Freep: Delay due to Bronco removable top supplier issue

[wvmtneer]

If one more person claims the tops are being made in China, I'm going to scream.

Both the hard top and soft top are being made in Plymouth, Michigan. The hard top at the new plant at the corner of Haggerty and Schoolcraft and the soft top at the plant on Keel Street off of 5 mile.

@LEGEND do you agree?

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[TNcoupe]

the take and bake bronco

COPO Bronco...has a nice ring to it.

 

[MadMan4BamaNATL]

If the problem is just with the hard tops, I wish they would have run with just soft tops first...maybe it's both tops causing delays, but I thought I understood from the Webasto employee on here that the issues were with the hard top and quality or design issues.

Uhh, no man. What Ford is doing here is business prudent as the Spring release was likely overly ambitious at best.

Soft tops don't work for many and doing that just to rush out units would be costly if the expectation of customers would be to follow up with a hard top later.

Frustrating to wait, sure, but this in no way means start to make bad business decisions, so some honest level setting is something we'll just need to accept.

 

[TNcoupe]

Maybe they're just announcing a delay and when they actually start delivering them earlier than expected everybody will be like YAAAAAAAA way to go Ford.

 

[Headsong]

I'll take mine no top. I know how to reach BesTop.

 

[chtucker]

This is a shortsighted reaction. Sure, they should have. But they didn't. What's your next best alternative?

Let's play this out a little bit. Let's say there are performance guarantees, and they haven't been met. Let's say Ford enforces those terms, whatever they are. What next? Vendor goes bankrupt (easily possible with the size disparity between the parties)? Vendor pays the penalties and terminates the relationship with Ford?

Now what? Ford still needs tops for the Bronco, that hasn't changed. Where are you going to get them? At some point you need to dance with the one that brung ya (as the old saying goes). Enforcing performance guarantees won't get you tops any faster, and may make things much worse in the short term. Yes, there will be consequences. Perhaps Ford looks for other suppliers in the future.

I don't know the details here, but the relationship between a large company and a small supplier is much more of a partnership than people realize, Ford (any large company) has to manage supplier relationships very carefully. Sometimes Ford pushes suppliers out of their comfort zone to get what they want, because the alternative is worse (perhaps just for monetary reasons), so it's not clear whose fault the delays are. Ford doesn't succeed unless its suppliers succeed, so Ford supports them (I don't have any current knowledge, but years ago Ford had a group literally named "Supplier Technical Assistance").


Bottom line, I agree with "Rick":

Hence why Ford has sent their own employees to help...with logistics etc.

 

[Ksjrb03]

The person who wrote this article obviously watched that dealer video full of bullshit and didn’t confirm anything.

 

[MadMan4BamaNATL]

If one more person claims the tops are being made in China, I'm going to scream.

Both the hard top and soft top are being made in Plymouth, Michigan. The hard top at the new plant at the corner of Haggerty and Schoolcraft and the soft top at the plant on Keel Street off of 5 mile.

Maybe if made in China there would be no delay either.

Look, these things happen in large scale manufacturing a first run. Add the pandemic on top of that and we're lucky the factories are even open.

 

[Compta38]

I mean, the positive to this is the part that is unavailable is probably one of the last pieces in assembly. Ford can just ramp up production now while storing them in a climate controlled environment.

Tops come in, throw them on and shipem out!

I know this probably is too much variability for a car manufacturer but it is possible.

How many can Ford pump out a day and where the heck would they find the massive storage space for all of them?

 

[Bvbronco]

Is there no way for Ford to get HTs produced through a different company? With all those people out of work, I would think there'd be a way to make the tops here in the US. I mean if Tesla can building a space rocket!!!!

I'm with you. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket...WTF FORD

 

[Bronco4]

maybe Ford could build a huge supply of Rangers and then be able to assemble 100% Bronco and surprise us.

 

[Headsong]

This is turning sour quickly. See under: why I left FB.

 

[grayshadow]

Just want a white top. Is this too much to ask? lol

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