Last week, General Motors announced its return to steady financial footing. One equity analyst proclaimed in The Wall Street Journal that the automaker is now “lean, agile, and focused.” One can easily imagine boardrooms across the land resonating with those three words.

After all, companies with spare cash or ready access to cheap money — or, in GM’s case, a government bailout — have a strong economic incentive to invest in weight loss and muscle tone. With the U.S. economic outlook still calling for tepid growth, CFOs know better than to count on increasing sales volume or unit price increases. Pushing for productivity is the only way to go.

Large manufacturers, it seems, have digested this message. Some are shuttering redundant facilities, fleets, and people. Others are moving work from unionized to non-unionized plants. Many are redrawing supply chains and recalculating the costs vs. benefits of operating in various world regions.

But it’s easier said than done. Pulling off a complex right-sizing scheme without sending the culture careening is a managerial art form. Then again, figuring out what, when, and how to cut is, for better or worse, a science only a CFO can love. more