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Is Ford's auto-xchange the "Real Deal?" (Survey Response 5)

Written by: Jon Hansen

Article Overview: In a recent video that was released by The Ford Motor Company, Ford's Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Jim Yost indicated that the company has to "share information in real-time" and therefore can no longer use "the sequential processes” in which there were many “handoffs" and "transfers of information." Yost also emphasized the fact that Ford needs to "integrate much more closely with their customers, supply base and even internally," as well as stressing the importance of making information available to multiple levels of their supply base "simultaneously," thereby eschewing the current "cascade processes that might take days, weeks and even months" to disseminate. To enable you to respond to this question, you can access both the video as well as the corresponding article by contacting the author.

Is Ford's auto-xchange the "Real Deal?" (Survey Response 5)

Chet, Owner Border Business Consultants, Houston, U.S.

I think that the solution they present is interesting, but it doesn't solve the problem. They want to get cars to the people who want cars, but they haven't done their homework. They have created a high tech knee jerk reaction to a hot button issue rather than an insightful and elegant solution to making their entire company "customer driven."

They have created the auto version of Dell's front end, but they haven't created the back room support that allows the front end to speak clearly. The entire back end of the company could be run quite simply (Do not equate simple with easy). They have taken something that is relatively simple and tried to make it as complex as they can. They have not broken through the walls of their corporate box. They have not found elegance.

Ford will have to spend the time and energy planning to get where they say they want to go. This is not the ERP type of planning, but that would work better if they planned their business better. Henry Ford knew how to do it: decide what you want to sell, decide how you are going to make it, and then get rid of everything that doesn't support that vision. His genius was that he could walk that thought down to the shop floor and onto his supplier's shop floor and help them see the vision.

When Henry Ford started the Model T line he ordered his transmissions from the Chrysler brothers. He personally designed the packaging for each transmission. His buyers and his engineers were upset that he had so "over-designed" the wooden case that he specified for each transmission. He mollified them when the first load was received and he showed them where to cut the wires and unwrap the wooden protection from the transmission housing. After the transmission was moved and bolted into the car the packaging became the flooring. As Ford noted, "It was cheaper to have them make it for us." He was an innovator. These people are not.

Wait a short while and the winds of Wall Street will change again and this hyped platform will be left cringing in the same corner that keeps the shards of Edsel from rolling forward yet again.

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Article Tags: border business, business consultants, button issue, chrysler, company customer, dell, elegance, elegant solution, entire company, flooring, ford, genius, henry ford, homework, hot button, innovator, knee jerk reaction, t line, transmissions, wooden case



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