Ford Takes Long Look at Launches

[Harley Lover]

Excellent article, some of the best news I've read from Ford lately. Excerpts:

 

Ford Motor Co. is modifying its vehicle-launch procedures to catch problems earlier, said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of the Americas.

The process improvements, many instituted in the first quarter, include:

• Monthly launch reviews, including more extensive quality comparisons with competitors' vehicles.

• Greater use of technology, including three-dimensional computer simulations, to spot potential quality problems earlier.

• Hiring engineers and assigning them to supplier plants to make sure suppliers have the capacity to keep up with an increased pace of vehicle launches and midcycle model changes.

"You have to look at what the North American team has taken on in the last couple of years. We launched new global platforms -- not just new products but all-new global platforms on the Focus, Escape and Fusion -- all within a two-year time period. In a couple of those cases we redid the whole plant at the same time," Hinrichs said, citing the Wayne, Mich., and Louisville, Ky., assembly plants.

Even though Ford launched several new global platforms in the past two years, the company's midcycle refreshes of those platforms will be more extensive.

"We have a much more frequent cadence of freshening vehicles than we historically had," Hinrichs said. "That means we have to get our suppliers and ourselves ready to support a more frequent refresh rate."

 

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130506/OEM01/305069971/ford-takes-long-look-at-launches&cciid=email-autonews-weekly#axzz2SVpkdMRF

 

[NickF1011]

Good to see them taking proactive steps to correct problems. They are admitting they took their eye off the ball and doing what needs to be done to fix it. I particularly like the move of getting engineers involved with the suppliers, as it seems that's where many of the recent issues have originated.

[Edstock]

"the company's midcycle refreshes of those platforms will be more extensive" — IMHO, this is important, it seems to indicate that marketing is going to get way more aggressive. Ford is trying to shorten its OODA time-scale.

[mike_in_va]

I hope they can work on the customer service aspect too. Not delivering the car is bad enough, but when they can't tell you where it is, why it is where it is, or when it might arrive that makes it a whole lot worse. Ford needs to work with its shipping partners to make sure they are providing the best quality service and that they are empowered and encouraged to give timely, accurate, and complete information.

[akirby]

I hope they can work on the customer service aspect too. Not delivering the car is bad enough, but when they can't tell you where it is, why it is where it is, or when it might arrive that makes it a whole lot worse. Ford needs to work with its shipping partners to make sure they are providing the best quality service and that they are empowered and encouraged to give timely, accurate, and complete information.

 

They had an unusual circumstance where they had to ship cars around between plants which is totally out of process and their systems and processes couldn't handle it. I don't expect that to happen again.

 

I don't know any volume car mfr that can track a vehicle once it's on the rail car or exactly when it will arrive. It's too expensive to ship directly by truck.

 

i do agree you should get accurate info.

[grbeck]

This is good to know. I hope that Ford is looking at the fit-and-finish of exterior components. I checked out the new Fusions, Focuses and MKZs at the local Ford-Lincoln dealer this past Sunday. The fit of the doors, along with the fit of some individual pieces of the doors, was inferior to that of the Hondas and even some Chevrolets that I checked out on the same day.

[aneekr]

This is good to know. I hope that Ford is looking at the fit-and-finish of exterior components. I checked out the new Fusions, Focuses and MKZs at the local Ford-Lincoln dealer this past Sunday. The fit of the doors, along with the fit of some individual pieces of the doors, was inferior to that of the Hondas and even some Chevrolets that I checked out on the same day.

 

My experience with the current generation Fusion, Escape, and Focus mirrors yours: subpar fit and finish seems to be a common occurrence with these cars.

 

Thumbs up to Ford for establishing the new guidelines described by Joe Hinrichs. Also, a double kudos to them for addressing another problem with 2013 Fusion: the uncompetitive 1.6T engine combined with 6-speed automatic transmission. That engine has been dropped in favor of a newly designed 1.5L unit in MY 2014.

[BORG]

All this has happened before, and will happen again...again...again...again...again

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bOy3RNyWME

[akirby]

I still say that Ford knew exactly what it was doing cutting corners and pushing products out the door faster than they should have in order to accelerate the move to global platforms with Focus, Escape and Fusion to realize the cost savings earlier and to get new high volume products out the door fast. And judging by the 1Q profits and sales data it was a success.

 

They tried to do the same thing with MFT and that backfired.

[theoldwizard]

All this has happened before, and will happen again...again...again...again...again

 

Sadly yes. We all know that the MkZ launch was less than perfect.

 

Some of these issues has to be due to line speed. MAP is running well over 60/hour which used to be comsidered the max f0r any plant.

Edited May 7, 2013 by theoldwizard

[traxiii]

Anyone have an idea of the time table for the 50th Anniversary Mustang launch?

 

I know something is going to happen on April 17, 2014, but will that be the unveiling, the start of sales (launch) or what?

 

If it is the first public viewing, that would mean a 3 or 4 months until they're in showrooms, right?

 

If it's the launch date, when will we see prototypes and preproduction cars, at the Los Angeles, New York or Detroit Auto Shows???

 

And what about order forms, you can't have them till people get to see the darn thing, right?

 

I would love to know the time table of this most excellent adventure, because they can't get cars to dealers without spies seeing them first.

[BORG]

Ford has deliberately marginalized quality to meet deadlines, but they always fix it later. Ford has always struggled with launches, especially those that don't suffer delays. It's worse with the drive toward a very lean and high-profit operation. This is something that keeps reoccurring and is just part of the Ford culture.

Edited May 7, 2013 by BORG

[NickF1011]

Anyone have an idea of the time table for the 50th Anniversary Mustang launch?

 

I know something is going to happen on April 17, 2014, but will that be the unveiling, the start of sales (launch) or what?

 

If it is the first public viewing, that would mean a 3 or 4 months until they're in showrooms, right?

 

If it's the launch date, when will we see prototypes and preproduction cars, at the Los Angeles, New York or Detroit Auto Shows???

 

And what about order forms, you can't have them till people get to see the darn thing, right?

 

I would love to know the time table of this most excellent adventure, because they can't get cars to dealers without spies seeing them first.

I'd expect to start seeing prototypes running around near the end of the year with the official unveil happening April 17th, deliveries beginning a few months later.

[ice-capades]

Anyone have an idea of the time table for the 50th Anniversary Mustang launch?

 

I know something is going to happen on April 17, 2014, but will that be the unveiling, the start of sales (launch) or what?

 

If it is the first public viewing, that would mean a 3 or 4 months until they're in showrooms, right?

 

If it's the launch date, when will we see prototypes and preproduction cars, at the Los Angeles, New York or Detroit Auto Shows???

 

And what about order forms, you can't have them till people get to see the darn thing, right?

 

I would love to know the time table of this most excellent adventure, because they can't get cars to dealers without spies seeing them first.

 

Ford will release information on the next generation Mustang on its own schedule but from what's been reported online recently, we're being told not to expect a too radical makeover as Ford recognizes the importance of the Mustang heritage and knows that the all-new car must be instantly recognizable as a Mustang. I's expect to see the new car at the Los Angeles show at the latest as the Detroit show will be very close to what I expect the 2015MY Job #1 date to be and the New York auto show will be too late as Ford will want the car to be available for sale by the 50th anniversary date.

[Biker16]

My experience with the current generation Fusion, Escape, and Focus mirrors yours: subpar fit and finish seems to be a common occurrence with these cars.

 

Thumbs up to Ford for establishing the new guidelines described by Joe Hinrichs. Also, a double kudos to them for addressing another problem with 2013 Fusion: the uncompetitive 1.6T engine combined with 6-speed automatic transmission. That engine has been dropped in favor of a newly designed 1.5L unit in MY 2014.

how exactly is the 1.6 uncompetitive?

[Biker16]

Ford has deliberately marginalized quality to meet deadlines, but they always fix it later. Ford has always struggled with launches, especially those that don't suffer delays. It's worse with the drive toward a very lean and high-profit operation. This is something that keeps reoccurring and is just part of the Ford culture.

 

More specifically Ford North America's Culture. You could have beat Quality problems my hiring more people during launch or making extra effort to smooth the launch cadence. Ford only fixed the Focus's Quality when they added more people to the plant and eased up on over loading jobs. It seemed to me hey deliberately held off on adding extra workers and a 3rd crew, through the spring, summer and fall of 2011until the UAW negotiations were done, unlike the Escape launch which added a 3rd crew a few months after launch. They intentionally put profits and their credit rating above Quality.

 

I guess, The first Step is To acknowledge the problem, that you never really fixed.

[NickF1011]

Ford will release information on the next generation Mustang on its own schedule but from what's been reported online recently, we're being told not to expect a too radical makeover as Ford recognizes the importance of the Mustang heritage and knows that the all-new car must be instantly recognizable as a Mustang. I's expect to see the new car at the Los Angeles show at the latest as the Detroit show will be very close to what I expect the 2015MY Job #1 date to be and the New York auto show will be too late as Ford will want the car to be available for sale by the 50th anniversary date.

The makeover can be radical whilst still being instantly recognizable as a Mustang.

 

And I still think Ford would rather use the anniversary date for a reveal instead of an on-sale date, as reveal dates can be planned more or less in stone a whole lot better. On-sale dates can easily slip, and then the opportunity to use the date for something special will have passed with zero fanfare. Besides, when was the last time a magazine or website covered the "available on" date for a new vehicle? Rarely at best. But new vehicle unveilings are top headlines.

Edited May 7, 2013 by NickF1011

[jpd80]

One thing in Ford's favor is that this is not bad vehicle dsign, it's purely supplier and build process errors,

something that can be corrected on the run as evidenced by sales volume of Focus, Fusion, Escape and now MKZ

[grbeck]

Ford only fixed the Focus's Quality when they added more people to the plant and eased up on over loading jobs. It seemed to me hey deliberately held off on adding extra workers and a 3rd crew, through the spring, summer and fall of 2011until the UAW negotiations were done, unlike the Escape launch which added a 3rd crew a few months after launch. They intentionally put profits and their credit rating above Quality.

 

I guess, The first Step is To acknowledge the problem, that you never really fixed.

 

I don't know if the build quality issues of the new Focus can be deemed "fixed." The Focuses I checked out at the local dealer this past Sunday still had less-than-stellar door fit and sloppy assembly of some smaller parts. Same with the Fusions and MKZs on the lots.

 

The Escapes, on the other hand, were good.

[2b2]

... I expect to see the new car at the Los Angeles show at the latest as the Detroit show will be very close to what I expect the 2015MY Job #1 date to be and the New York auto show will be too late as Ford will want the car to be available for sale by the 50th anniversary date.

 

THANKS, Ice-capades!!!

 

imho they'd be crazy not to show something in LA

tho still can see a (much) larger display at NAIAS

along with full specs

&

for future reference, IMHO having Job1 co-incide with the public reveal is a Good Thing!

 

hoping for at least multi-city, hands-on at-dealers "intro" parties on April 17th

ideally with FIRST deliveries to customers AT the events

Edited May 7, 2013 by 2b2

[aneekr]

how exactly is the 1.6 uncompetitive?

 

In Fusion and Escape with automatic transmission, the main issue is that the 1.6T doesn't deliver any significant improvement in performance, refinement, or real world fuel economy over the standard 2.5L Duratec/Mazda MZR engine. The 1.6T also trails the non-turbo 2.4L to 2.5L engines found in competitors such as Altima, Accord, RAV4, and CR-V in those respects.

 

I am confident Ford's new 1.5L Ecoboost will be better suited to the 6AT Fusion in particular.

[atomcat68]

One thing in Ford's favor is that this is not bad vehicle dsign, it's purely supplier and build process errors,

something that can be corrected on the run as evidenced by sales volume of Focus, Fusion, Escape and now MKZ

While this may be true, Ford must never use suppliers as an excuse as they are responsible for the quality of their final product. I hope they learned and now have a better way to work with the suppliers after learning from this rough spots.

[jpd80]

While this may be true, Ford must never use suppliers as an excuse as they are responsible for the quality of their final product. I hope they learned and now have a better way to work with the suppliers after learning from this rough spots.

It's not just suppliers, it's the whole darned production process from suppliers through to build quality and on to final inspection.

By adopting basically remade Ford Europe designs, Ford NA also inherited Ford Europe's supplier chain and also its build process/methodology.

From C1 through the EUCD/CD4, those new vehicles, suppliers and processes really taxed North America after the more comfortable, mature

C170 Focus and Mazda based Fusion. Switching so many things at one time probably threw Ford NA the biggest curve ball ever but guess what?

 

For all of that trouble and strife, Ford NA is getting on top of problems and quality issues and now that those things are finally happening,

I bet the scales of economy are now starting to turn strongly in Ford NA's favor. All the heartache and pain is definitely worth it.

Edited May 8, 2013 by jpd80

[NickF1011]

imho they'd be crazy not to show something in LA

Ford has a full plate as far as upcoming introductions go. Edge, MKC, MKX, F-150, Mustang. I'm sure they won't be lacking for something to show off at LA.

for future reference, IMHO having Job1 co-incide with the public reveal is a Good Thing!

 

hoping for at least multi-city, hands-on at-dealers "intro" parties on April 17th

ideally with FIRST deliveries to customers AT the events

You have one word in there that sums up why they typically don't do this though: ideally. What if there are production glitches that delay vehicle deliveries for even one day? Then your entire promise to deliver the first vehicles to customers on the anniversary date falls flat on its face and the event ends up meaning absolutely nothing.

[mettech]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEB6l6YUx7E