Word: fords
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...like mystery. I'd like to have everyone's cards on the table and get dissent and debate out of the way before we move. After that, we go, we don't look back. We all go for it, very straightforward and simple." After being formally named Ford's chairman and moving into the paneled corner suite on the 12th executive floor of the Dearborn headquarters building known as "the Glass House," Trotman turned to his secretary and asked his first question: "Is there a reason why I should ever have lunch in this building?" One of his first executive...
...skunk-works operation where teamwork and cooperation replaced procedures and hierarchies. One innovation that might never have fitted into an organization chart: putting engineers and computer designers into the same test cars just to keep their very different technical worlds focused on the real product. Trotman and other key Ford executives checked up on the Mustang project in after-hours visits by the back door instead of formal briefings...
...bluntly concedes that GM is starting out well behind the rest of the Detroit pack. "The problem was never the people," he says. "It was the screwed-up structure we had. We had to change it. It took us years to understand that. You go through a denial phase. Ford went through its own changes a lot earlier than we did, and is very good today. Chrysler really went to the wall and got its act together. We had a history I'd like not to repeat. Now we'd like to get this baby fixed...
...industry that once took its lumps together is now finding common cause in areas from public policy to jointly financed advanced research. Ford's McTague, Chrysler's Castaing and their GM counterpart, Arvin Mueller, meet monthly for private dinners in Detroit, overseeing their joint-research programs under a consortium called USCAR, which invests $300 million annually (including $75 million in federal grants) in a range of projects including advanced batteries for electric vehicles, lightweight composite materials for better fuel economy, and environmental improvements on paint and fuel emissions and recyclable parts. No project is more ambitious than the agreement, announced...
...group still lag the Japanese some 22% by such measurements as defects per new car, they are rapidly closing the gap. Nine of the top 10 quality-ranked vehicles in the J.D. Power survey remain Japanese, but seven of the 10 most improved vehicles are U.S. brands. Ford Ranger pickups, to take just one of many examples, are 32% better than the models they replaced. At GM, Smith has instituted railhead inspections of cars after they leave their assembly plant. These quality checks nearly doubled the start-up times for GM's new products this fall, causing delays in dealer...