Ford bans competitors' vehicles from lot

[Mowgli1647545497]

It's all about percentages...

I meant percentages as in the % of the car built inside US borders, etc. But I agree, the DESIGN and costs need to come in line as well (costs from materials and workers).

 

But this plant manager can't control any of that. He runs his plant. Pride needs to go up across the board. Here's his stab at upping pride in their work at his plant.

 

The designers also need something to bite their butts, but I don't think its all their fault. As Bill Ford said its a whole culture change that needs to happen at Ford (and at GM imo too) - he said they build cars to fill capacity for production. So they take no risks, because any risks puts at risk a giant production run of 100s of thousands of cars over at least a decade. So ever design gets watered down until its bland. And materials get cheapened down because the frigging pensions and wages suck up so much % that they can't afford to buy high end materials to put in the cars. So the products... suck.

 

They need to quick thinking in terms of massive production runs. They need to think in terms of products people will buy, faster product cycles (Japanese cycle new car models twice or three times as fast as domestics, hell GM and Ford try to keep a car platform alive for 20yrs). They need to take chances, increase quality material use, bring a dose of reality to line workers on what they get paid vs what they do (hanging car doors isn't rocket science - why should they get paid a rocket scientist's salary?), and they need to increase pride in thier work.

 

Here's one step for that last item by one plant manager.

 

And Bill Ford said: "You know what? We're not going to sell a bazillion cars anymore. It ain't going to happen. And continuing to go along with our heads up our asses and think in those terms isn't going to solve anything. So you know what? Fuk it - we don't need em, we can't fill em, and we sure as heck can't afford em, so I'm closing these xyz plants." Maybe NOW they can break their old habit and realize its about the flipping product and not about filling some Dearborn plant's build capacity churning out junk nobody but blind loyalists want just to continue to overpay a bunch of workers who don't even have enough pride in what they do to buy the damn cars they get paid highway robbery to make.

[Trouble Maker]

I meant percentages as in the % of the car built inside US borders, etc.

 

Ah cool, I obviously thought you were implying something else. Pretty much completely agree with what you said. It's a small step in the right direction. This alone will do very little though.

 

I whole-heartedly believe in a top down philosophy in almost any company, even ones this large. If the people up high act one way, so will the people below them, and the people below them. Generally speaking the major change will come from the managers (higher up), high-level 'designers'/engineering managers, engineers. There's not a whole lot they can do with design when, like you said, the build cost are too high.

[Tractor]

Buying from American companys puts more money into the American economy, no? Obviously there is no TRUE american car's, but there are American companies Believe me. It's not just the inital price of the car either, when you buy replacement parts, where do you have to buy the parts from eh? They do bring jobs here, which is great for our economy, but no one here can tell me that Honda invests 100% of their money back into the American economy.

 

Well for one most car parts I end up buying come from Advance or Marietta Ignition and are usually made by federal mogul or dana or some other american autoparts maker. I almost never buy OEM parts unless its something I can't get from Advance. Then I usually just go to the junk yards.

 

Evan

[NOS50]

I work for Lexus and I have 2 Toyotas,a Lexus,a Ford and a Buick.I buy what I like and have no problem buying "foreign cars".My Toyota Sienna LE was assembled in Kentucky and the Grand Voyager I had before it was assembled in Canada.ALL of my bills are paid with a check from Lexus so why shouldn't I drive one?Should you support the Co you work for, you bet.The stronger you make your Co. the more job security you have and it makes it easier when you go for a raise.I think it's funny what they did with the parking,all of us could use a little more exercise anyways.

[Guest SaleenSC302]

Hey guys..... I think Ford's doin the right thing trying to focus a little more on technology rather than just pumping out thousands of cars. I'm actually goin to start workin for Ford up in dearborn in a few months, so hopefully I don't bitched out by the union workers. I don't have anything against union workers but they are definitely getting paid way more than their job is worth. Unions were a great thing way back in the late 1800's when they were formed to get rid of child labor and gain suitable working conditions, but the purpose of the union now seems like it's completely opposite. Now, they try to get more money to do less. Again, I think they should protect themselves from bad working conditions and all that, but they shouldn't be getting paid so much. Here's a couple examples of how out of hand this is. My dad did some computer work for ford back in the 70's and was talking to some of the workers there. The broomsweeper during 9 months out of that year had already made 80,000 dollars. That's just in 9 months! Now, let's also remember that this is the 70's. This was a time when teachers were barely making 10k a year. Yet, a frickin broomsweeper made 80k. Now, most union workers that I have worked with or have talked to make around 27 bucks an hour and bascially stamp out parts or whatever. Also, the get the best benefits in the world, plenty of vacation time, and take about 20 breaks throughout the day. The also get pissed if you try to someone else's job. A great example: my friend works at the ford casting plant in cleveland, and as part of his job he needs to uses this bike to get around the plant. Well one day the tire blew out and he needed to put a new tube in the tire. Well, the union worker who's job it was said it would take him 2 weeks to get it done. Since my friend needed this bike, he decided to do it himself that day. Well, the other union workers got pissed and my friend had to lock himself in a room to do it, with the workers banging on the door. The workers wrote my friend up because he was doing someone else's job. Another great example, I was on the factory floor at my old job and I needed to open a cabinet to get something, and there were 2 boxes in front of the door. The workers around me wouldn't allow me to move the boxes to open the cabinet because that wasn't my job. I was called every name in the book just because I was a salaried employee younger than the union workers, and I just had to put up with it. I could go on and on with ridiculous examples, and it's just insane that companies put up with this. The worst part is that unions have been going on strike whenever they feel like they want more money and they usually get it. Think about how many employees Ford has that work on assemly lines that are part of the union. Now think about each one of those workers making 27 bucks an hour and you can easliy see why Ford is losing money. One of my friends works for GM in michigan and he found out that 1200 dollars from each car GM sells goes to costs related to the union workers.

 

Now, with that being said, I'm not really against unions as a whole. There are plenty of companies and union workers, even within the automotive industry, that provide excellent work and don't take advantage of the system. I understand how repetitive factory work is and that stamping the same part over and over again might be frustrating work. I know this because I've done it, and it's not the most fun job out there. I understand that these people probably should be compensated for the repetitive jobs they do, but there's a limit to that compensation and I think it was been surpassed years ago. The fact that these people make more money than most lawyers make, plus get better benefits than salaried employees, better vacation, and more breaks, is just crazy. I mean to think that I could've come out of high school and jumped right into a high paying job stamping steel is mind boggling. It makes me think how insane it is that I paid money to go to college in order to get a job that probably makes less money than these union workers make. I don't blame them for trying to hold onto these jobs because it almost seems too good to be true. But it was only a matter of time before this nonsense came back to bite the companies in the arse.

 

It's too bad that a lot of people had to lose their jobs over this, but unfortunately that's the way the automotive business works. Ford should've tried to cut a deal with the workers to have them keep their jobs but with less pay, but I doubt anyone would've wanted to stay. Since the workers are making so much anyways, it probably would've been too big of a cut for the workers to even consider staying. Oh well, I get off my soap box. Hopefully the automotive companies will get out of this slump.

 

**on a side note, the whole foreign cars in lots thing has been going on for decades. The cleveland casting plant has had people that drove non-ford cars to park out by the street since the 70's.

[Mensan]

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[Guest SaleenSC302]

haha....yeah i know i got a little out of hand

[Tractor]

I over heard the management at the Krogers dairy plant out by newark talking one day about promoting someone. They said that they had a guy they wanted to promote, but he was younger and an older union guy wanted the position. So if they promoted the younger guy they'd have to give the old guy the same title and pay, but he wouldn't have the power of the title in order to comply with there union agreement.

 

Evan