Registration Numbers Not Names

“Michelin is a labyrinth. The departments are designated by letters known only to insiders: B for buildings, F for research, J for purchasing, LC for French commerce, LE for foreign commerce, K for legal affairs, 0 for wheels, SP for personnel, SL for accounting, T for transportation, etc. There are about fifty such departments, poorly coordinated by another department: the central planning, called PLC, which decides the scheduling of manufacturing. Their heads report directly to the Boss (the “management,” the S department). Workers, technicians, and engineers are assigned a registration number in the company’s telephone directory, and this number often suffices to sign a service note or identify a correspondent on the phone. The raw materials used in the composition of the rubber are also coded with four- to five-digit numbers.”

“Each collaborator is specialized, compartmentalized. They know very little about a mixture, a process, or a knack. Those who have seen the manufacturing process from A to Z can be counted on one hand. When engineers or managers become friends, they are transferred to distant and opposing locations to separate them. The internal promotion path never allows one to know an entire manufacturing cycle. Michelin hires sons, brothers, or cousins of workers. Rarely the children or close relatives of its managers and engineers. Almost never the cousins or great-nephews of the founders. Whether close or distant, descendants forbid themselves from talking about what they know about the history of the House and the great ancestors. Spouses agree before marriage to have their mail read by the heirs of the direct line.”