Ford is doing ok as a company overall. They beat 4th quarter earnings, made $2 Billion, and Ford stock is up 8% this morning

 

Glad to be of help!

Seriously, you can't expect people to understand things if they are not made aware of them. Painting the whole landscape with one big brush does not allow one to see the detail... I live in the detail. Every day. I answer the questions you speak of. I literally make decisions every day on equipment that could kill people. No stress.
I have senior management wanting me to justify why I send parts to California to be heat treated EVERY TIME WE MAKE THE ORDER. And every time, I have to go to a meeting and explain that this is the ONLY shop in the USA that has an ethylene-glycol charged cooling tank big enough to do our parts, they have the reclamation system, and they know how to treat aluminum better than anybody else. Even Airbus in Europe flies parts over here to this shop to have work done. The bottom line is this... peoples' LIVES are at stake, this company knows it, they have made the investment to do this process the best way known to man, and they have never screwed up. They are WORTH $3/part more to get it right. ONE bad part, and we have a multi-million dollar lawsuit that we will NOT win, then what is $3/part worth at maybe 50-100k parts total. It gets more than frustrating - it gets down-right wasteful, and the queries and meetings to question these calls cost our company more than the additional cost of the parts do... I'm sure.

It's a daily thing for me, so I am probably more atune to it than most.
Sorry, but I care.

I apologize if you find my defense of the working engineers out here too staunch, but I think we get the short end of the stick way too often, and it's usually some ding-dong penny-pincher that is yeilding the stick. When we bash the cold, clammy interior of a 3rd gen, everyone says "engineering-this and designers-that". Rarely does anyone in the public surmise that the original design and engineer's proposals were FAR better than what went into production, but project leaders and execs limited the spending and forced production to reduce the quality and materials to what we actually get, because the edict was "take the reductions, or we will kill the project all-together."

Let's close this debate by stating that there are some dud engineers just like their are some dutiful and effective accountants, but to state that engineers are oblivious to financial aspects of a business is way off base.

 

ProudPony,

We probably agree more than we disagree.

As an outside observer, it seems to me your real issues lie with the company you work for...they sound more than bit obtuse to me (not that they've cornered the marked on that score by any means).

 

Thinking about this topic a lot today made me realize something about quality, materials and design.
*Take "blue-jeans", from hearing my kids talk; how many kids brag about the "brand R" from a company like Walmart, as compared to "brand N" from Macy's??
*Brand "R" costs much less, wears about the same, but feels rough and cheap and looks pretty plain.
*Brand "N" cost a lot more, but feels better, softer, more comfortable, and look "Hot" and trendy.
**How many people will gladly pay more for brand "N", b/c they know it's better quality, it will make the happy, and will last, and aren't ashamed to be seen in them??
**Answer: Ask people, look around, people WILL pay more for a QUALITY made product, that looks the part.
Ford (and GM for that matter) must learn this "All Over Again..."
Only this will SAVE them...
(And build America back up, by compensating people for what a job's worth, as in time and difficulty. We're going the WRONG WAY.)

 

Actually, when talking about the auto industry, he's not all that far off...

It's nerve grating to spend 50% of your time having to "justify your decisions" to people who have no real understanding of what you're trying to do. You have to understand that "yes, it is the cheapest possible part" is not the answer these people will take. They want research. reports. proof...to the degree that it impairs your ability to get the job done in the first place. Proudpony must have to do this a lot to be so bitter about the whole thing. I can't say that I blame him.

 

The one thing that no one has considered with Ford's $2 Billion profit, is that it includes their sale of Hertz with a $1.3 Billion increase in fourth quarter results. The investors who purchased Hertz also assumed almost $10 Billion in debt, and paid Ford $5.6 Billion in cash.

 

Actually, the same issues transcend all companies I have worked for (3) and industry as a whole. I am having some work done with an engineering firm out of Charlotte, NC right now who does fuel rod containers for Nuclear stations, tooling for Seimens/Westinghouse turbines, and paper machines for 3 large mill companies, and at lunch last Thursday, they said they see the same thing from everybody. It's not my company, it the modern business model.

More to the point of the thread - as an insider, I see this as one of the MOST IMPORTANT issues Ford needs to eliminate to become leaner, faster, and better as a manufacturing corporation. THIS IS SOME OF WHAT IS KILLING US IN THE USA TODAY.

Again, it's not just the auto industry - it's ALL manufacturing today in the US.
As for the justifications - you hit the nail right on the head. I do the research, and dot every "i", only to have to replay it over and over and over to rejustify it to every level of management as a project goes up through approval chains of command. It's like the next level up doesn't think you really did all the homework before you got to them. And (as you said WERM), all of the time I spend re-stating and re-justifying these decisions COULD have been far better spent moving ahead on the next project instead.

Indeed, it is frustrating. You do the job once, relive it a dozen times explaining it to everyone under the CEO, then you struggle to convince the same management to keep your position and not eliminate your job because you are not productive enough for the salary you make.

And yes, it's a DAILY battle. If I didn't love the engineering itself, it wouldn't be worth it. But when you see one of your creations working in a plant or going down the street - it pays BIG dividends inside.

 

Good points. No doubt Ford has been juggling some assets.
I hated to see them sell Hertz, but swapping $10b in debt for $5.6b in cash wasn't a bad deal. And honestly, Ford should be in the business of BUILDING cars, not renting them.

Their announcements yesterday didn't shock me too bad. I ws surprised at how many people they had already eliminated from their 2002 plan. But 30k people over a 6 year period is really not too aggressive if you consider retirements, natural attrition, and the like. The plant closings will be the big hit to take because all that capital investment will be sitting idle.

I still go back to my original statement though... GOOD PRODUCT will do more to pull them out of the funk than any restructuring or global realignment project. I hope their new "Innovation" paradigm takes good root and grows fast.

 

If I had a nickel for every time those guys said "innovation," I could bail Ford and GM out...

 

Every job has its frustrations and we’ve all spent time doing things for our management that we feel is unjustified, unneeded or wasteful. However; that frankly isn’t your (or my) call.

We all have the same choices…put ourselves in management so that we can make the decisions; quite and start our own company; or find a company that does it better and I would submit that they dont' all do it the same.

After having consulted with a few dozen companies in my career and worked as am employee for a few others, I can tell you that they DON’T all operate from the exact same business model – some do it much better than others.

Of course in the end, everybody answers to somebody.

 

I would LOVE to go to work for Pixar Studios... but they don't need a mechanical engineer today.

Hershey's (as in the chocolate company) used to be the benchmark for East Coast employers, but they too have begun to crumble under the weight of Asian influence and cost structures.

My hope is that the pendulum swings both ways. Maybe again before I reach retirement age, America will have lots ethical and competitive businesses that have some shred of partiotic duty and minimal bureaucracy.
(A guy can dream, right?)

PS - How in the world RP stayed out of his one is beyond me!?!? I'da thunk he could offer up some good fodder about big companies and goofy management for sure. There again, I guess he needs his paycheck just like I do.

 

You obviously need to learn who "RED" is.

 

If you mean RedPlanet...I know who "RED" is...if you mean some other "RED" then please enlighten me.