E17: Start of the European Tour

Rick Brown Story

Having spent just over one year back at GM's Asia Pacific Division located at the headquarters, I received an offer to move to Germany. Tom LaSorda, my boss in Canada (CAMI) was given the responsibility to launch a new Opel assembly plant in Eisenach, and took steps to reassemble his CAMI team for the project. Again, this offer to join his team there was the best thing. Having joined GM to work with Kei on projects specifically related to Japan, I now had this opportunity to branch off, and again repeat the CAMI experience. I was now in the world of lean production again, and loved the challenge. The big difference was we were now on our own without the support of Suzuki. This opportunity also gave me an unbelievable opportunity to experience a historical social transformation affecting Germany and the entire communist bloc. I was right there as the town of Eisenach transformed itself from an old East Germany town to a thriving border town. I felt the sentiments of people and witnessed the title wave that swept the whole town. This episode is an intro to Germany, more specifically to Eisenach, and about the early days of me getting set up.