Word: planting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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...
...from the inside." He has worked all over the company, from the assembly line to the labor-relations department to running Ford's Switzerland operation. When he became chairman, Ford pushed two projects that have since become important signs of where the company is heading: he rebuilt the Rouge plant, which now has a roof of green grass, skylights and a program that turns polluting paint fumes into hydrogen fuel cells, and produced the Escape Hybrid, the first SUV hybrid to hit the market...
Among workers, Ford's sincerity has won him loyalty. When an explosion ripped through the Rouge plant in 1999, he ignored warnings not to get involved and rushed to the site. He gave cash and a credit card to an aide, instructing him to get to the hospital and cover all expenses. Over the following days, he attended funerals and stayed close to the family members. "That was something you don't see from most CEOs," says Walter (Jeff) Washington, president of Local 900 of the United Auto Workers. "It really touched people...
...some companies, the run-up in fuel prices is one more reason to ship jobs offshore. In the U.S. chemical industry, where 100,000 jobs have vanished since 2000, companies are building plants overseas, where natural gas goes for a small fraction of the price it commands in the U.S. Dow Chemical is constructing a $4 billion petrochemical plant in Oman, and CEO Andrew Liveris says the plant would have been built in Freeport, Texas, if not for the price difference. At PPG Industries in Pittsburgh, Pa., CEO Charles Bunch says he may have to close two North Carolina fiber...
...weeks ago, roiling world gas markets. But there are tall hurdles. The U.S. has just five LNG receiving terminals, and while regulators in the U.S., Canada and Mexico have approved 15 more, the projects are hardly assured. Australian firm BHP Billiton, for one, wants to construct an offshore regasification plant the size of three football fields off the coast of Oxnard, Calif., but opposition is mounting. Activists raise concerns about pollution and potential harm to wildlife from such a large industrial operation. A spokeswoman for BHP says the LNG industry has never had a major spill (although an explosion occurred...