Abstract
Despite painful restructuring, the European automotive industry has failed to attain product cost or engineering output parity with Japanese producers and transplant operations. Earlier published work showed that the gap could be closed by a change in the organizational effectiveness and culture. This required the abandonment of traditional function values and deployments in favour of autonomous multi-functional team-working. Experience with such a structure over a period of three years showed major and quantifiable competitive benefits. Important issues, false myths, significant truths and vital enabling needs were revealed during the implementation. These are discussed in detail. Further dramatic gains would seem feasible through the exploitation of information technology.
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