53,000 Ford vehicles currently waiting for chips

[Alexis England]

that will happen because it is not like all the components are delivered in a big bulk. Instead it is delivered more or less just in time. Factory cannot stop just because some minor component (yes, could be very important for customer) is out of stock/run out. They will build vehicle and park it in yards to be addressed later. But the very next day another batch of chips/electronic components come and that will be sufficient for a few days of production. Hence you can have a similar vehicle build and shipped without any delay the very next day. Problem is not easy as it appears esp. when they build hundreds of vehicles each day.
FIxing those vehicles in the yard is very different from building/assembling a new vehicle. Speed will be much lower. Not all vehicles parked in a row wont necessarily have same problem. Skills required are much higher. Re-testing and QC is required. Imagine how much time it takes for some one in your dealership to pull open and replace a part like radio. it is not 2 min job. in factoy 2 min, one or more vehicles will be buld.
now, if you say- stop the line and idle the factory till the next batch of electronics comes and follow the queue logic (first come first serve), but that is not necessarily a wise idea (financially). i doubt company owners will appreciate that.

insightful

Sponsored

 

[Kiowa]

On the business side, it is a legal and accounting issue. One would have to assume that the labor contracts do not have a Force Majeure clause (act of god) that would allow them to not pay for labor that they could not use. Not being able to fully assemble vehicles due to covid/supply chain/dog ate my homework evidently does not rise to that height. So, now we need to focus on the accountants. Which is less expensive: paying people not to work or making our assembly line inefficient? That is the question. All of the sunk capital costs tick away regardless if the plant is open or closed. If the work in progress line (e.g. Ice Mountain/Dirt Mountain) does not get out of hand and the work in progress is not a write off (expired/defective in some way) then its cost is now just the time value of money and whatever it costs to finish assembly of the inventory.

What Ford will never say, for competitive purposes on many levels (e.g. which supplier is not providing its contracted part among others) is the exact reason and therefore the numbers they used to make their decision. They obviously believe that it is cheaper to partially build and let sit (not rot, I remind you) versus paid time off for its employees. I don't know how GAAP would dictate the accounting disclosure, but I would guess that it would be easier to point to the 53,000 "on hold" vehicles as a special event and don't include any of those expenses in the regular cost of goods line versus an unknown number of plant shutdowns.

Notice there is no line item for customer sentiment. My assigned vin being a 1/22 blend is one such victim of the above.

Long business related rant, but I, like all of you all, have had time to mull Ford over. On another note, instead of just "chip hold" we should help Ford come up with more humorous/insightful/truthful responses so that we, as potential Ford customers, might actually smile- or heaven forbid, be informed.

I would like to lead off:

New Ford Script for status update:
"Thank you for calling. Ford, in order to take the exclusivity crown away from Rolls Royce, effective retroactively, will now take over six months to build each specialty ordered Bronco."

Possible helpful script:

"Thank you for calling. I see that you ordered _____ Bronco. Since we have no idea when your order will be completed- we have ___ dealers that have your build and will sell at MSRP- would you like to have their information?" Did I say helpful? Maybe I should have made the heading "Wishful" or "Humorous"

Any other ideas? Given it is much more fun to laugh than cry, I hope there are more.

 

[Spidurfiji]

On the business side, it is a legal and accounting issue. One would have to assume that the labor contracts do not have a Force Majeure clause (act of god) that would allow them to not pay for labor that they could not use. Not being able to fully assemble vehicles due to covid/supply chain/dog ate my homework evidently does not rise to that height. So, now we need to focus on the accountants. Which is less expensive: paying people not to work or making our assembly line inefficient? That is the question. All of the sunk capital costs tick away regardless if the plant is open or closed. If the work in progress line (e.g. Ice Mountain/Dirt Mountain) does not get out of hand and the work in progress is not a write off (expired/defective in some way) then its cost is now just the time value of money and whatever it costs to finish assembly of the inventory.

What Ford will never say, for competitive purposes on many levels (e.g. which supplier is not providing its contracted part among others) is the exact reason and therefore the numbers they used to make their decision. They obviously believe that it is cheaper to partially build and let sit (not rot, I remind you) versus paid time off for its employees. I don't know how GAAP would dictate the accounting disclosure, but I would guess that it would be easier to point to the 53,000 "on hold" vehicles as a special event and don't include any of those expenses in the regular cost of goods line versus an unknown number of plant shutdowns.

Notice there is no line item for customer sentiment. My assigned vin being a 1/22 blend is one such victim of the above.

Long business related rant, but I, like all of you all, have had time to mull Ford over. On another note, instead of just "chip hold" we should help Ford come up with more humorous/insightful/truthful responses so that we, as potential Ford customers, might actually smile- or heaven forbid, be informed.

I would like to lead off:

New Ford Script for status update:
"Thank you for calling. Ford, in order to take the exclusivity crown away from Rolls Royce, effective retroactively, will now take over six months to build each specialty ordered Bronco."

Possible helpful script:

"Thank you for calling. I see that you ordered _____ Bronco. Since we have no idea when your order will be completed- we have ___ dealers that have your build and will sell at MSRP- would you like to have their information?" Did I say helpful? Maybe I should have made the heading "Wishful" or "Humorous"

Any other ideas? Given it is much more fun to laugh than cry, I hope there are more.

I believe the CFO did say they have realized the production cost of the “on wheels inventory” but I would think that is incomplete. There is still labor cost to retrofit the chips plus some sort of storage cost even if they are sitting in a lot with little maintenance occurring. (Ugh that thought just makes me get frustrated). Even they baked these extra costs in, be curious how they handled that accounting!

 

[FilmcoBronci]

I’m A dumbass and skipped maverick and bronco haha!

thanks man

No you weren’t a dumb ass. This was just in the main source article two links deeper.
Here:

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...shortage-during-these-crazy-times-188060.html

 

[Last Ride Bronco]

I wonder how many of the 53k are Broncos?

 

[OCNORB1974]

Here’s How Many Ford Vehicles Are Currently Parked and Waiting for Chips​

May 10, 2022​

​

In the latest earnings call with analysts, John Lawler, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, actually provided a clearer picture of the existing inventory of unfinished vehicles.​

​

Lawler says Ford currently has “about 53,000 vehicles on wheels, completed but awaiting installation of components affected by the semiconductor supply shortage.”​

​

The Ford executive later revealed that the F-Series and the Explorer are among the models that are part of this sitting inventory.​

​

Ford has recently revealed another strategy to deal with the chip shortage, as the company says it’s directing all of its resources to its most profitable models. In other words, the models that are bringing home the bacon are getting the necessary chips, while those that are selling in small volumes would wait for even more for the semiconductors they need to power certain systems.​

​

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what are Ford’s most profitable models, as the lineup includes the F-150, the Explorer, and the Mustang Mach-E. But on the other hand, those who ordered a less popular model would have to wait for even more to get their hands on their vehicle, with some customers claiming the waiting times are now reaching 9 to 12 months.​

​

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...ntly-parked-and-waiting-for-chips-188243.html​

I will say an accountant will tell you that a rocket scientist has no clue about profit margins. You’re basing your assumptions off of volume sold, which doesn’t always equate to the the most profitable.

 

[vrtical]

thats not a lot of chips in the big scheme of things, but the labor side of it is piling up.

 

[M&M Beer]

9 to 12 months! If only!

Really try 15-18 months so far

 

[El4short]

This week is the build week for my Big Bend 4-door, and I'm trying to keep a positive attitude after posts like this! I've checked the status six times already and it still says "week of May 9", so I'm hopeful. It's been 22 months since reserving on 7/23/20 (ordered Jan. 2021 & reordered Oct. '21). I stuck to my guns and stayed with the hard top and tow package ... praying hard that it gets the magic chip.

 

[HeyItsABronco]

Just my 2 cent opinion on all of this, but I really do believe Ford is doing everything they can to move on and divert attention from the Bronco launch failures and put the spotlight on the new Lightning and Bronco Raptor releases. They KNOW the Bronco crowd is fed up with their lies and bullsh!t promises, so they can't fall much farther than they already have with us. We all should have known things were going to get worse when they removed the EDD from the tracker a few weeks back, without any communication since.

I've never seen a company as big as Ford take such an indifferent approach to their customers and especially their core enthusiasts. If this is their new business model, we will never special order another Ford vehicle again and will likely never buy another Ford.

It's the lack of COMMUNICATION from you, not Covid, that I will remember when its time to buy vehicles in the future.
#MiddleFingerEmoji @Ford Motor Company

 

[ElSuenoBronco]

16 months with 2 orders and I'm still waiting, although one is 40 miles from my dealership now.

I'm in the exact same position. Dealership informed me that the one that's 40mi away keeps getting delayed due to lack of Truck Drivers....

 

[HeHateMe]

Article just posted about the new F150 Lightnings also piling up due to chip shortage...

This is a big problem all around, but apparently Ford has handled it very poorly...

 

[Wvwaiting]

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/twitter-campaign-dirtmountainbronco.44061/

 

[KKCSHIPP]

For what it's worth I work at Ft. Knox here just south of Louisville. Right outside Ft. Knox Wilson gate is an old strip mall and where Super Duty trucks were parked, now is a fenced in lot of Ford Escapes. Got into Louisville and you'll Navigators, Expeditions, Super Duties, and Escapes parked inside fence lines EVERYWHERE.

 

[Garret Sterling]

This week is the build week for my Big Bend 4-door, and I'm trying to keep a positive attitude after posts like this! I've checked the status six times already and it still says "week of May 9", so I'm hopeful. It's been 22 months since reserving on 7/23/20 (ordered Jan. 2021 & reordered Oct. '21). I stuck to my guns and stayed with the hard top and tow package ... praying hard that it gets the magic chip.

Good luck to you!!!
I reserved a 2dr BD, SAS on 7/25/20, ordered 3/18/21, reordered in October and still no VIN.
yet.. YOU give me hope that I may see mine this year!
My Fingers have been crossed so long they now have rigor mortis, so I will have to pray, instead.

Sponsored