Jalopnik / Freep: F-150 Launch Concerns - Bronco Launch Lessons Learned?

[North7]

Here is a new article on the 2021 F-150, most know Jalopnik.com and Freep.com are not click bait sites so their information carries more weight, the article is at this link:
https://jalopnik.com/this-doesn-t-sound-good-about-the-2021-ford-f-150-1845961652
And they cite the article at Freep.com
https://www.freep.com/story/money/c...city-assembly-held-quality-review/4060202001/

Hopefully the Bronco Launch Team is studying the lessons learned to help the Bronco Launch go smoother.

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This Doesn’t Sound Good About The 2021 Ford F-150

Ford has bungled just about every major launch for the past... too long, and everyone feared the same for the critical 2021 Ford F-150. Now there is some stuff happening that, well, looks a little unusual. All that and more in The Morning Shift for December 29, 2020.

1st Gear: The 2021 Ford F-150 Launch Is Going As You’d Expect
After borking the Explorer and Covid delaying the Broncos, Ford has known it can’t screw up the launch of its ultra-critical F-150. Or maybe it can! It certainly looks like we’ll find out, if this report from the Detroit Free Press is anything to go by. The Freep begins by saying that 2021 F-150s are showing up in an amusement park parking lot:

Ford needs to install seat belts and conduct software checks on early-production F-150 pickups parked in lots around the Kansas City Assembly Plant, as well as thousands in lots around metro Detroit, while some dealers await deliveries of America’s bestselling truck, Ford confirmed to the Free Press on Monday.

“As part of our commitment to delivering high-quality vehicles, we are conducting final quality inspections on trucks built before dealer shipments started last month to ensure they meet the quality expectations of our customers,” said Kelli Felker, Ford global manufacturing and labor communications manager.

The Freep continues, explaining that Ford is doing anything and everything it can to get F-150s to dealers on time, including using nonunion workers. The Freep also includes this worrying tidbit:

Ford factory employees at the Dearborn Truck Plant and Kansas City Assembly have been working to meet an insatiable demand for the 2021 F-150. That meant Ford had to build trucks while the prototypes were still being driven as test models.

You can take this one of two ways. Either this digression from normal operating procedures shows that Ford is going above and beyond to ensure that the F-150 gets out the door quickly and perfectly, or that Ford is rushing and its lack of adherence to best practices implies problems to come.

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[Wahoowa]

Makes you wonder about workmanship / quality

 

[Rough Rider]

Those are the vehicles built between Job1 and oktb. These are going to be the dealer fctp units for the bronco build. In a lot of plants they build multiple products so they don’t have to go flat out during that time period on the new product to dial everything in. For KCap and DTP they only build f150 so they need to build a bunch of units between Job1 and OKTB. The company did the math and it was more profitable to run flat out and fix those units then to throttle back the line.

MAP will be running ranger so Broncos won’t stack up like the f150. the Company has a policy to not build retail orders though until OKTb has been achieved.

this is a non issue for our Broncosor for the f150 customers.

 

[North7]

Those are the vehicles built between Job1 and oktb. These are going to be the dealer fctp units for the bronco build. In a lot of plants they build multiple products so they don’t have to go flat out during that time period on the new product to dial everything in. For KCap and DTP they only build f150 so they need to build a bunch of units between Job1 and OKTB. The company did the math and it was more profitable to run flat out and fix those units then to throttle back the line.

MAP will be running ranger so Broncos won’t stack up like the f150. the Company has a policy to not build retail orders though until OKTb has been achieved.

this is a non issue for our Broncosor for the f150 customers.

Thank you for the info, you sound like you work for Ford so it is good to get your perspective.

Never the less, when those that follow the industry have concerns:

"or that Ford is rushing and its lack of adherence to best practices implies problems to come."

It is safe to say we have to wait and see what the first few months of Bronco production look like to really understand, at this point, most of us are from Missouri in spirit "Show-Me", or another way of saying it, "Trust, but verify".

 

[Rover72]

Not sure how these auto factories work and if they are behind on F-150's maybe this slows down them getting to Bronco's. I hope it doesn't lead to quality issues.

 

[L8apex]

Not sure how these auto factories work and if they are behind on F-150's maybe this slows down them getting to Bronco's. I hope it doesn't lead to quality issues.

Two completely different streams that happen to run parallel - they do not affect each other.

 

[SamG]

Turns out making cars is hard.

 

[jaspercasidino]

OP: Jalopnik.com and Freep.com are not click bait sites

Jalopnik: This Doesn’t Sound Good About The 2021 Ford F-150

 

[chownd]

Lol jalopnik (and I like the site) has almost always been a little click baity

 

[Megawatt]

If there are recalls or TSBs in the near future we will see who was correct. But having non union workers, working to complete a truck build in this industry doesn’t seem like things are going well or planned out as good as it should be. Union builders are skilled professionals with a track record of training and performance.

What’s the purpose of a test vehicle if your going to build the trucks ahead of the test and evaluation phase? Just build the truck and improvements will be implemented on later models? Just build the truck and make recalls later? And you wonder why many people say never buy a first year vehicle until the bugs are worked out.

 

[_finack]

Every site has clickbait titles now, even highly reputable ones. It's pretty irritating. I suppose it's the price of free, ad-supported content.

Still sucks.

 

[Raptor911]

Years ago I use to work for autoblog and jalopnik was considered click bait.

it seems bronco6g is all about hitting the panic button way early. It seems so many arguments are made not to buy the bronco. Shouldn’t we give ford the benefit of the doubt that the bronco will be a good product? If not then your bronco ownership will not be a fun one.

 

[tlubull]

Years ago I use to work for autoblog and jalopnik was considered click bait.

it seems bronco6g is all about hitting the panic button way early. It seems so many arguments are made not to buy the bronco. Shouldn’t we give ford the benefit of the doubt that the bronco will be a good product? If not then your bronco ownership will not be a fun one.

Kinda tempted to just troll it out. So many negative nancies (no offense OP, your link was not overtly negative) maybe we can cause a Bronco Exodus and move up a few hundred places in line!!

 

[North7]

it seems bronco6g is all about hitting the panic button way early. It seems so many arguments are made not to buy the bronco. Shouldn’t we give ford the benefit of the doubt that the bronco will be a good product? If not then your bronco ownership will not be a fun one.

Kinda tempted to just troll it out. So many negative nancies (no offense OP, your link was not overtly negative) maybe we can cause a Bronco Exodus and move up a few hundred places in line!!

Bronco6g is helpful for both enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts to keep up on the latest Bronco information. There can be a balance between the negative-nancies and the corporate apologists in following this information.

Some who claim to bleed Ford blue think Ford can do no wrong, others know that every vehicle built by humans will have challenges, especially in these challenging times.

Being aware of what our $40K-$60K is buying is simply smart business to many.

 

[Silver-Bolt]

It's not unusual for issues to come up once production is turned on. The 2017 Raptors sat on a lot awaiting a repair before they could ship to dealers. Everyone that was tracking their orders could see that the trucks were built but sitting on "ramp #9" awaiting shipment. It was several weeks before they were corrected and shipped. Nothing new and not unique to Ford.

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