Official 2021 BRONCO SCHEDULING UPDATE + June Production Demand vs Capacity [Commodity / Constraints] Chart

[flatlander40]

Above my pay grade and you see exactly what we do. I'm going to pull out my assumption stick and try to give you my opinion.

#1. I think they are trying to get a somewhat even distribution of builds to dealers in each region, market and zone. Region being several large chunks of the country then all the way down to groups of dealers.

#2. IMO, this should've probably been #1 because commodity is what is bottlenecking their ability to build units. It will likely be the one variable that keeps causing issues to '21 model builds and maybe early '22. Again, no data to back this up, just an opinion. Hope tier ones get their shit together and get people back to work. A lot of our supply (backorder) issues right now seem to be workforce driven and not so much raw materials.

#3. Once they figure out what they can build and distribute somewhat evenly to the regions, markets and zones, they are probably looking at how many of those are at each dealer and then looking at reservation time stamp. I've seen a couple people say they know someone with an identical build and later time stamp get a build date and they didn't. True or not, I'm not in a position to argue about it. Might be one small option they didn't consider that didn't play well with Ford's scheduling tool or the order these things are going down the line. I'm confident that Ford is not intentionally trying to piss in anyone's post toasties but building someone with a later time stamp, it's just a result of what they can build, in what order and getting them distributed somewhat evenly.

The thing I think a lot of folks, myself included, don't see or understand, is the enormously complex dance of the actual build once the plant gets the order. Take commodity constraints out of the mix completely and it's still mind blowing. They have "just in time" parts delivery to avoid having excess inventory to deal with so imagine a truck load of tires, specific to your vehicle showing up with wheels already mounted, then getting loaded into a conveyor line and getting to the floor the exact time your body does.

I went through the Focus/C-Max plant several years ago and was blown away with the process. My assumption was they painted in batches which would mean orders were put together strictly on paint color, nope. They were spraying all different colors back to back to back. Bodies, powertrain, doors, wheels all showing up at the exact right time, it was very eye opening and amazing to watch. If you ever get a chance to take a tour, do it. Still waiting for an invite to KTP since I'm only an hour and a half away.

Anyway, the two biggest factors that are making this launch an issue are for everyone is commodities and reservations. Commodity constraints have been an on and off issue for years but they've always had retail, stock and fleet. We got vehicles based on what we sold and trickled down from region, market, zone and specific dealer. Bronco ordering has turned this system on it's side. Worse because orders are probably concentrated in certain zones rather than equally distributed throughout the regions. Say a dealer that sells 500 new vehicles a year puts a deal out there and now has 200 Bronco reservations on top of that. How does Ford factor that into things when they say every dealer was going to get at least 30% of their converted orders? It's a mess and damn glad I don't have to be the guy/gal to make these decisions because no matter what you do, someone is going to be PO'd.

Well said
I think we are all arm chair quarterbacks with good information, misinformation, and speculation to make judgements on a very complicated process. Ford has been trying to hit a moving target with all the setbacks

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[HoosierDaddy]

I apologize for the earlier "by" vs "in" May confusion. My brain is looking at what's happening by month, not so much beginning, middle or end. We are talking about terms of weekly scheduling, monthly and quarterly production and allocations. Ford keeps saying communications for confirmed builds in May. Based on uncertainty with commodities and ability to build in the order they originally communicated, I wouldn't hold my breath for a May email. Nothing to back that but I think they are having issues getting builds organized as they originally planned. I feel bad for them because I'm sure there is a lot of pressure from leadership to stay on cadence and deliver on time. Would love to help if I could but this stuff is way above my pay grade and stress tolerance levels.

Ohh, absolutely no need to apologize.
I thought for sure the "by vs in May" was tongue in cheek due to the Levine comment . Lol

I am simply clarifying EVERY time read about the delivery forecast email.... a WHOLE LOT of folks here believe it's early May, when in fact, ...
...
the only official statement I have seen is "Late May".

I'm going to type that out as much as I can until the word gets out.
Maybe I should start a thread. Lol ... or a poll.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

@flip

...and thanks for all your effort bringing us Intel from the inside. I truly appreciate it.

 

[flip]

@flip

...and thanks for all your effort bringing us Intel from the inside. I truly appreciate it.

De nada.

 

[Drex]

How does Ford factor that into things when they say every dealer was going to get at least 30% of their converted orders? It's a mess and damn glad I don't have to be the guy/gal to make these decisions because no matter what you do, someone is going to be PO'd.

not blaming the messenger here, just pointing out that Ford self-inflicted this particular wound/mess to placate their customers (dealers), the plebeian masses that are the reservation holders would have zero problem if Ford built in timestamp order adjusted for commodities instead of adding allocations, priority orders, and other assorted perks to the dealers. Since Ford did this to themselves at the early reservation holder's expense, I hope the stress gives them a bad tummy-ache. There, I said it.

 

[swooshdave]

not blaming the messenger here, just pointing out that Ford self-inflicted this particular wound/mess to placate their customers (dealers), the plebeian masses that are the reservation holders would have zero problem if Ford built in timestamp order adjusted for commodities instead of adding allocations, priority orders, and other assorted perks to the dealers. Since Ford did this to themselves at the early reservation holder's expense, I hope the stress gives them a bad tummy-ache. There, I said it.

The reality is that the dealers are Ford's actual customers. There was always the understanding that reservation would only be a component for scheduling. Just because the consumers (us) are too simplistic to understand anything more complicated that first in, first out, it's Ford's fault.

 

[flip]

not blaming the messenger here, just pointing out that Ford self-inflicted this particular wound/mess to placate their customers (dealers), the plebeian masses that are the reservation holders would have zero problem if Ford built in timestamp order adjusted for commodities instead of adding allocations, priority orders, and other assorted perks to the dealers. Since Ford did this to themselves at the early reservation holder's expense, I hope the stress gives them a bad tummy-ache. There, I said it.

I will respectfully disagree with the idea they did this to appease the dealers. We had no say in how any of this went down and would have bitched to the full extent of bitching had the opportunity arose. I think what you may be referring to is the ability for customers to move their reservation to other dealers. Customers have had the option to buy from any dealer in the country they want. Bronco reservations brought this to the forefront with dealers getting aggressive with pricing and others with less aggressive pricing and various fees.

Look at it from this perspective. We had no choice or say in how Ford rolled the Bronco program out. The information we got is the same thing everyone else heard, confusion and all. It's not about holding an order hostage or predatory pricing. If you want to fault some dealers for bad communication you probably can but it's not solely due to bad sales people, look how the messaging came down from Dearborn. There was not training for us prior to this launch unless you count Mach-e. The ordering process and build combos were different than what most are used to, so on and so on.

You have a legit gripe but think it's better placed at the feet of the folks that thought this was a better idea, not the dealer body.

 

[Roadrunner71]

"BRONCO SCHEDULING UPDATE

We completed our first full week of retail order scheduling. A few notes:

Commodity Ramp Up – Part availability will vary each week and month and will impact order scheduling sequence. For instance, we have heavy soft tops initially as hard tops ramp up, and so we had a higher mix of soft tops this month than our full year estimate calls for.

All Orders are in Play – Because of the commodities, all orders are in play. The scheduling system will still select based off (1) Dealer Allocation, (2) Commodities, and then (3) Timestamp, but because a lot of the orders are built very similarly, the system will continue to go down the list until it finds a clean order.

To help better manage your customers’ expectations, starting with July production we will provide a National Bronco Commodity Report monthly (attached for June as reference) that will show our monthly build capacities compared to the full unscheduled order bank by key commodities. This will give direct line of site of our supply and demand on commodities and provide dealers with a resource to talk to customers about making potential changes to their orders to improve their build timing.


Scheduling Timeline

Thursday scheduling will continue on a weekly basis with the following monthly cadence:

· Week 1: First Editions

o NOTE: These will be scheduled throughout the entire Model Year. Additionally, all First Edition allocations were calculated based on # of First Edition orders in order bank as of March 19 deadline.

· Week 2: Dealer Earned Allocation – Non-First Edition Orders

· Week 3 & 4: Clean Up, As Necessary


As a reminder, we will send all order holders a communication in May notifying them of their estimated delivery timeframe based on their current build, production volume, and allocation."

There was more but this is the important info. Personally, I would not advocate anyone changing their orders to try and get built as doing so would amount to trying to hit an invisible moving target. Commodities will change weekly and monthly so what do you change this week to try and figure out what their capacities are going to be next week? According to this, low time stamp doesn't guarantee anything at this point. It's more like a lottery for "clean" priority 19s at this point so don't bother asking anymore. You will have an email by May for estimated delivery or you won't. Your dealer will know when you are previewed, you will know sometime Thursday if your numbers got drawn.


Also posted by @Razorbak86 :

June Production Demand vs Capacity

Legend:

• USOB = Unscheduled Order Bank
• Black, + ppts =
• Red, (-) ppts =

Does anyone know what trim levels have the Front E-Locker as an option?

 

[Clearwater native]

2 DR BADLANDS, SASQUASH, KEYLESS, ROOF RACK, DOOR AND TOP STORAGE BAGS, TOW, LUX, PAINT PROTECTION, 2.7 AUTO, SILVER, MIC, MARINE VINYL, 7/14 RESERVATION LOOKS LIKE I AM (-51) ??? IF I COULD JUST FORGET ABOUT IT TILL MAY 15TH ,,BUT NO LIKE ALOT OF YOU GUYS I KEEP TORTURING MYSELF CHECKING EMAILS, GOOGLE AND FORUMS (BUT IT'S EXCITING RIGHT?) MY BIRTHDAY IS MAY 16 TH JUST SAYIN HAHA

 

[Mustang Mike]

On Tow Package constraints: Never has the need for an aftermarket hitch receiver been so clear! The tow package is ridiculously overpriced to begin with! I can’t imagine overpaying for a hitch receiver & plug, then learning it’s a factor in delaying my build. Hopefully someone builds a kit relative to the wrangler soon! $100-$200 would be a more reasonable price point and you don’t have to wait until November to take delivery!

 

[da_jokker]

Every Ford vehicle line has allocation. GT500, EcoSport, F150. This isn’t new.

One thing to note is that Broncos are not normal dealer orders. Each and everyone is a custom build with a reservation. You don't need that for practically any of Ford's other lineup.

The point being, Broncos are different, we were told they are being handled different, and that Reservation timestamp would roughly dictate your build.

Now we are being SHOWN that our reservation times only count at Our specific dealer, not nationwide, and that the reservation is basically the bottom factor as to when you get your Bronco, placing Parts, dealer allocation, and dealer golden tickets in front.

 

[Bronco wannabe]

Ford has monitored this forum for a long time. They saw what was going on here with some of the deals getting passed out for their hottest vehicle they've built in a long time. They were not happy about it and took action. That is a fact.

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