Does Ford Have Too Many Engineers?

[SubLGT]

CEO Jim Farley identifies key pain points Ford must fix, starting with engineering

Farley made the remarks about what's broken at Ford, namely engineering, in an upcoming episode of SiriusXM's Cars & Culture, hosted by Jason Stein.

www.freep.com

"I think probably it takes us 25% more engineers to do the same work statements as our competitors," Farley said. "I can't afford to be 25% inefficient. And those are controllable by the team leaders at Ford."

“We need to measure technical expertise. We need to measure if someone is a change agent like they are solving problems. They lean into action. Their first intuition is to do something, not talk about doing something. … We are getting better at measuring these things," Farley said. "It's going to dictate your compensation with the company if you manage people whether you fit the culture. It'll dictate who gets hired, who gets ahead, who gets more responsibility. It won't be seniority, necessarily, although that matters. It will be based on meritocracy, on the kind of behaviors we think are important like collaboration, excellence and problem solving.”

“I see some of our plants that are world class in quality. Right up there with Toyota on the way they operate their plant. Other plants, I walk in, I don't know if I'm winning or losing on quality," Farley said. "I talk to an individual operator. They can't tell me if I'm winning or losing. I don't know what the gap is to the competition on final assembly in terms of quality. We can't have that variance in our manufacturing facilities.”

 

[Kira]

" Their first intuition is to do something, not talk about doing something. …" Whattabuncha whoey.

 

[UG_Passat]

It's more of a cultural problem..... that goes way back to their arrogance when they rejected W. Edwards Demming.

Good luck changing it, because they are so stuck in their ways, it's going to be considered a "radical change".

Let's not forget, Configuration management iaw EIA-649 can be a long, drawn out process that can take way too long.

 

[supton]

First he talks about engineers, then talks about floor operations? While engineers are often driving what goes on, on the floor, I'm not sure the two are linked at the hip, at least not as indicated in this article. Engineers are doing lots of stuff, but not usually on the floor (if they are, it's because stuff isn't going right--and they often need to be out there figuring out what isn't right).

Also: "I think it probably takes us 25% more engineers..."? What kind of statement is that? Some way to strike fear into the white collar workforce? Perhaps it's needed, perhaps not, but if I was there, that's how I'd take it (otherwise I'd question, gee is he just making this number up?).

 

[slacktide_bitog]

They don't have too many engineers, just too many incompetent "executives"

 

[UG_Passat]

First he talks about engineers, then talks about floor operations? While engineers are often driving what goes on, on the floor, I'm not sure the two are linked at the hip, at least not as indicated in this article. Engineers are doing lots of stuff, but not usually on the floor (if they are, it's because stuff isn't going right--and they often need to be out there figuring out what isn't right).

Also: "I think it probably takes us 25% more engineers..."? What kind of statement is that? Some way to strike fear into the white collar workforce? Perhaps it's needed, perhaps not, but if I was there, that's how I'd take it (otherwise I'd question, gee is he just making this number up?).

Actually engineers and what happens on the floor are linked at the hip. With more computers at each station, the engineers can create the work instructions for each process of the operations of that station, including all of the operator quality checks, which gets stored in their repository. If there is a defect, the engineers can trace back to which shift and operator who screwed up.

And after the Configuration Management process has run its course on changes, then the manufacturing engineer can update the work instructions and load it to the operator stations for them to follow.

 

[tmorris1]

Chris Farley is his cousin, so maybe he is joking?
Whatever the problem, they need to get their quality better. That could probably be said for all manufacturers though. I know a lot of it is mandates, but vehicles are being made way too complex to eak out a little economy at the expense of longevity, reliability, and cost.

 

[PWMDMD]

Clearly however many they have there is something fundamentally wrong with the way they go about designing, engineering, and testing.

 

[Boomer]

When the pencil pushers are at war with the engineers and quality managers, this is the type of work environment you get.

 

[CKN]

I'm sure there is enough expertise on this board to suggest what Mr. Farley should do......

 

[Tdbo]

I'm sure there is enough expertise on this board to suggest what Mr. Farley should do......

sans lubrication.

 

[brianl703]

Well 20 years ago Jacques Nasser said that Ford had too many old white guys working for them.

Guess they got rid of all of those and now 20 years later they gotta get rid of engineers in general.

 

[Passport1]

Does Ford Have Too Many Engineers?​

Judging from my son's 2020 Explorer saga (posted on the Mechanical/Maintanence forum) NO.

They have too many STUPID engineers.

 

[Leo99]

They don't have too many engineers, just too many incompetent "executives"

That the root reason that they have too many engineers.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Seriously - if you were top in your field in any Automotive Engineering - be it design, manufacturing, quality, whatever - would you go work for Ford?

Maybe they need 25% more because they don't have the top picks.

 

[pbm]

Seriously - if you were top in your field in any Automotive Engineering - be it design, manufacturing, quality, whatever - would you go work for Ford?

Maybe they need 25% more because they don't have the top picks.

Maybe they don't get the 'top picks' because 'meritocracy' has gone out the window in America....one just has to look at our government to see that.

PS: It's hard to believe that those extra 25% of engineers allowed the 'Powershift' transmission in the Focus and Fiesta to ever make it to the market....and then allowed it to be sold for 7 or 8 years costing millions in warranty claims and lost future customers. (Imagine how many owners of those lemons passed on another Ford product because of it.)

 

[skyactiv]

Maybe they don't get the 'top picks' because 'meritocracy' has gone out the window in America....one just has to look at our government to see that.

PS: It's hard to believe that those extra 25% of engineers allowed the 'Powershift' transmission in the Focus and Fiesta to ever make it to the market....and then allowed it to be sold for 7 or 8 years costing millions in warranty claims and lost future customers. (Imagine how many owners of those lemons passed on another Ford product because of it.)

Just in case no one has read this:

Ford Employees Claim They Knew About The Defective PowerShift Transmission | Carscoops

It is alleged that Ford employees voiced their concerns about the gearbox design but were ignored

www.carscoops.com

 

[DwightFrye]

Seriously - if you were top in your field in any Automotive Engineering - be it design, manufacturing, quality, whatever - would you go work for Ford?

Maybe they need 25% more because they don't have the top picks.

Correct, the best and the brightest engineers these days aren't being recruited by Ford. And they sure don't want to live in Dearborn.
Guess where many of them want to work and who they want to work for ?

 

[PF52]

Correct, the best and the brightest engineers these days aren't being recruited by Ford. And they sure don't want to live in Dearborn.
Guess where many of them want to work and who they want to work for ?

The only one I know personally, works for Tesla.

Am I close?

 

[Hermann]

To me Jim Farley is a phony. IMO YMMV