Ford CEO Farley Warns Employees

[Trigganometry]

CEO Jim Farley had a town hall meeting. According to The Wall Street Journal, he is reworking performance metrics. As Ford has increasing financial troubles, it should be considered a warning: Our reputation for quality is under siege. Get better at what you do, or these new metrics may cost you your job.
Ford finds itself in a terrible position. Farley said it had “left $2 billion on the table” as the company announced earnings. Earlier in the year, Ford missed expense estimates by $1 billion. Farley also said Ford needed 25% more engineers to do the work competitors do. If that is not a warning about layoffs, what is?

Ford CEO Warns Employees

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[dondonbabyraptor]

I would love to be able to see what the WSJ article is without the paywall. It would give me better overall understanding of what those performance metrics might be. Sometimes simplifying performance metrics to have an overall easy-to-understand language is good for changing behavior. It really just depends how they did it. Are they pushing for more quantity through these metrics similar to Amazon and their warehouse works? Are they pushing for behaviors that match the quality culture they might have as organization? Unfortunately not enough of the article for me to articulate further but this is interesting for sure.

 

[AzScorpion]

IIRC most of these issues started back in 2020. Coincidently the same year that Ford hired Farley? ? Besides he's been blowing hot air about cracking down on dealers overcharging/marking up vehicles now for over a year and still....Bupkis!

 

[dtech]

The beatings will continue until morale improves, next Farley will be warning owners to quit making warranty claims if they really care about Ford.

I remember back in late 70s working for an electronics mfg rife with design, quality, time to market, employee morale problems and the genius head honcho decided that he would force all employees to watch a video of employees in Japan exercising as a group before starting work, singing the company anthem, eating lunch together and so on, maybe Farley can force Ford employees to watch videos of Tesla employees driving their model S to work, smiling as they cash in on their Tesla stock - before the bottom dropped out. Now they are frowning.

 

[Dr_Strangelove]

It's interesting that he pins this squarely on quality which is undeniably an issue at Ford; but I'd say if the conversation is "money left on the table" then their latest product launches have left the most sour taste in the mouths of "new Ford buyers". The Maverick and the Bronco have been disastrous for thousands of people who have said "never again" as a result. That is something that is in Ford's hands directly. What is Farley doing to address their own manufacturing shortcomings?

 

[AzureRanger]

Maybe if Farley wore a Blue Oval lapel pin (instead of Lincoln), the men and women on the Ford line might show a bit more pride in their work.

 

[AzScorpion]

It's interesting that he pins this squarely on quality which is undeniably an issue at Ford; but I'd say if the conversation is "money left on the table" then their latest product launches have left the most sour taste in the mouths of "new Ford buyers". The Maverick and the Bronco have been disastrous for thousands of people who have said "never again" as a result. That is something that is in Ford's hands directly. What is Farley doing to address their own manufacturing shortcomings?

Not just the new buyers but a lot of long time Ford dedicated buyers too. I've seen many angry upset long time Ford buyers (myself included) over on the B6G forum cancel their orders and buy from another manufacturer because of this mess. We all understand there were constraints and were willing to wait for our Broncos. Then they changed the rules that favored the larger dealers and we, the dedicated long time customer got stuck waiting 3+ years for ours.

Now they tell us to change our order to something we don't want and you "might" have a chance to finally receive it in 2023. Oh, if you don't, then to bad because we're cancelling all past orders and the price protection and you'll have to start the process all over again. ?‍

 

[dtech]

It's interesting that he pins this squarely on quality which is undeniably an issue at Ford; but I'd say if the conversation is "money left on the table" then their latest product launches have left the most sour taste in the mouths of "new Ford buyers". The Maverick and the Bronco have been disastrous for thousands of people who have said "never again" as a result. That is something that is in Ford's hands directly. What is Farley doing to address their own manufacturing shortcomings?

Certainly speculation, but gotta wonder how much Farley's plan to cut costs in the traditional business and using the profits to fund the EV biz contributes to the issues. He certainly is moving ahead to transition Ford into a leading EV maker and has this been too much too soon. Below from an article last June, no idea how many jobs Ford has cut in the Blue biz while hiring into the EV biz but such transitions can pose many challenges - morale possibly one of them.

Ford Said To Plan 8,000 Job Cuts At ICE Unit To Fund EV Push
The automaker reportedly aims to eliminate 8,000 salaried positions at the Ford Blue division, mostly in the US.

 

[AzScorpion]

Certainly speculation, but gotta wonder how much Farley's plan to cut costs in the traditional business and using the profits to fund the EV biz contributes to the issues. He certainly is moving ahead to transition Ford into a leading EV maker and has this been too much too soon. Below from an article last June, no idea how many jobs Ford has cut in the Blue biz while hiring into the EV biz but such transitions can pose many challenges - morale possibly one of them.

Ford Said To Plan 8,000 Job Cuts At ICE Unit To Fund EV Push
The automaker reportedly aims to eliminate 8,000 salaried positions at the Ford Blue division, mostly in the US.

This!!!

I'd say a lot of it has contributed to these issues. If you think about it 2020 was really the start of the "big push" towards EV's. So by looking to far onto the future and not having a balance of both the ICE and EV's he (and Ford) went full steam ahead towards electric. Just look at the billions that are going into the new Blue Oval City project (5.6B) and now this new one (3.5B) in MI. I'm not saying they're cutting ICE out completely but they definitely seem to be putting their eggs in one big basket right now which seems to be causing all these issues. You can only steal from Peter to pay Paul for so long until it catches up with you. Looks like the chickens have come home to roost now. ?

 

[Dr_Strangelove]

@dtech - for sure the investment in EV / Batteries is cannibalizing the rest of the business. I have no doubt that is contributing to the ongoing quality issue with their current product lineup and no doubt it's contributing to the fact that production vs. demand cannot be satisfied. It sounds like the plan is, by 2029, to make it easier to get an electric product from Ford.

 

[Motorpsychology]

Farley is all EV all the time as @dtech said, and the decontenting, across all models. Ford isn't the only company with shortages, just the worst at managing theirs. Had they not sold 90% of their Rvian (RVIN) stock, they would have been down closer to $5 bn for 2022.
On top of everything else, the whole licensing of CATL battery technology issue couldn't come at a worse time, politically or militarily, Virginia turning Ford's proposal to locate the plant there, their Governor calling it a "Trojan Horse."

I've bought or leased 13 Ford and Mercury products in my life so far, 9 brand new. Maybe it's time to look elsewhere for my next vehicle; definitely if it's BEV.

 

[RedDakooter05]

Honestly, fuck that guy. He's just another suit wearing dickhead making empty promises.

 

[AzScorpion]

Farley is all EV all the time as @dtech said, and the decontenting, across all models. Ford isn't the only company with shortages, just the worst at managing theirs. Had they not sold 90% of their Rvian (RVIN) stock, they would have been down closer to $5 bn for 2022.
On top of everything else, the whole licensing of CATL battery technology issue couldn't come at a worse time, politically or militarily, Virginia turning Ford's proposal to locate the plant there, their Governor calling it a "Trojan Horse."

I've bought or leased 13 Ford and Mercury products in my life so far, 9 brand new. Maybe it's time to look elsewhere for my next vehicle; definitely if it's BEV.

Like you I've bled blue for the past 30 years but I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't nervous buying a Ranger Raptor. Potentially dropping $60K+ with all these ongoing issues has really made me starting thinking twice these past few days. That's one reason I was over on B6G earlier today trying to see how the BRaptor was and if/what issue it was having. There were some as expected but nothing major ongoing yet.

 

[Trigganometry]

This more a problem across society. Many feel they deserve a job and just “show up” for a paycheck. Then if I do a good job I expect a promotion and a free Mustang. The quality aspect really comes down to each individual and their desire to do whatever is right. Problem is, the well is poisoned now and correcting it means a leadership change. Until that happens it’s down the same rat hole.

 

[OHTREMOR]

CEO Jim Farley had a town hall meeting. According to The Wall Street Journal, he is reworking performance metrics. As Ford has increasing financial troubles, it should be considered a warning: Our reputation for quality is under siege. Get better at what you do, or these new metrics may cost you your job.
Ford finds itself in a terrible position. Farley said it had “left $2 billion on the table” as the company announced earnings. Earlier in the year, Ford missed expense estimates by $1 billion. Farley also said Ford needed 25% more engineers to do the work competitors do. If that is not a warning about layoffs, what is?

Ford CEO Warns Employees

Had my wife’s baby Bronco in for two warranty issues today. Less than a year old. We have a good local dealer so all taken care of but Ford QC is definitely suspect. Too many recalls. My 21 Ranger has been good so far other than my synch screen blacking out for 15 minutes the other day. Came back with a shit down and restart but now I’m getting nervous.

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