4/18/22 Build Week Group.

[MyBroncoNotYours]

And I wouldn’t mind 6/18 if I knew it were final. I wouldn’t even mind 7/18 if I knew it were final. But it seems inevitable that around 6/15-6/18, we will get bumped by another 2-3 weeks yet again. And then perhaps again, and again and again still.

I told everyone weeks ago, the fact that everyone had the same date range of 5/13-5/21 or whatever it was at the time meant that we are dealing with a planning team that has very poor practices.

When planning, a bad team will put all jobs that are on hold to one specific date like the 1st, 15th, or 30th. That date is completely fictions, a placeholder date, that is a sign of poor planning practices. Then they will continue to move it out 2-4 weeks at a time each time that date approaches or worse, is hit.

It’s a bad practice for everyone - customer and company. But if Ford management has no desire to fix this then they will erode their customer base on their own and start to perform worse. Dates are important and a good planning and scheduling team is worth it’s weight in gold. How are they even doing a good S&OP plan if this is how they plan/schedule?

Signed, a manufacturing demand/supply planner.

Sponsored

 

[clarkscottkent]

I told everyone weeks ago, the fact that everyone had the same date range of 5/13-5/21 or whatever it was at the time meant that we are dealing with a planning team that has very poor practices.

When planning, a bad team will put all jobs that are on hold to one specific date like the 1st, 15th, or 30th. That date is completely fictions, a placeholder date, that is a sign of poor planning practices. Then they will continue to move it out 2-4 weeks at a time each time that date approaches or worse, is hit.

It’s a bad practice for everyone - customer and company. But if Ford management has no desire to fix this then they will erode their customer base on their own and start to perform worse. Dates are important and a good planning and scheduling team is worth it’s weight in gold. How are they even doing a good S&OP plan if this is how they plan/schedule?

Signed, a manufacturing demand/supply planner.

As a 29.5 year Ford employee, think of the most asinine possible plan and that's what they do on the daily.

 

[mattymik]

I told everyone weeks ago, the fact that everyone had the same date range of 5/13-5/21 or whatever it was at the time meant that we are dealing with a planning team that has very poor practices.

When planning, a bad team will put all jobs that are on hold to one specific date like the 1st, 15th, or 30th. That date is completely fictions, a placeholder date, that is a sign of poor planning practices. Then they will continue to move it out 2-4 weeks at a time each time that date approaches or worse, is hit.

It’s a bad practice for everyone - customer and company. But if Ford management has no desire to fix this then they will erode their customer base on their own and start to perform worse. Dates are important and a good planning and scheduling team is worth it’s weight in gold. How are they even doing a good S&OP plan if this is how they plan/schedule?

Signed, a manufacturing demand/supply planner.

It makes sense. But yep — terrible practice. Completely destroys the trust of the buyer, and company develops the terrible habit of setting meaningless deadlines.

 

[clarkscottkent]

The fact someone can order a unit in January and receive it in May while others had vehicles built in January and it still sits in a lot near the plant is ludicrous... Not to mention units built in April delivered in April or May... It's a complete joke

 

[MyBroncoNotYours]

It makes sense. But yep — terrible practice. Completely destroys the trust of the buyer, and company develops the terrible habit of setting meaningless deadlines.

Well the bad thing for the company themselves is they have 10K units on hold, about $400M in sales. If their “plan” is to say 5/13 for all of them and they add 4wks for shipping/sales time to claim the dollars for their financials then they have over inflated next month’s and possibly that quarter’s sales outlook. Which means they will continue to miss sales, cash-flow, etc on their quarterly report to shareholders.

Granted a team should be reviewing all these and if they’re on hold, they should be automatically not included in their sales plan. However they have to be put somewhere and even if you argue they don’t, they are still carrying around a bunch of WIP (cash tied up in unsellable goods). Pretend COGS on these vehicles is only 50% (underestimate) that’s still $200M in cash tied up they have to pay on until these are sold.

 

[lahinch18]

The fact someone can order a unit in January and receive it in May while others had vehicles built in January and it still sits in a lot near the plant is ludicrous... Not to mention units built in April delivered in April or May... It's a complete joke

As a 29.5 years employee what, do you believe, is the root cause of this? I’m very interested in your perspective on this. As a 25 yr Ford dealership employee I have many thoughts on FMC practices. All for the dealership perspective of course.

 

[lahinch18]

The fact someone can order a unit in January and receive it in May while others had vehicles built in January and it still sits in a lot near the plant is ludicrous... Not to mention units built in April delivered in April or May... It's a complete joke

As a 29.5 years employee what, do you believe, is the root cause of this? I’m very interested in your perspective on this. As a 25 yr Ford dealership employee I have many thoughts on FMC practices. All for the dealership perspective of course.

 

[clarkscottkent]

As a 29.5 years employee what, do you believe, is the root cause of this? I’m very interested in your perspective on this. As a 25 yr Ford dealership employee I have many thoughts on FMC practices. All for the dealership perspective of course.

I would honestly say parts are the main issue today. We've had part shortages every year I've worked for Ford, but never quite like this. I just don't agree with the current method being used. They will continue to build incomplete units, but as soon as parts arrive, they'll use those parts to build more units and ship those instead of finishing the units waiting for the same parts. It makes their produced numbers look great. Regardless if the units are complete and shipped or incomplete, I think the larger that total number is, that's all they care about. I honestly don't even want to share what they do to get units off the line and continue to get units built that aren't ready to be shipped. It's enough to make me reconsider keeping this Bronco. I think about selling it after 6 months (a-plan makes me keep it for 6 months before I can sell) and ordering another in hopes the next is produced during a better time

 

[clarkscottkent]

Ford is tired of laying off their employees and paying those costs/losses related to idle plants so they'd rather keep building units even if they're not complete, that's another aspect.

 

[lahinch18]

I would honestly say parts are the main issue today. We've had part shortages every year I've worked for Ford, but never quite like this. I just don't agree with the current method being used. They will continue to build incomplete units, but as soon as parts arrive, they'll use those parts to build more units and ship those instead of finishing the units waiting for the same parts. It makes their produced numbers look great. Regardless if the units are complete and shipped or incomplete, I think the larger that total number is, that's all they care about. I honestly don't even want to share what they do to get units off the line and continue to get units built that aren't ready to be shipped. It's enough to make me reconsider keeping this Bronco. I think about selling it after 6 months (a-plan makes me keep it for 6 months before I can sell) and ordering another in hopes the next is produced during a better time

Appreciate your candor.
Ford (and every other publicly traded company) primarily cares about their stock price - a position driven by the Ford family and the BOD. This focus makes them spreadsheet junkies. That’s not to say being profitable isn’t important but there needs to be a balance. I remember when Ford closed their US warranty assistance team and sent it offshore to the Philippines - a total cost cutting measure. Good quality, experienced people were laid off and the entire venture was a complete flop. So many other similar examples that cost the company in the long run. In my opinion they’ve never fully recovered. Most car buyers don’t see this on the surface. However, many of the complaints I see on forums like this I see the roots in Ford’s cost cutting efforts to drive their stock price. Shameful.
If the last 2 years has not demonstrated to our manufacturing sector the importance of local supply/manufacturing chains then we are in real long term trouble. I really hope we see a change and true manufacturing is brought back to the states

 

[clarkscottkent]

Appreciate your candor.
Ford (and every other publicly traded company) primarily cares about their stock price - a position driven by the Ford family and the BOD. This focus makes them spreadsheet junkies. That’s not to say being profitable isn’t important but there needs to be a balance. I remember when Ford closed their US warranty assistance team and sent it offshore to the Philippines - a total cost cutting measure. Good quality, experienced people were laid off and the entire venture was a complete flop. So many other similar examples that cost the company in the long run. In my opinion they’ve never fully recovered. Most car buyers don’t see this on the surface. However, many of the complaints I see on forums like this I see the roots in Ford’s cost cutting efforts to drive their stock price. Shameful.
If the last 2 years has not demonstrated to our manufacturing sector the importance of local supply/manufacturing chains then we are in real long term trouble. I really hope we see a change and true manufacturing is brought back to the states

Agree completely

 

[mattymik]

I pressed and pressed and pressed the agent today, trying to find out if there’s someone else I can talk to to understand why the date keeps getting pushed. She literally said she doesn’t know who I could talk to.

I suggested that I could talk to her supervisor, or someone at production, or someone at final quality checks, or someone at shipping, and she does not have any information about who I would talk to in any of those places.

The best she could suggest was taking to the GM of the dealership to see if he could access any of those channels.

Have any of you tried this?

It just seems odd to me that there’s no one who can tell us if this new 6/18 date is yet another made-up date, or if it’s actually some meaningful statement about their intent to get the problem(s) fixed.

Someone somewhere is making these decisions.

And I wouldn’t mind 6/18 if I knew it were final. I wouldn’t even mind 7/18 if I knew it were final. But it seems inevitable that around 6/15-6/18, we will get bumped by another 2-3 weeks yet again. And then perhaps again, and again and again still.

Well, that didn't take long. Now I'm told "ETA for delivery to the dealership is between 6/27-7/3."

But honestly I don't think "delivery to the dealership" even displays on that status screen the agents look at, right?

 

[BostonBronco3328]

Just checked my order status and it finally switched on the tracker to built. Blend date was April 24th. Hopefully this isn’t another glitch because my bronco did show shipped for like two days back in April and Ik they’ve been using the 29th as a place holder date. Build is:
OBX, MIC top, high package, modular bumper, 2.7

just checked the sticker and it looks the exact same as it’s looked so not sure what to think yet.

 

[mattymik]

Just checked my order status and it finally switched on the tracker to built. Blend date was April 24th. Hopefully this isn’t another glitch because my bronco did show shipped for like two days back in April and Ik they’ve been using the 29th as a place holder date. Build is:
OBX, MIC top, high package, modular bumper, 2.7

just checked the sticker and it looks the exact same as it’s looked so not sure what to think yet.

!!!

Congrats. Hope it's correct!

 

[MyBroncoNotYours]

Just checked my order status and it finally switched on the tracker to built. Blend date was April 24th. Hopefully this isn’t another glitch because my bronco did show shipped for like two days back in April and Ik they’ve been using the 29th as a place holder date. Build is:
OBX, MIC top, high package, modular bumper, 2.7

just checked the sticker and it looks the exact same as it’s looked so not sure what to think yet.

Hopefully they’re getting some of these out the door. I’ve seen the tracker go up and down a lot (for number of orders in the same status). It had gone down to 640 a week ago but it’s back up to 706.

Seems right there’d be some normal fluctuation but I hope they can start knocking these back down a bit. If they only clear 50 units/mo off our list it’s going to take 10-12 months to clear it.

I’m praying the July shutdown leads to some excess parts available to apply to our repairs. Someone said they planned the rework weeks to be the first 2-3 weeks in July but I don’t know how that could be if they’re shutdown during that time for the summer shutdown.

Sponsored