Aren't we lucky to be in the United States, to make and engineer cars?

I am working on a major project but due to the extremely flawed vision and project direction, it is not delivering (too many changes with too little resources and horrible time management). I asked my manager how bad it is, he said.... it is bad.

I made some comparisons to Leningrad-1 L-1 Red Putilov and Hongqi CA72 convertible. I was told, the project is just as bad.

How bad L-1 was? It was supposed to be a reverse engineered Buick but they couldn't make the body. So the government paid the competitor of Fisher to make something similar they could use (outside of the US anyway and no one was going to enforce patent laws) and the local state owned factory made copies of all running gears (powertrain, frame, electrics)

They lined up those L-1 limousines for photo, driving from Leningrad to Moscow, and the cars were horribly unreliable to a point being almost unusable. Afterwards, the chief engineer was arrested on the accusation of sabotaging automotive industry (I don't know what happened to him later)

And Hongqi CA72? It was a reserved engineered '55 Imperial. They tore the Chrysler apart, asking everyone in the factory to take a part home if they could make it. Somehow, they managed to make most parts (entire sheetmetal was hammered by hand. In the documentaries, then factory technicians said it was very exhausting to manually put a hood into shape) including the engine block, albeit only able to use 2-3 out of 100 at best. But they couldn't make an automatic transmission properly, unable to duplicate the torque converter in a reliable manner. (another factory did, but it broke down in the demo thus rejected for the bid)

So those people looked at the Chrysler Imperial, taking the transmission and put it into the CA72. Somehow, that transmission worked fine in the Chrysler but it was acting out in the CA72 convertible. So shortly before the military parade, they took the automatic transmission out and swapped a manual transmission instead, for reliability (no one on the side of street nor on TV could spot it anyway!)

We both laughed because this engineering approach was so absurd and we find ourselves just as stupid as them. Hey, but we live in the USA and no one is going to be arrested due to a horribly engineered vehicle for "sabotaging industry"!

Hooyah, God Bless USA!

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There are no engineers at Ford, just a bunch of overglorified project managers.
Telling a supplier to design something with incomplete data and further crucifying them over late deliverables does not make you an engineer.

But it’s all about shareholder value!

I haven’t owned ford stock since 1999 since to me it has no value.

Ford is relocating everything to other countries. Wake up.

The new Taurus is being manufactures, designed in China. Ford is selling out the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUg4Qu_Tj-M

We are lucky - for now.

All of our jobs are going to be relocated to countries where the workforce is happy to receive small fractions of what we get paid today.

If we don't lower our labor costs - especially office staff - then our company won't stand a chance.

We have to lower degreed-employee salaries drastically if we hope to compete with the foreign countries. That is the only way to stop our jobs from being eliminated here in favor of more affordable labor.

I would gladly accept a significant pay cut in order to keep my job.

I have said it before... working for any multinational company is not very different from communism. I can tell, because I know both. First of all, there is no room for improvising. You are just a cog and are supposed to follow the process in place.

Then there are the yes-men, parroting whatever idiocy is spouted from the top, and believe me when I say in both communist and corporate worlds, the managers tend to hold the narrowest possible interpretation of the orders from above. Since middle management is a waste of space in both worlds, and they are afraid of losing their "power" positions, they will defend themselves by lying and backstabing others.

I have seen when a communist leader visit the "plebe", where everyone seems happy and local leaders try their best to look busy and capable, but sweating inside. Similar things happen when any C-suite or high enough manager visit the workers. In the latter, my ex managers have "chastised" me for my regular behavior (A.K.A not giving a f-ck). They tended to use an awed subdued voice when saying to me "But he is the Director/VP/CEO". Like that would matter much to me, LOL. In most of the cases, the higher the position, the longer the stick up their @sses and the lesser their actual knowledge of the company.

Interesting enough, I see the fear of many around the leader, because no matter if the leader is from the communist or corporate world, he/she has the power to destroy others, with none to little recourse. So everyone smiles and looks happy while sh-----g themselves inside.

As you said, tovarich OP, is good to live in America, where the wrath of a leader does not imply the death or starvation of the victim.

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Aren't we lucky to be in the United States, to make and engineer cars?

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