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Powersports Business • May 2025 • 11

FROM THE EDITOR INDUSTRY PODCASTS

When I was a teenager, I visited my mom in Japan. She moved there when I was in high school to teach English in a small town about an hour from Nagoya. I could have gone to an American high school in Japan, but I didn’ t want to miss out on

BRENDAN BAKER the racing season, so I decided to move to Ohio with my dad instead. I guess, looking back, you could call it a pivotal moment that perhaps I was not aware of at the time.

While I was in Japan, I got a job with my mom’ s company, teaching English to young elementary school kids. I was the after-school entertainment for the most part, playing games and telling stories. It was my first job that didn’ t involve getting dirty or dealing with auto parts. But it was also a doorway into the future for me in some respects. Our good friends, the Wakaharas, were like an adopted family while we were over there. They helped us navigate some of the customs and certainly the language challenges we faced.

Mr. Wakahara was also a Toyota executive, and he knew of my desire to be in racing and my love for cars, as well as motorcycles. When my brother visited before me, he got to attend the MotoGP race at Suzuka circuit. But I got to visit the Toyota factory with Mr. Wakahara. It was amazing in so many ways. They even put my name on the visitor bulletin board in the lobby!

One of the interesting things I saw at Toyota was how the employees gathered in the morning to do calisthenics in the courtyard. Can you imagine gathering with your coworkers each morning for some stretches? It was almost a shock to see the different approaches that Toyota had to building vehicles, especially at that time. I also saw the engine factory, not realizing that I would someday spend nearly 20 years writing about engines.

I also got to see domestic Toyotas being built on the line( I think it was Corona, a Japanese Corolla). The workers all wore the same overalls and hard hats. And I noticed the workers wore white cotton gloves, which I thought was strange since they could get dirty fast. They had a picnic table just off the line but still visible from the balcony above where the tours walked through the factory, so as not to disturb anything.

What I later discovered to be one of the most crucial aspects of Japanese manufacturing was the Andon cord. The Andon cord is a key element of the Toyota Production System( TPS) and is widely used in manufacturing to empower workers and to improve quality. Toyota UK Magazine says that the Andon cord( cable), which originates from the Japanese words for

“ lantern” or“ light,” is an alert system that notifies operators of quality issues.

I was reminded of this recently while scrolling through LinkedIn. A post by Brennan Cassidy, who is a business builder, wrote about the idea behind the Andon cord. He said the idea for the cord came from Taiichi Ohno, an engineer at Toyota who is responsible for pioneering Toyota’ s production system. He saw untapped potential in those closest to the problems: the workers themselves.

In the 1950s, cars moved quickly along the assembly line at the Toyota factory. As production numbers climbed higher, so too did the mistakes, and minor defects snowballed into costly recalls. But stopping the production line was thought to be unthinkable at that time. Workers had no power to make decisions, even though they saw the issues happening right in front of their eyes. Thus, Ohno’ s idea was to empower the workers to stop the line whenever they saw something wrong. It began as an experiment. But it eventually revolutionized all manufacturing.

It was the snowball effect that got my attention. When a problem is discovered and only upper management has the power to slow things down or stop the line, problems pile up, costing companies money and time. Quality became Toyota’ s mantra, and many others adopted this mindset as well. But what about the government? Can we pull the Andon cable on tariffs?

Speaking of which, one of our readers noticed an error in our 40 Under 40 report from last month. We published a photo of JT Blackstad, the product manager at DX1, but we failed to include his bio explaining why he was nominated for the award. Our apologies to JT. His bio is bottom right.

POWER HOUR: ROB SOLEM FROM RECSYSTEMS Brendan sits down with longtime powersports industry veteran and rental operator Rob Solem, who is the co-founder of RecSystems. com. This company uses AI to run your rental operations from marketing to bookings. Rob discusses why it is a game-changer for dealers and rental companies.

POWER HOUR: RYAN MCFARLAND OF ALL KIDS BIKE Most dealers are familiar with Ryan McFarland’ s other company, Strider Balance Bikes, but he also heads up another project that is very important to kids learning how to ride bikes in school. All Kids Bike was created to teach kids how to ride a bike as part of a school or church program. We discuss how it all got started and why kids aren’ t riding bikes like they used to.

RIDER INSIDER: ANTHONY’ S LEATHERWORKS A guest on Rider Magazine’ s Insider Podcast is Greg Sermabeikian( Ep. 77), owner of Anthony’ s Leatherworks and MX Boot Resole and Repair, which provides full services to alter, repair, refinish, and restore leather motorcycle jackets, suits, gloves and boots. Anthony’ s Leatherworks is a sponsor of MotoAmerica and an authorized service provider for Alpinestars, Dainese, Mithos, Rev’ It, Spidi, and other leading brands.

JT Blackstad offers a combination of practical dealership experience, engineering expertise, and unique perspectives, according to his nominator. His understanding of the retail environment allows him to pinpoint issues. He has quickly established a rapport with dealers and communicates with them well to learn how to meet their needs. He helps the product team apply product feedback, and he educates and assists the data team. He works with dealers, manufacturers, and vendors to assess how poor or missing data affects daily operations within a dealership. JT is passionate about the industry and rides PWCs, dirtbikes, UTVs, and mountain bikes.