Honda, back to the bad old BAR days?

[Heikkirocks]

With the announcement of a 'large increase of personnel' are Honda repeating the mistake of BAR? Dave Richards slimmed down the workforce, didn't he? and the team leapt forward... correct me if i'm wrong!

[Hondanisti]

it depends on the structure of the organization and how many gatekeepers there are.

A "flatter" organization from which each department head funnels information to less gatekeepers makes for more streamlined data sharing/integration processes with faster turnaround from idea, designing, manufacturing, testing-validating, and then implementation.

They haven't increased the number of departments and gatekeepers (read managers) . They've increased the number of wind tunnels and have to staff that to gain the data from several iterations faster. Instead of taking twice as long to narrow down certain new ideas later, they now can run the processes faster.

You're right in that had they become more like Toyota where it's everything by committee, it can become a bear with some original ideas being diluted in a tug of war committee decion-making. One of the things Adrian Newey liked about coming to Red Bull was that the atmosphere was more informal and ideas can flow without committee dilution from department to department in a co-ordinated efficient manner with good gatekeepers but less of them. You could meet someone competent in the hallway , chat over an idea, and go with it and know that the job was being done well with the confidence that the person with whom you're discussing the idea will assure integration with other departments without the need for a formalized meeting.

As you say, race teams that are successful have smaller teams that are lean and mean and have less internal politics and a quicker turnaround of an idea.


I don't see Honda's structure becoming "taller" with more managers coming on or more departments and subdepartments and subcommittees being added on. They're just staffing the second wind tunnel so that it can run 24h.