Fords Kentucky Truck Plant Tries New Quality Strategy

[silvrsvt]

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/fords-kentucky-truck-plant-road-tests-new-quality-strategy-2023-05-01/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR27GZcFsOLsz1uFTO5aFiwuJkJZbfFXCHbOKg_rNV9CKXLl7efTHOMSlCc&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

[akirby]

Let’s stop the line and fix the problem rather than continuing to build trucks that then have to be stored and repaired later.  What a novel concept.

[7Mary3]

Meanwhile, customers with trucks on order.......  

 

No problem, Chevy, GMC, and Ram will take up the slack.

[Bob Rosadini]

34 minutes ago, 7Mary3 said:

Meanwhile, customers with trucks on order.......  

 

No problem, Chevy, GMC, and Ram will take up the slack.

 

Bad Post 7M.......will get to Farley,.... Plant Mgr gets canned and so much for that good idea.?

[fuzzymoomoo]

3 hours ago, Bob Rosadini said:

 

Bad Post 7M.......will get to Farley,.... Plant Mgr gets canned and so much for that good idea.?

 

There's a good chance you're not wrong. There are corporate people looking in the shadows reading all of this, don't ask me how I know lol.

[ice-capades]

55 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

 

There's a good chance you're not wrong. There are corporate people looking in the shadows reading all of this, don't ask me how I know lol.

 

Lurking I think is more appropriate. Too many levels of management concentrated on job preservation instead of making decisions that are best for the company, shareholders and customers long term. 

[lfeg]

Super Duty availability seems to be tight. At a state highway depot I go by regularly the Super Duties being cycled out are replaced with a mix of Chevy and GMC.  Interestingly, they still have one old Ranger regular cab in regular use. Also, at the local level, PUIs are being replaced with Durangos.

[DeluxeStang]

I hope this new approach works out for them. I've heard some of the things they're trying here were also implemented with other vehicle assembly lines. Having cameras that can see defects workers can't is apparently something they have for the maverick/bronco sport assembly process. Not sure if that's true or not. Seems to be working as both of those vehicles are quite reliable overall. 

[jasonj80]

2 hours ago, lfeg said:

Super Duty availability seems to be tight. At a state highway depot I go by regularly the Super Duties being cycled out are replaced with a mix of Chevy and GMC.  Interestingly, they still have one old Ranger regular cab in regular use. Also, at the local level, PUIs are being replaced with Durangos.

There are many communities that are around metro Detroit that will have a huge Ford facility that pays hundreds of thousands to Millions in property taxes in them and buys mostly GM products or a huge Stellinis facility and buys mainly Ford. 

Most of the time it is just a preference of who does the buying and they write the bid specifically to get what they want. 

[7Mary3]

57 minutes ago, jasonj80 said:

There are many communities that are around metro Detroit that will have a huge Ford facility that pays hundreds of thousands to Millions in property taxes in them and buys mostly GM products or a huge Stellinis facility and buys mainly Ford. 

Most of the time it is just a preference of who does the buying and they write the bid specifically to get what they want. 

 

Near 40 years in large municipal and public utility fleets.  I can say that now it's very rare that a buyer would write a spec. to favor a make he/she prefers over some tangible factor, like purchase price, delivery time, input from upfitter, ect..  Not saying it never happens, but most of the time these days the contract goes to whoever can deliver the vehicles in a somewhat reasonable time frame.  Or at least is willing to take the order in the first place 

[ice-capades]

13 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

 

Near 40 years in large municipal and public utility fleets.  I can say that now it's very rare that a buyer would write a spec. to favor a make he/she prefers over some tangible factor, like purchase price, delivery time, input from upfitter, ect..  Not saying it never happens, but most of the time these days the contract goes to whoever can deliver the vehicles in a somewhat reasonable time frame.  Or at least is willing to take the order in the first place 

 

All I know is that the vehicle specifications outlined in almost every bid request for either company, municipal or government accounts that I saw over the years, the required vehicle specifications were written in such a way that the desired vehicles were for a specific brand. Perhaps that's changed in the past couple of years due to the supply chain issues, commodity and plant production constraints affecting fleet allocation and production. 

[7Mary3]

I do remember one instance in the mid-80's where a buyer was trying to get contract for 50 or so 26,000# cab and chassis trucks to go to Ford.  He wrote in the spec. the truck had to have a gasoline engine of at least 370 cubic inches but less than 400.  No GMC's or Chevys because their engine options were the 366 or 427 (never mind the GM 366 was more powerful than the Ford 370).  Thought the buy would be for the F-600 with the 370 Lima.  What he didn't know was International was getting ready to drop gasoline engines, and the IH dealer slid in with a lowball bid for S-1600's with 392 V-8's.  That buyer was pissed.  I don't think there was any legitimate reason for that buy to go to Ford, a comparable GM truck would have performed just as well.  As did the IH!   

[GearheadGrrrl]

For a lot of agencies here in the midwest "competitive bidding' has become a joke- Agencies are buying whatever they want from non competing bids, buying pools like Sourcewell, MNDOT, the GSA schedules, whatever... While I scrupulously demand competitive bids for my city's purchases, the county asked for bids on an outright purchase of a grader, then took the high bid with the excuse that they offered a better buyback price guarantee and extended warranty that they didn't even ask for! Politicians making politicly correct purchases can be the worse- The bigger cities have bought hybrid and electric cars that became expensive garage queens when they broke down like the mayor that eschewed the usual sedan for a Prius that he then bricked by getting it converted to a plug in hybrid, or the electric Transit Connect that costs 4 times the price of a gas one and was a permanent resident of the parking ramp when it bricked and the converter went out of business!

[7Mary3]

BTW, I m hearing F-150 production at 3 plants is down or is going down due to a lack of....door handles.

[fuzzymoomoo]

7 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

BTW, I m hearing F-150 production at 3 plants is down or is going down due to a lack of....door handles.

It’s not just F-Series….

[Chrisgb]

12 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

I do remember one instance in the mid-80's where a buyer was trying to get contract for 50 or so 26,000# cab and chassis trucks to go to Ford.  He wrote in the spec. the truck had to have a gasoline engine of at least 370 cubic inches but less than 400.  No GMC's or Chevys because their engine options were the 366 or 427 (never mind the GM 366 was more powerful than the Ford 370).  Thought the buy would be for the F-600 with the 370 Lima.  What he didn't know was International was getting ready to drop gasoline engines, and the IH dealer slid in with a lowball bid for S-1600's with 392 V-8's.  That buyer was pissed.  I don't think there was any legitimate reason for that buy to go to Ford, a comparable GM truck would have performed just as well.  As did the IH!   

I saw similar "gerrymandered" specs for trucks when I was in the fleet sales dept of a P-O-GMC store. 

[iamweasel]

On 5/3/2023 at 9:08 AM, ice-capades said:

 

All I know is that the vehicle specifications outlined in almost every bid request for either company, municipal or government accounts that I saw over the years, the required vehicle specifications were written in such a way that the desired vehicles were for a specific brand. Perhaps that's changed in the past couple of years due to the supply chain issues, commodity and plant production constraints affecting fleet allocation and production. 

 

Not to mention the explosion of these sham "buy boards" that let Muni's pick and choose what to buy as opposed to doing a real bid.  (Texas Buy Board, Sourcewell, North Carolina Sheriff's Contract are just a few examples.)  They end up paying more for the trucks than they would over doing a normal bid but it gives the buyer an easier path to choose what they want.    It's a joke,....and taxpayers would be furious if they knew the details as the Muni's are not required (in their minds) to order based on lowest price.  They believe anything that is "posted" is enough to justify them buying it.  

 

In my area covering 3 states, a high majority of muni deals are now done this way.    My company has benefitted from it greatly so while it's good for me personally, I do think the whole system is a giant fraud.

[ice-capades]

1 hour ago, iamweasel said:

 

Not to mention the explosion of these sham "buy boards" that let Muni's pick and choose what to buy as opposed to doing a real bid.  (Texas Buy Board, Sourcewell, North Carolina Sheriff's Contract are just a few examples.)  They end up paying more for the trucks than they would over doing a normal bid but it gives the buyer an easier path to choose what they want.    It's a joke,....and taxpayers would be furious if they knew the details as the Muni's are not required (in their minds) to order based on lowest price.  They believe anything that is "posted" is enough to justify them buying it.  

 

In my area covering 3 states, a high majority of muni deals are now done this way.    My company has benefitted from it greatly so while it's good for me personally, I do think the whole system is a giant fraud.

 

My old dealership used to sell Explorer Police Interceptors in town at cost, less the Ford Fleet incentives Ford price concessions to help and support the town financially, in addition to being a tax paying business employing 35-40 full-time, etc. There were also other vehicles sold for the other town departments as needed. A number of years ago, one of the leading politicians in town decided that the Dealer Principal had too much influence in town after supporting an established real estate developer friend in town with a new business proposal. Afterwards, the town started buying the Police Interceptors from an out-of-state dealer and was paying $3-4,000 more for each vehicle, costing the town and its taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars more each year. So much for elected officials looking out for the best interests of the town and its taxpayers!