Ford and 14,000 less!!!!!!!!!
#1
01-09-2007, 12:43 PM
Ford and 14,000 less!!!!!!!!!
Ford Designers Set to Do More With Less
Published: 1/9/07, 9:56 AM EDT
By TOM KRISHER
DETROIT (AP) - Ford Motor Co.'s top designers see a conflict between their mission to turn out cutting-edge cars and trucks faster than ever and the struggling company's plans to slash its white-collar work force by 14,000 people.
Inevitably some of those who leave under company buyout and early retirement offers will be designers, but Peter Horbury, executive director of design for the Americas, has a plan.
"Fewer people doing more designs in less time," he said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Across the company, Ford managers
aren't quite certain how the loss of 36 percent of all salaried workers will affect its operations. With offers on the table and a Feb. 19 final deadline for sign ups, no one really knows for sure how many people will retire early from each department, although managers can limit the number taking buyouts if necessary. Ford isn't releasing numbers on how many have accepted offers so far.
No matter how many people leave, for Horbury and his boss, J Mays, it means taking advantage of every timesaving method they know. Chief among them is greater use of computer-aided design to reduce the number of clay models and prototypes they build.
It also means having designers take part in researching customer wants and needs from the beginning, before cars are designed, to cut down the number of changes.
Previously the company did market research after cars were designed, asking consumers how they liked the headlamps and other features, said Mays, Ford's vice president of design and chief creative officer.
Ford has mortgaged its assets to borrow up to $23.4 billion to fund a massive restructuring plan and cover billions in losses expected until 2009. The company, which lost $7 billion in the first nine months of last year, expects to burn up $17 billion in cash during the next two years.
It's trying to put new products into an increasingly competitive marketplace as it cuts fixed costs, including the white-collar buyouts and early departures. About 38,000 blue-collar workers also have signed up for similar offers as the company tries to shrink itself, closing plants to meet lower demand for its products.
"There's nothing like a crisis to focus your attention," said Mays. "It certainly has ours."
Horbury said that previously, he and other designers spent much of their time trying to push work through Ford's thick bureaucracy. But under new Chief Executive Alan Mulally, hired in October from aviation giant Boeing Co., decisions are made more quickly, also reducing product development time.
Mulally also has confidence in the design team, Horbury said, allowing them freedom to do their work. The historical Ford tussles between design and engineering also have gradually gone away.
"There's nothing on the engineering side holding us back from succeeding," Mays said.
That means the men are under the spotlight to deliver, which they think they have done with the two redesigned 2008 models that made their debut this week during media preview days at the show, the Focus small car and the Five Hundred larger sedan.
Both got design cues from the company's successful midsize car, the Fusion, which will serve as a base for all of new Ford products it rolls out in the future.
They also said new Lincoln vehicles will have features of the new MKR concept, a four-door coupe with a high door line and fewer creases, which the men say is counter to industry trends.
But they won't say what new cars or trucks are next in the environment of rolling out better designs faster.
"You won't have long to wait," Mays said. "You'll see it this year."
Ford Motor Co.: http://www.ford.com
Published: 1/9/07, 9:56 AM EDT
By TOM KRISHER
DETROIT (AP) - Ford Motor Co.'s top designers see a conflict between their mission to turn out cutting-edge cars and trucks faster than ever and the struggling company's plans to slash its white-collar work force by 14,000 people.
Inevitably some of those who leave under company buyout and early retirement offers will be designers, but Peter Horbury, executive director of design for the Americas, has a plan.
"Fewer people doing more designs in less time," he said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Across the company, Ford managers
aren't quite certain how the loss of 36 percent of all salaried workers will affect its operations. With offers on the table and a Feb. 19 final deadline for sign ups, no one really knows for sure how many people will retire early from each department, although managers can limit the number taking buyouts if necessary. Ford isn't releasing numbers on how many have accepted offers so far.
No matter how many people leave, for Horbury and his boss, J Mays, it means taking advantage of every timesaving method they know. Chief among them is greater use of computer-aided design to reduce the number of clay models and prototypes they build.
It also means having designers take part in researching customer wants and needs from the beginning, before cars are designed, to cut down the number of changes.
Previously the company did market research after cars were designed, asking consumers how they liked the headlamps and other features, said Mays, Ford's vice president of design and chief creative officer.
Ford has mortgaged its assets to borrow up to $23.4 billion to fund a massive restructuring plan and cover billions in losses expected until 2009. The company, which lost $7 billion in the first nine months of last year, expects to burn up $17 billion in cash during the next two years.
It's trying to put new products into an increasingly competitive marketplace as it cuts fixed costs, including the white-collar buyouts and early departures. About 38,000 blue-collar workers also have signed up for similar offers as the company tries to shrink itself, closing plants to meet lower demand for its products.
"There's nothing like a crisis to focus your attention," said Mays. "It certainly has ours."
Horbury said that previously, he and other designers spent much of their time trying to push work through Ford's thick bureaucracy. But under new Chief Executive Alan Mulally, hired in October from aviation giant Boeing Co., decisions are made more quickly, also reducing product development time.
Mulally also has confidence in the design team, Horbury said, allowing them freedom to do their work. The historical Ford tussles between design and engineering also have gradually gone away.
"There's nothing on the engineering side holding us back from succeeding," Mays said.
That means the men are under the spotlight to deliver, which they think they have done with the two redesigned 2008 models that made their debut this week during media preview days at the show, the Focus small car and the Five Hundred larger sedan.
Both got design cues from the company's successful midsize car, the Fusion, which will serve as a base for all of new Ford products it rolls out in the future.
They also said new Lincoln vehicles will have features of the new MKR concept, a four-door coupe with a high door line and fewer creases, which the men say is counter to industry trends.
But they won't say what new cars or trucks are next in the environment of rolling out better designs faster.
"You won't have long to wait," Mays said. "You'll see it this year."
Ford Motor Co.: http://www.ford.com
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