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MoabRox

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I'm going to be "that guy" and give some info with absolutely no supporting evidence to say that clearly you've done product development because you are spot on. We're close family friends with someone who was on the design team for the MIC top at Webasto. They used a small prototyping process and did a great job and everyone thought it was a great success, then at the last minute before production ramped up management said "we've got it from here boys" and took all ownership away from the engineers who designed and built the early units. Production was changed. Tweaks were made based on tooling. The end product wasn't anything some of the designers even wanted their name on.

It was enough that our friend left Webasto because of this.
Entirely believable and explains why issues were not identified until mass production started.
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RPF

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Good intel....what do you know about MIC 2.0?
He probably knows nothing about 2.0 because his friend left due to the well-known toxic management culture of the company. It was interesting to hear how it played out though, it wasn't only the line workers they alienated but the engineering staff as well.
 

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He probably knows nothing about 2.0 because his friend left due to the well-known toxic management culture of the company. It was interesting to hear how it played out though, it wasn't only the line workers they alienated but the engineering staff as well.
Based on the above posts it sounds to me like the answer may be readily available...MIC 2.0 = Pre-production MIC...since that one seemed to work, assuming the two production processes can be aligned. It apparently wasn't until management got hold of it and changed things that it went south when mass production started.
 

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Hello, does anyone know the color of the Bronco thatā€™s attached to the headline of this article?
 

Bob 07064

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So one a recent live stream it was suggested that 700 tops a day was a possibility... I nearly died laughing because these clowns haven't been able to produce even 100 tops a day of acceptable quality. They are suggesting that they can do 7 times that?!?!? If that was the case, the backlog would be cleared out in 21 to 24 days. There is no way in hell that they are going to build 700 acceptable tops per day.... not in the next 2 months. Maybe 3-6 months from now, but they will be lucky to average 200 tops a day at anytime prior to 1 November. Right now, to be best of our knowledge they are averaging 0 tops per day.
It wouldn't surprise me if ford has a secondary tool that was made along side this one. If the one tool fails then they'd really have an issue. So with that scenario 800 day could be doable...
 

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I'm going to be "that guy" and give some info with absolutely no supporting evidence to say that clearly you've done product development because you are spot on. We're close family friends with someone who was on the design team for the MIC top at Webasto. They used a small prototyping process and did a great job and everyone thought it was a great success, then at the last minute before production ramped up management said "we've got it from here boys" and took all ownership away from the engineers who designed and built the early units. Production was changed. Tweaks were made based on tooling. The end product wasn't anything some of the designers even wanted their name on.

It was enough that our friend left Webasto because of this.
I believe what your saying, saw the same thing happen many times!
 

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dgorsett

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HoosierDaddy

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Just my thoughts on the MIC top fiasco, I have not had the opportunity to see any of the preproduction units with the MIC tops. Perhaps someone who has can chime in and let us all know if these problems were seen prior to volume production. I would guess these preproduction tops were made by Ford in a prototype facility using a defined process, tooling and material. If none of these tops showed any of the raw edges or honeycomb issues it would seem that ford had a proven process with the correct amount of material defined to manufacture an acceptable MIC top. Once out of the control of the prototype phase you get other groups involved (Manufacturing Engineering) to fine tune the design (Cost reduction) for production. This is most likely where things went south. The materials initially used may have been changed, the quantity of material reduced, tooling may have been changed, the manufacturing processes may have changed, or a combination of all of these things plus outsourcing the production to a subcontractor could easily create the issue we all now face with the MIC tops.
If the preproduction MIC tops were able to be produced correctly then ford does have the correct solution to this problem in hand and would only need to release it to production and possibly replicate tooling as needed for production volumes required to meet demand forecasts.
At the same time we have no idea as to how many tops Webasto can produce per day or what their rejection rate is on the molded parts out of the mold.
If anyone knows any of the background regarding how we got from what seemed like a good MIC top in preproduction to the mess we have now I would love to hear it!

Just my two cents.
BTW, I only spent 25 years in product development.
Been around here awhile....I recall reading a comment that the prepro tops were made in Germany at Webasto's R&D facility and shipped here.
It's been awhile since I read that, but along with some other pieces of the puzzle, I think your scenario was spot on.
The hand made tops were fine, the translation to mass production FAILED.

My understanding is, it is a brand new facility, the construction was behind schedule from the start, add in some covid stuff and they never had a chance to test run their mass production process.
... and here we are.
 
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I'm in the exact same situation of the 8/9 build week, then nothing else heard...no window sticker and no notification of being moved to a new week. My dealer has checked the status on their system and it has not changed since that week either. I agree with you in that I'm also hoping it is not built yet because if it is then it would be at DM until October and the MIC 2.0s are ready (hopefully). If it isn't built then only thing that makes sense to me is that they fit the 8/9 week FE builds into possible open slots in Sep/Oct. The question is if they will ever tell us that...?
Same here.
 

TRMFAM

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Same here.
I guess that makes me #4 or #5 in this scenario.
Prod week 8/23
Prod week 8/9
Crickets...
Called the Ford hotline and was told scheduled in September but would not give the date...told my dealer had more information.
3 messages to dealer with zero responses.
 

Garrett301

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I guess that makes me #4 or #5 in this scenario.
Prod week 8/23
Prod week 8/9
Crickets...
Called the Ford hotline and was told scheduled in September but would not give the date...told my dealer had more information.
3 messages to dealer with zero responses.
Called Ford yesterday and rep had no additional information, or at least that they would share. She simply said I would be notified in October; it sounded to me like she was reading off a script with the same 8/13 email text...very frustrating...it seems like FEs from the 8/9 week were swallowed by a black-hole.
 

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Thought for sure today would be the day. Frik'n rediculous. At this point I may get the one 2022 F.E.
 

bogshotrods

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What I need to know is I have a Wildtrack 4 door that was supposedly BUILT June 14th and shows IN PRODUCTION June 23rd and I'm assuming it's at dirt mountain waiting on a replacement top, when can expect that new top to be installed and scheduled for shipping. I say send me my BUILT Bronco bad top and all and when the new tops are available I'll agree to pay shipping of the replacement top
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