Ford boss plans radical overhaul: WSJ

[1931Chevy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061222/bs_nm/ford_dc
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co.'s (NYSE:F - news) new chief executive Alan Mulally's agenda calls for the motor company to plow through "gut-wrenching" change to achieve profitability by 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Friday.

The WSJ reported that at a board meeting last week, Mulally surprised directors by asking them to follow him from the boardroom, down a flight of stairs to his secret "war room," where his plan for the company is mounted on the walls, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

The pages contain charts, graphs and lists of Ford products and markets -- his road map to turn around the troubled auto maker, the paper reported.

[1931Chevy]

on this site it has more info
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06356/748288-185.stm

[2b2]

great article. even tho it contains this, "At Ford, he's likely to pare the auto maker's eight brands..."

I love,
"...on a table in his office, he laid out 12 different metal rods that Ford uses to hold up a vehicle's hood. He wanted to demonstrate to managers that this kind of variation is costly but doesn't matter to consumers.

Mr. Mulally began driving a different Ford car to and from work each day. In the early-morning darkness one day, he climbed into a Mercury Milan and tried to turn on the light. The switch wasn't in the place he expected. He needed to get out of the car and turn on the garage light at his home in Dearborn to locate the car's light switch.

On another day, in a Ford Escape, he hit what he had learned to be the light switch. The windshield wipers came on. In a Mustang later this fall, he found that the wipers and lights were in still different positions.

"One day I'm turning on the lights and another day it's the windshield wipers," he complained to Americas product head Derrick Kuzak, who subsequently was promoted to Ford's global product leader. "Why so inconsistent?" "


One thing I just realized - sorta like the synchronicity of MkFields arriving with Mk-names - Mulally starts with an 'M'... maybe there's hope for my favorite brand. If I had the spare cash and his address, I'd send him some cufflinks shaped like

...or even

[FoMoCo Fan]

Gotta love it when you've got not only 1) an engineer in charge, but 2) one with good business sense, and 3) leadership skills.

I love this quote:

Mr. Kuzak noted that Ford had a longstanding practice of each product line operating independently, which resulted in differentiation in a bid to produce a "unique car." Mr. Mulally says he replied: "World-class companies don't operate this way."

[Ach]

""One day I'm turning on the lights and another day it's the windshield wipers," he complained to Americas product head Derrick Kuzak, who subsequently was promoted to Ford's global product leader. "Why so inconsistent?" "

Great. Now the mags can complain about even more parts-bin sharing in the future.


"...on a table in his office, he laid out 12 different metal rods that Ford uses to hold up a vehicle's hood. He wanted to demonstrate to managers that this kind of variation is costly but doesn't matter to consumers."

What does matter is that a $37K MKZ has rods to hold up the hood at all.

[AdmiralViscen]

Hell yea, I hope this guy is finally able to turn Ford around.

[TaHoE]

I put my full support behind this guy, I hope Ford comes back so we can talk about Chevy vs. Ford again, not GM vs. TM

[EldoFan]

Originally Posted by TaHoE

I put my full support behind this guy, I hope Ford comes back so we can talk about Chevy vs. Ford again, not GM vs. TM

Amen to that!

[1931Chevy]

""One day I'm turning on the lights and another day it's the windshield wipers," he complained to Americas product head Derrick Kuzak, who subsequently was promoted to Ford's global product leader. "Why so inconsistent?" "

Great. Now the mags can complain about even more parts-bin sharing in the future.


"...on a table in his office, he laid out 12 different metal rods that Ford uses to hold up a vehicle's hood. He wanted to demonstrate to managers that this kind of variation is costly but doesn't matter to consumers."

What does matter is that a $37K MKZ has rods to hold up the hood at all.

The think is that Toyota has always been doing this it doesnt matter if its a Camry or and Avalon they share a lot of parts

[uboys]

I hope they don't lose sight of brand identity--although they barely have any of that anyays.

[New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66]

I think Ford got a great guy. And Boeing lost one. I never met Mulally, but I met techs at the Flight Line at Boeing Field who liked him. For a tech to like a "suit" is saying something. He was/is a man passion. In some ways kinda like Lutz.

[JonathanRohr]

Originally Posted by uboys

I hope they don't lose sight of brand identity--although they barely have any of that anyays.

Brand identity is different styling and product goals, complete with unique marketing and pricing structure.

He just wants to elimate useless redundancies on parts that arent part of a vehicles identity, like the wiper control stick.

[LAMRONH]

Originally Posted by 2b2

great article. even tho it contains this, "At Ford, he's likely to pare the auto maker's eight brands..."

I love,
"...on a table in his office, he laid out 12 different metal rods that Ford uses to hold up a vehicle's hood.

Mr. Mulally began driving a different Ford car to and from work each day. In the early-morning darkness one day, he climbed into a Mercury Milan and tried to turn on the light. The switch wasn't in the place he expected. He needed to get out of the car and turn on the garage light at his home in Dearborn to locate the car's light switch.

On another day, in a Ford Escape, he hit what he had learned to be the light switch. The windshield wipers came on. In a Mustang later this fall, he found that the wipers and lights were in still different positions.

"One day I'm turning on the lights and another day it's the windshield wipers," he complained to Americas product head Derrick Kuzak, who subsequently was promoted to Ford's global product leader. "Why so inconsistent?" "


One thing I just realized - sorta like the synchronicity of MkFields arriving with Mk-names - Mulally starts with an 'M'... maybe there's hope for my favorite brand. If I had the spare cash and his address, I'd send him some cufflinks shaped like

...or even

To quote Jed Clampett: "Whee-dawgee! That there city feller seems right smart...for a city feller!"
I like this.
MANAGEMENT BY COMMON SENSE.
This is brilliant in its simplicity. It illustrates how Ford, and GM, are so divided up into their little fiefs that everyone has lost track of the mission.

Taking a different car/truck home every night is such an obvious thing to do. Thank God Bill recognized his limitations, as Dirty Harry once explained is so necessary.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, perhaps "It's morning at Ford Motor Company again!"

A.M. = Morning.

[fastball]

What some of you don't realize, and the thing that Mullaly does (and what Toyota does so well) is that there is actually quite a bit of sharing between different cars that can be done while at the same each and every car looks and performs absolutely different. What Ford and GM have been doing for so long is essentially sharing the wrong parts. You can share hood struts and proprods with every single vehicle you make, from a $12k Focus to a $40k MKZ. You can even share chasis. But when you start sharing so much that the cars bear resemblance to each other, and they feel the same, that's the no-no.

[2b2]

Originally Posted by JonathanRohr

...He just wants to elimate useless redundancies on parts that arent part of a vehicles identity, like the wiper control stick.

One of my favorite gripes
(this looks like as good a place as any to post it)
is why different models within a brand have different upholstery fabrics
I mean who cares if [ex:] Milan has a different pattern from Montego etc.




anyone wanna guess which is which? (without checking the filenames)