What ever happened to our quality Czar.
23 replies (most recent on top)
@3dtg You want to sabotage us for your own personal gain? That says a lot about your character.
Just landed a direct job at Ford. The group I am joining is known for shenanigans so I plan to document this and try to land a nice lump sum, like this employee from Hyundai.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/09/cars/nhtsa-whistleblower-award-hyundai/index.html
When I saw the digital thread modules and material in 2019, I knew Ford had lost focus on its core mission, and was hopelessly off course. Some consulting group sold them a bill of goods and fancy schmanzcy hoo-ha.
Someone with the focus and maturity of Alan Mullaly is sorely needed.
JH is a just a data transport guy that has never fixed problems nor has he established processes/strategy to improve Quality. Worse part is that many, many knowledgeable people under him in Quality that delivered BIC in the past retired in 2022 and were replaced with green Quality “leadership” that really have to figure it out for themselves. Assignments flow quickly from top to bottom with little refinement/practical guidance with the LL6/GSR left to figure it out. The new assignments from the Czar are often a distraction to the teams that have real work that needs to be done. A simple check the box approach is all that Quality management expects now because they just don’t know better. The inexperienced leadership in forward model Quality have deployed a strategy of simplistic evidence audits vs. proven upfront FMA/6 Sigma/Parameter Design/Technical Design Review process deployment. Our Czar hasn’t even been able to effectively develop a system to prioritize the Quality work that needs to be done. This Quality Czar has no clothes.
Seasoned engineers are totally uncool because they often bring up reality...... which makes all the people look bad who are believing and practicing the latest social contagions and woke sacraments.
Can I say I think somebody convinced the emperor/CEO to walk around with digital threads when he's really na--d??... and believes in crimate change and DEI which are also a hoax.
@1kmg+1p0shK3t It doesn't matter what is discussed at length within the Model E organization. Very little competence exists within the organization. Just a bunch of lemmings following DF off a cliff.
@1zwr here… another thought I had on the pictures of all of the happy diverse people working collaboratively, no pictures of seasoned engineers, was no experienced mentors in those unrealistic fantasyland pictures. Also with no pictures of senior engineers, Ford was advertising its liability for an age discrimination lawsuit.
@1zwr+1p0shK3t – Oh Boy, “digital thread”! Don’t got there! I’ve had enough of it.
@1kmg+1p0shK3t – You keep talking about Model e BEV as a savior. I got news for you. The new UAW Ford contract will make most buyers look elsewhere. Ex: BYD will cost $20,000+ less per vehicle.
I'm afraid Ford will be a very different company in 15 years focused only on commercial and government contracts.
Digital thread? We're still using analog thread in my department.
Quality will improve automatically with the change to Model e BEV mobility instead of troublesome legacy Blue ICE vehicles. It is a simple concept, simplicity and less parts = less things can go wrong. The company transformation considers this. It has been discussed at length.
Ford quality is in the toilet.
Anyone remember “digital thread”?
Wow, I looked at some of those modules in 2019 and 2020 and it was the most convoluted rubrics cube of yarn I had ever seen.
Has it helped quality? Has it been discontinued?
I saw little or no mention of automotive product in there, it likely was dreamed up by Boston consulting and thrown on the wall during the moonbeam-Farley transition.
One item of concern I noted was , of all the pictures of teams at work, there were lots of diverse people except for no evidence of “seasoned engineers”. That made me think it’s time for me, a “seasoned engineer” to think of other horizons.
I left in November 2022.
Dr. Deming offered his quality expertise to Ford. Unfortunately, they listened more to Dr. Harvey Firestone for lessons in management.
I would like to know how you become one of these 90 IQ people who get hired by corporate to make power point slides and have a couple big pictures “ideas” and get paid a couple million
The revolving door of outsiders continues. It speaks volumes that the senior leadership truly despise each other enough to pull people in from the outside for key positions. And then unceremoniously chew said outside person up because they grow to hate them.
Deming, Six Sigma, Quality Culture, OpEx, Lean, whatever you want to call it........ it all comes from the top. Hard to impossible to build a quality culture from the bottom up.
i recall that deming would not meet with companies unless he was allowed to work directly with the CEO. smart man.
Quality is still one of our jobs.
The Bolsheviks took out the czar... history repeats itself.
According to https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/people/jim-baumbick.html, “Baumbick is responsible for Ford delivering industry leading quality across the enterprise”. He’s doing a heckuva job.
You got to give this guy a break. Probably no one told him in his interview that quality director has nothing to do with the product quality. He can't improve the product quality or worsen the product quality. He can only generate ppt to show the status of the product quality, which is bad as we all know for many years. Anyone who does not know this situation as a fact likely has not done any product in this company.
However, the question why he is employed here is very legit.
He’s quietly ensuring we maintain our status of #1 in recalls!
He’s hoping he makes it until his stock options vest in July 2024 and they are worth something, but if they are still underwater he’ll depart for “other opportunities “ sooner.