Turn the Tables on Haier Management?

Chinese
Refrigerator Maker Finds U.S. Chilly - WSJ.com:

Here’s another case of where your bosses should NOT take
manufacturing management practices from the WSJ. In an article
about the Chinese refrigerator maker Haier and its founder, Zhang
Ruimin:

“He developed a management system of strict discipline,
with a strong emphasis on quality control. Workers in China who
make mistakes must stand on a set of footprints outlined on the
floor and publicly criticize themselves out loud, explaining why
they erred and the lessons learned.”

I think we should turn the tables and ask Mr. Zhang to stand on the
metaphorical footprints of this blog… why would a quality
“control” program like this likely do little to actually improve
quality? Nobody is implying that Haier uses the Lean approach - it
actually sounds very far from Lean.

Not surprisingly, this approach hasn’t gone over well in their
South Carolina factory:

But Haier’s hierarchical culture has been a tough fit
with U.S. workers. They rebelled against being forced to stand in
the footprints when they made mistakes. Haier’s Chinese management
has tried to adjust to American tastes. Instead of humiliating bad workers,
they now encourage the best ones to stand in the footprints for
recognition.

When you click on the pictures for the article, you get some
further explanation:

Since the plant oppened in 2000, the American workers
rebelled against the “big shoe” footprints, and even rejected
Haier’s plan to force the best — not the worst — workers to stand
in the footprints.

That’s just silly, either way. You don’t humiliate and shame people
into better quality. Making them stand there as “recognition”
doesn’t seem to serve much of a purpose, either.