Automotive News, Media & Press - More cuts at Ford.

Interesting quote from the article:
If we build it, they'll buy it. That's business as usual and it's wrong. Our product plans for too long have been defined by our capacity. That's why we must reduce capacity in North America.


http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/23/news/companies/ford_closings/index.htm?cnn=yes

Wow, that all sounds too familiar.

Looks like Ford and GM have no solution to their problem. Last thing i want is either of them being sold to toyota or some other manufacturer.
-Joel

its because the leaders of both companies are only concerned about money. its just now they are pulling thier heads out of thier asses but it may be too late. if GM put as much design into everything as they do into thier trucks/corvettes/any other good model they would kill toyota. GM should keep GMC chevy and caddy and drop the rest and just design every single vehicle as best as possible so imports dont stand a chance.

how do you think toyota is where they are now? they only have one car/truck for each niche of the market and instead of duplicating them and making them look gay/unreliable they engineer every car to the best possible standards so consumers will of coarse buy them.

and that people is what grinds my gears..lol sry about the rant

and making them look gay/unreliable
How would one go about making a car look unreliable? LOL

I hope GM stays in business

I want ford to die

I want ford to die

No you don't.

Bill's plan is missing a few key parts. One is addressing the cost of existing labour (UAW) and there's no mention of phasing out Lincoln and Mercury, two brands that haven't been on consumer's radar screens for years and only serve to waste more of Ford's dwindling resources.

What about Jaguar? It's the losing money like no tomorrow and apparently Ford is reluctant to sell it to Renault. He didn't say anything about restructuring Jaguar to help keep PAG profitable.

Overall it's a good first step, but it's not going to save the company alone.

I want ford to die
If any of the big 3 "die", the economic ripples will be much more far reaching than any one can guess. Businesses will go under that don't even have "automotive" ties.

It would be very bad for the world economy. Our own economy might never recover if this happens. :eek2:

Bill's plan is missing a few key parts. One is addressing the cost of existing labour (UAW) and there's no mention of phasing out Lincoln and Mercury, two brands that haven't been on consumer's radar screens for years and only serve to waste more of Ford's dwindling resources.

What about Jaguar? It's the losing money like no tomorrow and apparently Ford is reluctant to sell it to Renault. He didn't say anything about restructuring Jaguar to help keep PAG profitable.

Overall it's a good first step, but it's not going to save the company alone.

I'm sure Bill has thoughts about closing Lincoln and Mercury and possibly selling Jaguar, but the negotiations within Ford probably didn't allow for that much restructuring at one time. They'll have to take it one step at a time. Therefore I'm sure there will be more cuts in the future. The big three are falling victim to ever brodening competition. They won't be able to sustain the large infrastructure and capacity for long since the competition is taking such a bit out of their ass with such a relatively small operation.

/generalization

I think that Ford and GM execs are in love with the brick and mortar/ sprawling empires they grew up in, and have a lot of gut-ache with the idea of closing 10 plants and losing 5% marketshare a year.

I think for both companies to turn a corner, they will need to
-Shorten the cycle to bring cars to market
-GM needs to stop cross-selling everything
-Try to create design trends rather than follow

In spite of the generic, unsupported comments made by Bill Ford, I think both firms will endure. But you have to remember, he has to come out strong and decisive for the stock market.

losing 5% marketshare a year
That 5% may be the difference between a profitable line of vehicles, and not.

Of course, as a businessman, I'm sure you know that! ;)

How would one go about making a car look unreliable? LOL

making a car look gay and making them unreliable..lol sry

most of my buddies work at a GM dealer and an amazing amount of equinoxes and other cars have come back because people are so unsatisfied with them

i was on vacation last week in mexico, and one of the guys i happened to be playing volleyball with was an employee at a ford factory. He told me about the cuts before they were on the news. Couple factorys in canada and like 9 in america. I didnt really expect this at the moment

making a car look gay and making them unreliable..lol sry

most of my buddies work at a GM dealer and an amazing amount of equinoxes and other cars have come back because people are so unsatisfied with them

That doesn't exactly make the classification of "unreliable" a truth. I worked for BMW and knew people who worked for Ford, Audi, VW, and Dodge who all said those cars were unreliable. Unfortunatley that point of view is skewed since you will see the worst of the worst as a technician. I know seven people (wife, mother, mother-in-law, wife's cousin, two neighbors, one neighbor's mother) with Equini (plural of equinox?) who love them...and I mean love them. But that doesn't prove the opposite either.

Unfortunatley that point of view is skewed since you will see the worst of the worst as a technician.
Yeah, you're not kidding about the different viewpoint you gain as a dealership employee.

I currently work for a company that is in the middle of a major restructuring and possible sale. They are cutting overhead hear and there, and cutting temps left and right. They also are cutting pay in the plant. Is that fair? Probably not, but at the same time, if I'm just a guy putting parts together in assembly, I don't have much of a skill to fall back on and going from $16/hr to $12/hr is still better than no job at all.

I also don't believe you can become profitable by cutting jobs, although I think it is part of the equation. They will need to cut some overhead at some point too. Much as I don't like ford I believe we need them to be profitable and competitive. I think it would take many years for any of the big 3 to go under, they are just to big. I think they will endure, they just have to trim the fat, and adopt new methods and ideals.

Why cant they just not produce as many cars? If you keep making too many of them, of course they're not going to sell.

They can do that, but that also means shutting down plants and cutting jobs.

this is what, ford's fifth major restructuring in the last couple of decades???? and the main strategy is "innovation"(in other words, they haven't thought of it yet).......hopefully bill and the fellas get it right this time, but his statements on monday left more questions than answers.....although whoever was asking about mercury and lincoln, he did mention them, as in they are too valuable to the company to eliminate(his words).......


as far as addressing existing labor, i don't think he deemed it necessary to stir up the nest any more with the union, gm is doing enough of that for the both of them at the moment.......and by not announcing all the plants that will be closed right away, he is angling for some assets in union negotiations as well.....gm and ford are attacking the uaw in different ways on different fronts, then they can both reap the benifits of pattern bargaining.......God forbid they would just make a few vehicles that people buy, like dcx is doing....

they both got too big and didn't consolidate in a timely matter, now its time to pay the piper

God forbid they would just make a few vehicles that people buy, like dcx is doing....
And the german money backing dc has made no difference? I think there's alot more to dc's recent successes than "making a few vehicles thay people buy".

And the german money backing dc has made no difference? I think there's alot more to dc's recent successes than "making a few vehicles thay people buy".

actually, there is more to their success than that, but it sure as heck isn't "german money".....if you think that they are bankrolling the north american operations to a profit you'd be very wrong, although perhaps you could explain that statement further with a reason or two why you think that:confused: .....a strong recovery plan, making hard cuts and staying with the cuts even as profitability returned, smart acquisitions and smarter sell-offs, a strong lineup utilizing part sharing while maintaining brand identity, ect. ect., these all are keeping chrysler profitable, not some german bank account hard wired to the chrysler coffers....

when daimler bought chrysler, they knew it would need help....chrysler also had a huge emergency fund that it hadn't tapped yet, so it wasn't like they didn't have assets,although perhaps part of that was used to pay eaton his 70mil buyout after he sold the company?? it's german leadership that has dcx making money, not a german bankroll....


bottom line, none of this would matter if they weren't building cars that people buy, and right now they are doing that better than ford and gm....

although perhaps you could explain that statement further with a reason or two why you think that
Nope, it was purely conjection.

It would be very bad for the world economy. Our own economy might never recover if this happens. :eek2:

I don't think it would have that big of an effect.Ford and GM are suffering pretty badly right now but our economy continues to boom.

It would definitely be a negative situation but not like 25 yrs ago when the Big 3 employed around 2 million people in the US.

Today the big three has maybe 400,000 people working for them..

GM alone employs over 300k. i dont know how many are not in NA but it effects more than just employees when theres eliminations of jobs. :(

One step in the right direction was when the plant manager at the Ford Dearborn truck assembly plant made a new rule that states if your not driving a Ford made vehicle then you don't park in the company parking lot. He is making all non Ford made cars and trucks park across the road from where the emp/company parking lot is. I work at a Delphi plant and you wouldn't believe all the import cars and trucks in the lot. Years ago this wouldn't have happened due to those vehicles would have been messed up where they sit and dare someone to ask why, but times have changed and it's now ok in America to not support your country or job.
Tom

One step in the right direction was when the plant manager at the Ford Dearborn truck assembly plant made a new rule that states if your not driving a Ford made vehicle then you don't park in the company parking lot. He is making all non Ford made cars and trucks park across the road from where the emp/company parking lot is. I work at a Delphi plant and you wouldn't believe all the import cars and trucks in the lot. Years ago this wouldn't have happened due to those vehicles would have been messed up where they sit and dare someone to ask why, but times have changed and it's now ok in America to not support your country or job.
Tom
i read about that. thats crap.

where i work they always preach the "buy what you build" philosophy, which many people mistake as being patriotic, but in reality is a joke: i work for chrysler, and at my plant they make you park in the corner if you don't drive a dcx vehicle..that's fine, it's their lot, they can make that rule...but it's not a buy american thing for dcx any more, it can't be: the hemis(along with some trucks) are made in mexico, the lx cars in canada, the crossfire in austria, and obviously mercedes is german....and what about the mitsubishi raider??? in ads it's touted as the most powerful import midsize truck, but it's made at warren truck right, here in detroit, alongside of the dakota.....some knucklehead diehard union guys wanted the "parking lot rule" to include only "union made vehicles" ...then toss out the crossfire and the pt cruiser, but include competing vehicles like a f-150 or escalade......you pry shouldn't be driving a hemi powered ram, but a mitsubishi raider would be ok....i think???...heck, at chrysler we can barely figure out what qualifies as a chrysler vehicle.....

nissan(i think???) recently touted a vehicle as having the highest percentage of "american" parts of any current model(somehwere in the 70% range), and it is assembled in america.....

the point is, everything is global now, you can't just say "buy american" because very few things are purely american anymore...