02/28/22 Build Week Thread

[Herbie]

Not that it is worth much, but I made my weekly call to Bronco marketing CS and they confirmed that after there Thursday morning system update this morning (as indicated in prior posts, it updates every Thursday) my build week has held to 2/28. As far as I am concerned, that is a win. I'll take them where I can get them these days.

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[rainman23]

I want to hope your dealer is right. From what I can gather, and there is no proof of this, is that this is being caused by a bad batch of chips. So, Ford has held all of the broncos effected by them back. This is looking like it is a few weeks of builds. If this is the case I would have to assume subsequent build weeks would not have the bad chips and hopefully by the time it gets to our build week the chips are good. I assume they'll treat it like dirt mountain and keep the line moving and use any extra chips for ice mountain broncos.

This is exactly what I think is happening as well. If it was strictly a lack of chips scheduling would stop and the line would potentially be shut down. The fact that builds are still being scheduled through March makes me think this will only affect the two to three weeks of builds it already has affected.

 

[Tilzbow]

Most on this forum seem to be intelligent and reasonable people but for those who think this is only a Ford issue you can do a quick Google search and find many pictures of GM trucks, SUVs and sedans along with Ford and other manufacturer vehicles sitting on lots, similar to Ice Mountain, waiting for chips. A good friend of mine just tried to order a new Chevy High Country dually and was told by the world‘s largest GM dealer in northern ID that he’s up to 12 months out but that was pure speculation on his part and he really didn’t know. He did tell my friend that GM/Chevy are leasing vacant lots at shut down malls and other places to store trucks waiting for chips.

That said it’s obvious Ford, GM and other manufacturers are continuing to run manufacturing lines and stock pile vehicles that are short chips. Their alternative is to shut down lines temporarily and either pay or furlough workers then attempt to shut off the supply chain for all other components to prevent stock piling nearly complete sets of materials for unassembled vehicles. In manufacturing once capacity is lost it‘s never recovered so in the case of chip shortages the best solution is to build, hold and wait for chips. This is the tactic we used in the smaller, $5 billion, company I worked at for a long time. We were often criticized for doing this by consultants who told us the auto industry would never result to such inefficient practices but would rather ensure 100% material availability. But, I visited several automotive plants during my career and the people on the ground readily admitted they’d build short a part and move vehicles to the parking lot for a short period of time waiting for the part so this isn’t a new practice it’s just never been done this widespread.

In summary, and in support of speculation of some on this thread, when the parts came in they’d prioritize the lines and feed excess parts to the previous built units in the holding areas. This is the most efficient practice since you don’t have to touch the units running down the line later; it’s also what we did. The factory I worked in wasn‘t in the auto industry but did, and still does, share many common suppliers and contract manufacturers such as Foxconn and Flex.

 

[rainman23]

Crap. It’s not a bad batch. They’re outta chips….

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/b...o-detroit-area-plants-chip-crunch/6654554001/

 

[Herbie]

Crap. It’s not a bad batch. They’re outta chips….

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/b...o-detroit-area-plants-chip-crunch/6654554001/

Yeah, you can bet your ass our build weeks are not holding now boys and girls. 2023 here we come.

 

[Tilzbow]

Crap. It’s not a bad batch. They’re outta chips….

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/b...o-detroit-area-plants-chip-crunch/6654554001/

Could‘ve still been a bad batch forcing units to ice mountain followed by the shortage. Or it was always just a shortage and they ran out of space to store units and/or rework capacity required for more units exceeded capability to do that and keep the factory running. Or Ford knew about it and just announced the shutdown or the press just picked up on it. I’d guess the latter….

Yeah, you can bet your ass our build weeks are not holding now boys and girls. 2023 here we come.

It’s a 7-10 day shutdown per the article, far from moving to 2023. It could still suck though, or maybe not.… The optimist in me says this shutdown could’ve already been planned for weeks or months and our build dates won’t be impacted. Time will tell….

I bet everyone is logging into the back door even more than usual for the next week! Speaking of that I can’t get in the back door right now.

 

[BroncoInMD]

Not that it is worth much, but I made my weekly call to Bronco marketing CS and they confirmed that after there Thursday morning system update this morning (as indicated in prior posts, it updates every Thursday) my build week has held to 2/28. As far as I am concerned, that is a win. I'll take them where I can get them these days.

That’s what I’m praying happens when I check in with my dealer tomorrow. In the past 5 weeks I have only gained 1 week on my build date.

 

[ChompSticks]

everyone schedule has been consistently pushed back and they didn’t schedule anyone last week. So I think they knew it was coming and they already started planning for it.

 

[Herbie]

Could‘ve still been a bad batch forcing units to ice mountain followed by the shortage. Or it was always just a shortage and they ran out of space to store units and/or rework capacity required for more units exceeded capability to do that and keep the factory running. Or Ford knew about it and just announced the shutdown or the press just picked up on it. I’d guess the latter….



It’s a 7-10 day shutdown per the article, far from moving to 2023. It could still suck though, or maybe not.… The optimist in me says this shutdown could’ve already been planned for weeks or months and our build dates won’t be impacted. Time will tell….

I bet everyone is logging into the back door even more than usual for the next week! Speaking of that I can’t get in the back door right now.

I just don't see how this can't bump everyone down the line by a couple months, I hope I am wrong. Didn't I read that 2023 starts in July?

 

[Herbie]

That’s what I’m praying happens when I check in with my dealer tomorrow. In the past 5 weeks I have only gained 1 week on my build date.

That's great. I have only been scheduled for two weeks and one week in I got bumped a week. Just under four weeks to go, but whose counting?

 

[rainman23]

Lots of moves out of the 3/7 group. Maybe they’re the bill payer and nobody else moves. Anyone moved out of here yet?

 

[Herbie]

Lots of moves out of the 3/7 group. Maybe they’re the bill payer and nobody else moves. Anyone moved out of here yet?

Ray I'm hanging on for dear life. Haven't heard a peep out of @mpmcgaughey for a day or two, that isn't like you Matt, have you forsaken us?

 

[theyeofra]

Ray I'm hanging on for dear life. Haven't heard a peep out of @mpmcgaughey for a day or two, that isn't like you Matt, have you forsaken us?

Im still here too but I cant imagine we dont get moved. Lets hope we get lucky!

 

[Wcugarrett]

I called the hotline today and they told me my build DAY is march 4th. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen though.

 

[Herbie]

I called the hotline today and they told me my build DAY is march 4th. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen though.

Would be pretty awesome.

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