Yea, that and a lot of waste in engineering and production processes. Saw that almost every day for over 20 years when I worked at Ford. The plant managers did the gemba walks in a perfunctory way. CI wasn't taken seriously by upper management.
Ford should fix the process issues before making a decision to exit China.
To add to this.
Autoline's 2024 Industry Report Card lays out the differences between Stong Automakers and those struggling.
There are a couple of 🚩 for Ford.
Ford is #4 in Revenue but #10 in operating profit. Even with an extraordinary Focus on high-margin vehicles, operating profit remains challenging.
Ford is #6 in Sales volume behind Toyota, VW, Hyundai, Stellantis and GM. It should be noted that Ford's volume is 60% of Hyundai Group and 5% higher than HONDA and 46% higher BYD
What's concerning is that Ford isn't in the top 10 in profit per vehicle, even with their focus on higher margin segments.
Finally, the question that needs to be asked is, what does Ford's future look like if they shrink into a regional player by leaving Asia and Europe? It takes a lot of money to develop new vehicles. Can they sustain a competitive lineup without those markets? What would happen long term to regional automakers when more profitable global players decide to compete?
The Shark is fitted with a relatively small 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, but it is paired with two electric motors – divided between front and rear axles – for a combined power output of "more than" 316kW.
https://www.drive.com.au/news/2025-byd-shark-phev-ute-revealed/
A lot of what Ford Europe makes and sells in its home turf and ROW exports make no money.
The vehicles that do make money are Ranger/Everest and the Transits all the rest are a wash…..
Dearborn finally decides to flip over that rock….
Bought a new CX-8 (it’s a LWB 3-row CX-5) a couple of weeks ago and discovered how little I knew about dual zone climate control. Anyway after reading about it, worked out that once everything is set, you don’t have to muck with too much save the temperature knobs. Modern cars with their nanny electronics are helpful but need to all be preset when you’re not driving.
Apart form that it’s been a wonderful experience and a massive step up from the old 2.5 CX-7 I now have as a work beater.