General Motors product czar Bob Lutz recently announced that “We’ve pushed the pause button” on large rear-wheel-drive cars currently under development. The stated reason? Bush’s proposed increases in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.

Maybe this pause makes sense. My concern is that this is far from an isolated instance. These cars were put on hold at least once a couple of years ago. And this is fairly common with products under development at GM. Of course there’s always a reason.

My concern is that it costs a lot of time and energy to start and stop programs. On top of this, General Motors’ executive spend a lot of their time and energy debating when to start programs, when to pause programs, when to restart programs, and when to cancel programs. When I was there a decade ago, observing the product development organization in action for my Ph.D. thesis, it often seemed as if they spent more time debating IF and WHEN than they spent debating WHAT and HOW. And much of the HOW concerned the business case–how to earn a profit through cost cutting and investment minimizing–not WHAT should be done to attract customers.

In contrast, nearly every Honda and Toyota model is on a fixed schedule. For example, the Accord and Camry get redesigned every five years. As a result, these companies don’t waste time and energy deciding IF they should redesign their midsize sedans, or WHEN they should do this. Instead, they focus on WHAT and HOW.

General Motors recognizes this difference, and has talked repeatedly about moving to a fixed cadence. But the latest “pause” suggests that this remains talk rather than action.