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Suppliers key for Ford.
You make some excellent points regarding the precarious situation Ford is in regarding recalls. But I think there’s maybe more that needs to be considered here.
Almost none of the items that fail and get recalled by Ford are built in-house. They are parts bought from suppliers. If anyone should know how to treat suppliers in order to get their highest quality and best effort, it’s Farley. He spent many years at Toyota, a carmaker that forges long-term relationships with suppliers based on trust, fair play and respect. Ford never misses an opportunity to screw suppliers and suck every dime of profit out of them. That whole relationship has to change and change first before Ford can make any strides in improving quality.
Ford spends too much money on the wrong things, executive salaries and bonuses, stock dividends, etc. That’s another area where Ford should emulate Toyota.
The template for success is plain to see: Take care of suppliers and pay employees a decent wage – maybe not the highest, but Toyota doesn’t toss its people out like garbage when times get tight. Having stable long-term employment might be worth more than having a big paycheck for a short time.
Motor City Mister
Detroit, Michigan
Engineering leadership.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away I was talking to one of the transmission engineers who worked on the Ford Escape Hybrid CVT. He went into detail how groundbreaking the transmission was in that it was designed from the get go to be reliable. After they stockpiled 10K spare transmissions in expectation of failures or warranties requests, in the first year they only had to send out two. And in both cases, it was farmers who didn't know how CVT's worked and hence revved them high in reverse for 20 mins when they got stuck in the mud while using a trailer. So not a typical case. He then talked about the six or eight speed transmissions they were working on to replace the CVT (as this could be used by gasoline products as well as hybrids) and I never did learn if by switching back they saw an increase in failures or warranty issues, but the delight he had in designing a product that was so reliable has always stayed with me.
It's basically this sort of dedication you get the feeling is being pushed down by Farley's tenure at Ford, which will wreck the company sooner or later. Which is a pity as they do have some talented engineers who aren't being listened too. In fact, it's interesting that the only time in recent years Ford was run well was when it was being run by an engineer. Maybe they should take that into consideration?
Paul G.
Silver Spring, Maryland
All Together Now: Not. Very. Good.
Let's cut to the chase. Being part of this and listening to many others in the past four days, If the Orange Anus and his Administration persist with said tariffs, the North American car industry will have its big day of reckoning by Labor Day at the latest. I know of two smaller key auto suppliers that have no new orders. I can imagine they are like hundreds of others. I know a key launch from one of the Sad 3 is in jeopardy. The vehicle is not ready but they have been given the green light. Disaster awaits. I know of a supplier that no longer can afford any metal or steel. As they ship back and forth countless times per week and are subject to tariffs each time its game over. This is but one example. LABOR DAY. Then it's a fast race to nowhere. Once that happens you cannot get the production and knowledge and anything else back. Ever. Strap yourselves in. I've already applied as a pool cleaner in Florida.
PAS
Windsor, Ontario, CANADA