https://fordauthority.com/2023/07/ford-claims-it-has-1-billion-cost-disadvantage-in-u-s/
My suggestions to begin fixing this:
Easy as that, now we have a $2 billion cost advantage.
I believe that in addition to all of the off shoring to low cost countries, the layoffs will continue until the workforce is significantly smaller. Then, they will implement salary 'corrections' and reduce salaries for existing employees and new hires as well as lower entry level salaries.
The problem is Ford leadership and the culture they need to preserve to justify their jobs.
Every single reduction has been preceded with FnF protection activities. Every single reduction has been followed by subsequent promotions and hiring sprees. Every reduction starting with Hacketts Smart Redesign has systematically purged the most talented and productive employees, while retaining and promoting unproductive employees.
Contrast this with healthy profitable companies. Healthy companies retain their most talented and productive employees. Healthy companies fire space wasters and toxic employees. Healthy companies have minimal bureaucracy.
How sad is it that a 120 year old automobile company can’t figure out how to profitably produce reliable, safe, affordable vehicles that customers actually want to buy?
Here is a tip - fire all the space wasting unproductive white collar employees (on all continents, including leadership) - bo-m 65% of employee costs gone.
When will the fat lady sing for Ford? Signs point to 2029.
@izx, yer a special kind of stoopeed if ya think that producing more product than the competition is a "cost disadvantage" in general. That's only the case when more is produced than can be sold, and if that's happening it's due to bad management. In that that's where the cuts should be aimed rather than well experienced engineers merely because they're pension eligible.
On second thought, maybe management sees's producing actual product to sell as a cost disadvantage and that's why they want to quit manufacturing vehicles and pivot into a "software & data" company selling subscriptions as add-ons for vehicles they don't make to sell.
I have been at 3 different tier 2 silicon vendors all market leaders in their fields and ford consistently is the least informed least technically skilled of the big three. Routinely designing more expensive systems and refusing to change. Tesla does almost all of its engineering out of California where engineering cost 2-3x engineering in michigan. Ford is just bad at what they do and it's because horrible management and culture that values MBA instead of engineering.
Ok, after reading the Ford authority/automotive news article it is focused on labor costs.
So Ford cannot brag it has the highest investment in US built production and factories, then cry about it being a $1B disadvantage. Make up your mind.
Sounds like negotiation year rhetoric for upcoming UAW negotiations.
How can this make sense?
Engineering outsourced to China, then turkey, then India, then Brazil, then Mexico.
Scratching my head.
Farley has over 70 VP,s, Tesla, gm, Stellantis all have 40-something.
All of the VP,s hired in his tenure, delivering nothing, yet in charge of fairy fl-tulence and pixie dust and unicorn entrails comprise the cost disadvantage.
We also produce more vehicles in the US vs the big 3 and that brings us at a cost disadvantage
First, design products that people want to buy.
Second… oh why bother.
Not to mention the buildings we sold and reduced overhead by everyone working remotely.
Oh yeah, we bought a train station and building a campus. That's where it was spent.
Wait just a minute, I thought we cut that disadvantage by cutting thousands of employees, moving everything to LCC, much more TVM, bring in the best outside tech talent for management positions, and all this will indeed fix quality as a bonus.
We've been saying we've had a disadvantage ever since we didn't take a buyout in 2010. Not sure how long we can keep saying that.