Word: forde
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...Some Ford dealers complain that even its new models, like the Ford Fusion and the Mercury Milan, are still too similar. "We'd like to see more differentiation in the sheet metal, not just the inside creature comforts or the taillights," says Robert Thibodeau, owner of a major Detroit Ford dealership. Toyota, by contrast, has produced SUVs and the luxury Lexus--two totally different vehicles--even though they are built on the same platform. Some analysts argue that Ford should get rid of one of its brands, such as Mercury, and narrow its product line. The company's drab minivans...
...Ford Motor is in much better shape than GM, in part because it is smaller by about one-third in the U.S. While GM is awash in red ink, Ford Motor overall is still profitable, thanks to trucks like the F-150 and its finance and global business, which includes Mazda, Volvo and Land Rover. (Another brand, Jaguar, is losing money.) On the cost side, the U.S. carmakers are dragged down by the huge burden of benefits for retired workers, such as health care, which account for $930 of the cost of each of GM's vehicles, $560 of Ford...
...staging ground for Ford's innovation revolution is the top-secret Piquette Project. Unknown by all but the very top-level Ford executives, the program is aimed at nothing short of reinventing Detroit. It's named after the third-floor Piquette plant skunk works where Henry Ford and a group of engineers first developed the idea of the assembly line and experimented with lighter materials to create a car that could be mass-produced. The specific goals and the deadlines of the Piquette project are secret. But company officials say it harks back to Henry Ford's innovative experiments with...
...thinks the attitude within the project will be contagious for the whole company. "Piquette helps institutionalize innovation," Ford says. For the most part it exists virtually, through e-mailed sketches, proposals and blue-sky ideas. A team of designers, engineers and manufacturing gurus is brainstorming everything from how to make a business plan to how production should be organized to how to employ biodegradable materials. The ultimate goal: a recycled, reusable...
Business consultants would call that a "stretch" goal, a worthy target yet one that seems beyond a firm's capabilities. And maybe too dreamy for a company that needs to do the basics better? "I don't buy the criticism out there," says Anne Stevens, chief operating officer of Ford's troubled domestic business. "For all the reasons they say Bill's not the man for the job, I say he's the right one. At so many companies decisions are driven by quarterly results. Here we're making decisions that are about the next 100 years. How many CEOs...