Quality Weenie

Fords Doomsday?

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see these headlines?

Release Of Ford Edge Delayed; Layoffs Possible

Quality Issues Force a Delay for a New Ford

Manufacturing problems delay Ford’s Edge

You would think that Ford is in deep doo-doo, they are laying employees off because ofthe delay and the vehicles has horrible quality problems.

Not one of those are true. So what is the problem?

When you launch a completely new vehicle the employees at the plant have to learn new systems and how to put the parts on the vehicle. This takes time and if the employees are not getting up to speed quick enough you have problems because your lines and slow and not cranking out the vehicles at the speed they should be.

So Ford has decided to delay the launch of the vehicle so the employees can get upto speed with their specific process.

The media is hyping this delay as the end of time, but in a small paragraph at the end of the article they also mention that GM, Toyota and Lexus are all delaying launches of their new vehicles by a few weeks to a couple months but don't afix a doomsday senario on those companies.

Posted by Quality Weenie at November 16, 2006 11:17 AM | TrackBack