https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2019/09/13/ford-2020-explorer-lincoln-aviator-delivery/2292795001/
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@111HVU1u-5gqf
Asks Has the culture of “don’t tell me the truth, tell me what I want to hear” crept back in”?
Affirmative on that. Along with “don’t tell me anything I don’t want to know”
I often feel like everyone is playing “he who smelt it dealt it”
I hope they figure it out. As one of the hard working, experienced people who was walked out a part of me thinks this could be the reward for discarding so much expertise. In reality it has to be more than that because they didn’t fire all of their talent. Many years ago issues would be swept under the carpet in hopes that they could be resolved before launch (and before management learned of them). It caused quality and launch issues then. Has the culture of “don’t tell me the truth, tell me what I want to hear” crept back in”?
Ford used to be the very best at executing a launch. What happened? The layoffs may have gone too far in letting experience go. Also, there is a significant difference in work ethic with some (not all) new employees. Replaced $110K salary and experience with $80K new engineers and expect launches to run smoothly? Turning out to be much more costly in repairs and customer loyalty. I've been on many launches.. They are tough, there are problems, but never this bad. Easily an order of magnitude worse. Hope this is not a sign of things to come at Ford.
The company has gone too far this time. You bring in Hackett to do the dirty work, get rid of those close to pulling a pension, then all of this quality stuff surfaces. I think they have lost too much face this time to come back strong.
From the article
“Contrary to what sources said, a Ford spokeswoman told the Free Press the repairs were not unusual. “
Ford has not yet learned that customers have eyes, ears and a brain. Anyone driving by Ford facilities in SE Michigan knows it is not “business as usual”. Anyone routinely driving on the freeways between Chicago and Detroit knows this is not “business as as usual”. This is a major costly manufacturing and design issue.
The better play by Ford is to admit the truth and speak honestly. Everyone has figured it out already anyways. Which is more likely, Ford leadership attempting to cover up an error, or everyone in SE Michigan imagining a pattern change and all the Chicago plant workers and Michigan plant workers all fabricating the same story and somehow all being able to coordinate their stories.
Unfortunately Engineering directors and managers dismissed concerns of engineers around quality and processes. Everyone knows it is career s–c-de to press an issue after it has been dismissed.
The emails to staff AFTER the Free Press reports on critical issues giving us “talking points” attempting to make us complicit in a cover up are NOT appreciated. Again, try honesty. If you are honest about specifics of a problem, we will all help you solve it. When you lie, we cannot help solve the problem.
Either Ford's pre-production approval process is not very good, or thousands of vehicles were produced before it was complete.
Either way this is not normal
Really sad, Ford deserves better leaders.
The bad PR will hurt
https://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1125043_what-is-wrong-with-the-2020-ford-explorer-and-lincoln-aviator
This may be a great case study for business school students. I believe Explorers/Aviators were initially assembled away from the plant to pump up the cash flow and profit numbers. Vehicles are booked as sold when the leave the production facility. Here is an example where Senior Management chose to game the metrics!
Pity the poor quality teams that have to do the "on-site mods" off-site. What waste!
Oh dear - this sounds really bad. A window into the future of Ford?