Red Horse

This was posted on the Blue Oval News site. I can't believe this was actually sent out by the guy at the top. A collection of worn out buzz words. Just think..."10 cross functional teams"...Wow-"Paralysis through Analysis" at its finest. When you don't know your ass from third base time to bring in more study teams. From: Jim Hackett Sent: Monday, August 27, 2018 1:02 PM To: The Ford Team Subject: Company Announcement Today, we are announcing a key organizational change to help us better position our business for the opportunities ahead as we focus in on our Winning Portfolio smart choice for growth and shift to a team-based approach centered on driving a deeper product-line and customer-first focus across the company. With this, we are announcing that we are creating a new Enterprise Product Line Management organization, led by Jim Baumbick who will report into Jim Farley, as we continue transforming to better meet emerging customer needs, drive top-line growth and maximize returns. The new EPLM organization establishes 10 cross-functional teams that will manage distinct product lines as end-to-end businesses and leverage Ford’s human-centered design, advanced product marketing and user experience teams to create breakthrough products and customer experiences.

Let's hope this new Ford 7.3 L V-8 gets here quick and Roush does its magic with that!

" sigh...." You guys just don't get it.....you see Hackett was hired because he is a "cerebral thinker". Per Webster....."cerebral"..."of the brain"... "of appealing to or conceived by the intellect rather than emotions...." Don't forget he "saved" Steelcase-the office furniture people. You know, "office furniture" -That is the stuff that companies abandon around here when they walk away from a commercial lease and the new tenant says.."i don't want that stuff". AND he was the Athletic Director at Michigan. Not quite as qualified as Mulally but Silicon Valley convinced Bill Ford you don't need a guy who understands engineering/manufacturing-you need a "thinker". When in doubt hire more staff. And the train station??? I always said, if you have an empty desk or an office, someone will think of a need they have for manpower and..."we have the space"! Hmnn-wonder if this guy Baumbick knows that Ford builds trucks beyond F-150?

Jim-Never saw that before-this year at NH show? Is it an "X" with with big rear?

Given the nightmare that govt. compliance alone must be I don't see how a company at this scale can make a go of it. Hope I'm wrong

And Ford can't "afford" to add additional drivetrains to 650/750??? These guys must be very clever to get this operation financed.

All Transit Connects currently built with "wrong side" drive right? As are I'm sure the various FCA vans. So no engineering cost to speak of. Can't believe they can't take one of these right hand drive vans and figure a relatively inexpensive box storage system that would rotate the boxes up to the driver. I do believe that is what they currently do. Bins/boxes are loaded by specific route sequence.? Might not last 20 years but upfront cost savings would be huge and as someone has said-will USPS be around in 10 years as we know it today??

Same here- I'm thinking wireless is the future

Well I hear you. I thought the Everest would have been a nice compliment to the current Explorer. But instead the new Excplorer goes to a RWD platform with a NS engine layout but still unibody. I too think the everest would have done well here-what real competition would it have had given the current crop of crossover look alikes? As for the Ranger I have to admit-350HP and a 10 speed auto doesn't sound too bad-but I question their "one size fits all" mentality. In particular the engineering associated with a manual trans was done I would have to believe. To say nothing ofthe fact it has taken them how long to pull this off??? And the 'train station"???? I would like to have the haz mat remediation figures alone. While I'm a firm supporter of the Ford family still calling the shots I think this is a case where their allegiance to Detroit is what carried this decision. But I'm sure Hatchett was all on board after he called his Silicon Valley puppeteers and they told him.."yes milennials would like to work in an antique building that has cost millions to rehab,

Guy is trying to open all your doors and she doesn't call 911? Far too trusting in my opinion- Knocking on doors is one thing-trying to gain entry??? As for your PD response, I think I would be in the chief's office in the morning given their response. As for cameras, good post-I'm wondering the same thing. I have a hard wired system and my alarm monitoring co. charges 300 a year. Plus I have some circuits that are out- One of my kids just bought two cameras for 200 bucks-tied to their phones. I had to go over his house the other day to pick up a set Deere forks he had borrowed and my phone rings-the d-in law. She says "Hi that you that just drove in?-she is at work and it dinged her cell!

Nice Rich-and where was this?

Yeah-but why is the truck carrying about a third of a load??😎 Kevin you must have some good pix of those RD-800's up in Maine. I always wondered why they did not roll over the minute they took an turn.

The Journal yesterday had an Opinion piece by Kimberly Strassel entitled "When Justice is Partial" with a by line.."Mueller is determined to sniff out any wrongdoing he can find-on one side." A closing quote .........."Prosecutors can claim all they want that they are applying the law equally, but if they only apply it to half the suspects, justice is not served. Mr Mueller seems blind to the national need for -the basic expectation of--a thorough look into all parties. That omission is fundamentally undermining any legitimacy in his findings. Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold over only one eye." I must admit, I voted for Trump while holding my nose- but we are a hell of a lot better off now than we were under the previous leadership . And for sure, better off than we would have been under Hillary's watch. On the Supreme Court issue alone my vote was justified as I have less fear now that O'bama's goal of building his own electorate has been overturned.

Great article IMO. Key phrase... First, Washington must recognize that American military power is not going to solve political, ethnic, or religious problems. Second, U.S. leaders must accept that America cannot solve every problem in the world—nor should it try.

Jim, Henniker still in business or has Carroll bought them out too? In any case a real looker!

wow- 118K ! 6 spd lo hole and 38 rears? You got lucky!

Hah! Bill Ford hit a home run when he hired Mulally. He must have been drinking too much wine with his silicon Valley pals when he picked furniture man.

Don't remember seeing it but had I, for sure I would have been checking it out-is it as rust free as this picture would lead you to believe?

Well 2006 would be a 6.0 would it not? No comparison to the 6.0 vs 6.7. F-550 6.7's are very popular contractor service trucks around here-set up as you describe yours. There are also a lot of 5500 Mopars in same service but I would say the 550's are in the majority. Had a contractor doing some work for me and his (550) also had an air "conditioning" system that kept tool compartments from developing condensation! Like yours-loaded-big hydraulic crane with wireless control, welder, 100 gal diesel tank, nice Miller welding set up etc etc. Guy's primary business is portable rock crushing so you can imagine-this thing is set up for every contingency. I will say the big Cat dealer has 650s set up for their service trucks.

U-haul 650's have been very visible here in NE.

Kevin, Carolina also had a lot of Fords. I was at KTP on a day when a large number of Carolinas were in production. What surprised me that day was the fact that they were all not going through as one large batch. Would have thought that would have been standard procedure.

Janes-regarding Maxidynes comment on eastern fleets agree -St J for sure-but I think they were hi-hoods.Also maybe Hemingway???

I think the R's were 700's. The U models with either 8V-71s or V-903's-not saying roadway had any 903's but I think the U's with V-8's all had that higher cab and a spacer section on the front fender- How about it KSC?

Paul-great pix-assuming this was in your archives of "rarities" . As for your comment...GM never used to be afraid to fling new ideas into production..I was going to comment along those lines when this IFS issue was a topic. I've always thought if Ford, Mopar, Mack, IH etc spent the money to develop new products, and then bailed out on them as quick as GM did, they would have been done-or in worse financial shape then they all occasionally were. I'm thinking like the IFS heavy truck, the Pontiac transaxle, the Toro-Flow, 8,2 etc.. Then again Ford probably dropped more on the Edsel than GM did on all of its short lived ventures combined! Bottom line, GM for sure had the financial resources in the old days. The old phrase.."paralysis through analysis" was probably practiced less at GM than it was at the other companies.

How about it JB-you guys in the dealer world get any inkling that there could be a new cab for Avon Lake given fact their production currently revolves around THREE cabs- --steel Super Duty for 650/750, aluminum Super duty for 450/550 chassis, and the ancient Econoline for the cut aways. Talk about inefficiency from a manufacturing viewpoint-or so it seems to me.