The GM manufacturing plant in Fredericksburg, VA had a long history of over-engineered and inefficient processes. More importantly, the plant had a long and predictable history of failing to meet its operating budget and, as a cost center for GM, demonstrated a significant lack of ability to influence revenue in order to meet its budget. The relatively small size of the plant and its position downstream from other GM manufacturing segments made it prone to “ripple effects” of strikes in other larger plants further up the production stream – most notably the plant in Dayton, OH. A March 1997 strike at the Dayton plant resulted in no customer orders for Fredericksburg. Since timely delivery of components was critical to the overall success of GM’s entire transmission manufacturing operations, the Fredericksburg plant, a strike at another plant like Dayton was a catch-22 for Fredericksburg. No customer orders meant untimely delivery of components to other plants in the production chain thusly rendering a negative effect on overall production and GM’s ability to meet demand. The rural, small town setting of the Fredericksburg plant gave rise to unique issues concerning its workforce. Many of the employees were related and a union leader might find himself working alongside Process Manager Mother-in-law. While there may be some morale benefits to family working together, there are also some sinister downsides. The case study indicates that employees were lax about properly documenting the plant’s production and quality assurance procedures most likely due to family members protecting one another’s job. A Process Manager who just so happened to be the mother-in-law of a union leader would naturally have a disincentive to effectively discipline poor job performance and accurately record production and quality reports involving her daughter’s husband. There is also