00:12:05] If we're gonna strip out time and strip out those approval levels, that means less approval. So people have to be empowered to make decisions.

[00:12:37] Do you need some outside help? Maybe. But do you need big fancy consulting firms to help you do this? I'm not gonna say yes or no to that question. That's a business decision that you have to make. Just know that those tools are literally in your basement, and you've had them for decades.

[00:12:57] So why didn't we use them? Well, let's look at what Larry Bossidy did back in Allied Signal. He explained speed as a value. Well, nobody was really talking about speed back then, and he put it on everybody's values list. It was something that you were evaluated on. I remember it clearly.

[00:13:34] We put that aftermarket brake pad on the shelf in nine days in 1993. What does it take today? If anybody's got that information, I would love to know.

[00:14:07] And here's something else. I told you that in the letter we were an uncharted team. Do you think it's possible that uncharted teams taking months out of a process were perceived as a threat, and that people saw it as that their jobs were in jeopardy and so they killed it? I was young and naive. I would never have seen that back in the day as I was on a mission to achieve this goal.

[00:14:43] So where do we go from here? How do we take tools that we've had for 30 years and make them a reality? How do we make that happen? I really don't think it's that difficult. It's difficult from a culture perspective. It's not from where to start and how to start.

[00:15:08] Start with one process. Start with one process. Put it up on the wall. You know how to run a process flow and a process map.

[00:15:35] Make sure the cross-functional team is together, and then, come up with a goal. It doesn't have to be perfect. Take 50% out of the process. Focus a team on that, on something that is a really important value stream for your business.

[00:16:23] Then move to the next value stream, and keep going and keep going and keep going, and you're never done. Don't let this process be a one and done. Which happened to the two cases that I've talked to you about in my career to date. It's gonna take leadership.

[00:17:08] Larry Bossidy died last summer. He was 90. He'd be the first to tell you that he didn't come up with these tools. He took a lot of his inspiration from work that he did at GE and Xerox and other companies

[00:17:36] Let's take the work that's already there, that's literally in your basement. Let's take it, breathe new life into it, breathe leadership, culture, and inspiration, and lead your company and this industry forward.

[00:17:55] China didn't invent speed. They just didn't allow the approval chain to eat it all up. That's a big difference

[00:18:13] What we need is the leadership that goes with it.

[00:18:32] As always, remember, Culture is your operating system. Authentic leadership is the edge. All of this has to come together. If you wanna continue the conversation with me, call me, email me. I would love to talk to you about this.

[00:18:52] Let's do it.

[00:19:10] And remember, stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with Gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership