Ford Company Essay, Research Paper

FORD Case Study

Importance of technology

and its impact on production and design

The Ford company has always been on the lookout for new technologies especially in the production process, design and safety. The advanced technology that the Ford company has acquired also gives the company a competitive advantage in terms of packaging, driving dynamics, comfort, fuel economy, and cost ownership. The three most important objectives reached by Ford thanks to technology are: quality, cost and speed.

Quality: The new processes help Ford designers to test the vehicle several times in order to experiment with all its different parts.

Cost: The designers have the possibility of checking the vehicle on-screen with the maximum accuracy in the shortest time possible. Another important advantage is in the work force utilized for these operations. Before the introduction of these new processes, the time necessary to do all these operations was 12 weeks, and 12 designers were needed. Now the time required is 3 weeks and the work force has come down to a single designer. The rest of the work force is utilized in other activities.

Speed: The Ford company also has the possibility of delivering its product to the market in a very short period of time. This allows Ford to anticipate the general market and to exceed customers expectations.

The importance of a company s role

in the protection of the environment

Total Waste Management (TWM) is the new approach to waste disposal. The major car companies support this philosophy to reduce, reuse and recycle. The TMW plan includes replacing disposable packaging with returnable containers, increasing metal scrap recovery and placing recycling stations along the assembly line. In three years since launching this programme, the amount of non-hazardous solid waste has been halved. The Ford company is an example of a TWM focused company. It has been rewarded by several countries for its outstanding waste reduction, reuse and recycling efforts.

The involvement of all companies in the protection of the environment is becoming more and more important as years go by. Nowadays we talk about company health and environmental policy. Sustainable economic development is important to the future welfare of the companies, as well as to that of society in general. To be sustainable, economic development must provide for protection of human health and the world s environmental resource base. It must become a company policy that its operations, products and services accomplish their functions in a manner that provides responsibility for protection of health and the environment.

The protection of health and the environment is an important consideration in business decisions. Consideration of potential health and environmental effects, as well as present and future regulatory requirements, is an early, integral part of the planning process. Company products, services, processes and facilities are planned and operated to incorporate objectives and targets that are periodically reviewed so as to minimize to the extent practical the creation of waste, pollution and any adverse impact on health and the environment.

The protection of these two elements has become a company-wide responsibility. Management of each activity is expected to accept this responsibility as an important priority and to commit the necessary resources. Employees at all levels are expected to carry out this responsibility within the context of their particular assignments and to cooperate in company efforts.

The adoption and enforcement of responsible, effective and sound laws, regulations, policies and practices protecting health and the environment are in the company s interest.

They participate constructively with government officials, interested private organizations, and concerned members of the general public toward these ends.

FORD FOCUS

Detroit, 4 January 1999: the all-new Ford Focus is set to redefine customer expectations of small cars, as it makes its debut at the North American International Auto Show.

The new Focus is designed to raise the standard of what a small car should be with new levels of roominess, comfort, driving dynamics and safety. Combined with a bold new exterior design and an all-new chassis, the Focus is designed to give customers much more car while still providing affordability and value.

Ford Focus is a fresh example of a car designed around people, with a spacious interior that reflects the increasing average height of the population , says Richard Parry Jones, Ford s group vice president of worldwide Product Development. By the year 2000, we expect men will be nearly half an inch taller and women quarter of an inch taller than they were in 1990.

Focus responds to these trends by providing the extra roominess and comfort that our customers require, together with a level of driving dynamics and safety technology unprecedented in this price class .

On sale this autumn. Focus is available in three body styles, a sporty three-door, four-door sedan and versatile station wagon, and a choice of five series matched to varying lifestyles.

Focus is appealing to a wider array of customers.

Focus is based on an all-new platform. Thanks to a streamlined development process and a customer-centered way of operating, the platform has provided attributes that make Focus stand out from the competition.

On the outside, Focus appearance is designed to be progressive, adventurous and distinctively different from the softer, more traditional proportions and silhouettes of other small cars. The design communicates the car s dynamic attributes and leads the small car market into the millennium.

More than a hundred computer simulations were performed to provide accurate predictions of how the car would perform in all the possible tests.

Focus on Recycling

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is the Ford mission. The new Ford Focus and other Ford products demonstrate that Ford is serious about protecting the environment and managing waste.

Old blue jeans, plastic bottle caps and other discarded items are important parts of an extraordinary vehicle that is heralding a new era for the Ford Motor Company in Europe.

The Ford was made with recycling in mind and demonstrates creative use for salvaged materials by incorporating them into new components such as heater/air-conditioner housings, sound deadening materials and fuse boxes. This level of environmental compatibility was carefully considered from the beginning of the vehicle s development.

The Ford Focus has 85 per cent recyclability potential by weight and has been designed for quick and easy dismantling.

The Ford Focus is but one of the example of Ford s dedication to recycling in its products and manufacturing processes.

Worldwide, Ford products annually use more than 4 billion pounds of recycled materials.

Technology, Human Ideas and Imagination

Human ideas, creativity and imagination will never be taken over by technology. The fact that technology exists is only thanks to human creativity. Technology plays a very important role in present production processes. In some cases it is easier for man to let a computer do all the hard work, but our common sense fortunately guides us in most of our decisions and makes us realize the importance of maintaining human input and creativity. Human ideas and imagination must be considered as the brain of the production processes and technology is the means utilized to realize these ideas. The best result possible is given by the perfect integration between these two parts. It allows the companies to increase efficiency, cut costs and cut time so as to pass on a guarantee to their consumers.

Ford Environmental Pledge

Ford Motor Company

is dedicated to providing ingenious

environmental solutions that will

position us as a leader in the

automotive industry of

the 21st century. Our actions will

demonstrate that we care about

preserving the environment

for future generations.