Ford uses 25% more engineers doing same work as rivals, Farley says

[woody]

more does not equate to good or better
if you are using 25%more w/o positive or "same" results, something is definitely wrong
get rid of the dead weight/eliminate the union mentality
hire competence (plenty available now) and delegate- all good and successful managers always do
it is not a game, it is a business
the times they are a-changin' (Zimmerman)

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[KevinS]

I wasn't aware of this rumor/news until this morning; wonder if his comments weren't related:

Ford plans massive layoffs overseas in favor of EV development, inciting Europe-wide union threats
https://electrek.co/2023/01/23/ford-layoffs-overseas-ev-development-europe-union-threats/

 

[MME2000]

Per automotive news

Ford Motor Co.’s engineering ranks may bear the brunt of additional job cuts the automaker has alluded to in the wake of disappointing earnings, judging from CEO Jim Farley’s latest interview.

“It takes us 25 percent more engineers to do the same work statements as our competitors,” Farley said on “Cars & Culture with Jason Stein,” a SiriusXM radio show that will air the interview on Friday. “I can’t afford to be 25 percent less efficient.”

I guess that says it all about Fords engineers

Depends on your definition of "engineering". There are engineers who create and design product/components and those who manage product/components. The latter is not value added as you need good engineering to create something in the first place. Engineers also figure out ways to be more efficient too. If Farley goes down the rabbit hole of "getting rid of engineers" it will not help any nor and will only lead to engineering done by outside companies where you lose design control and intellectual property. I would say hardware is just as important as software because after all its still a complex mechanical/electrical machine. Tesla's quality is garbage because they are essentially focused on the software side and rely on outside engineering which costs more at the end of the day.

 

[RickMachE]

Ford doesn’t have a pension anymore?

That's not what the 2022 retirement surge was about. Basically, Ford notified workers in September that anyone considering retiring in the next few years, and considering the lump sum payment, needs to understand the impact of rising interest rates on the payout. In short, the lump sum after 12/1/22 could decrease by 20 - 25%. A $500,000 lump sum payout could be $375,000 - $400,000 instead.

Ford basically was saying "hey guys, you probably don't pay attention / understand, but we use interest rates to compute the present value of your pension and this is going to make it take a big hit".

https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...ford-employees-lump-sum-payments/69521635007/

 

[MME2000]

Salary employees get a 401K and jackshit!

 

[RickMachE]

Some companies, like Ford, have a history of not getting rid of deadwood, instead moving people around to other jobs. In addition, large companies like Ford have processes that are needlessly bogged down in corporate bureaucracy. This needs to change.

My son did a coop for 8 months with a major auto company (not one of the big 3) while getting his engineering degree. Within months he said "you couldn't pay me to work in the auto industry".

 

[Jimrpa]

Salary employees get a 401K and jackshit!

Well, that’s true in a lot of industries now. Some companies will offer a supplementary savings program, but pensions have gone away for all but a few.

 

[Jimrpa]

Salary employees get a 401K and jackshit!

Now get back to work on those rear seats ?

 

[DadzBoyz]

Some companies, like Ford, have a history of not getting rid of deadwood, instead moving people around to other jobs. In addition, large companies like Ford have processes that are needlessly bogged down in corporate bureaucracy. This needs to change.

My son did a coop for 8 months with a major auto company (not one of the big 3) while getting his engineering degree. Within months he said "you couldn't pay me to work in the auto industry".

Agreed. There is a lot of dead wood or dead weight in the big three.
Part of it comes from Detroit being, exclusively, a car town for so long. There is a lot of both spouses working at one company and nepotism. Traditionally, this has also made it hard to fire people. So, Ford, GM, and Chrysler (Stellantis) have a habit of doing things like taking the VP's son and putting him in some job where he can do the least damage.

VP: "Tanner just graduated from Devry with an engineering degree. I'd love for him to be a part of the Ford family."

(Tanner was a drunk, barely graduated, and hates cars because his dad never hugged him enough.)

HR: "Yes sir! We'll find a great home for him."

(HR puts Tanner in manual seat lever and window crank design with 27 other VP's kids.)

 

[hybrid2bev]

Agreed. There is a lot of dead wood or dead weight in the big three.
Part of it comes from Detroit being, exclusively, a car town for so long. There is a lot of both spouses working at one company and nepotism. Traditionally, this has also made it hard to fire people. So, Ford, GM, and Chrysler (Stellantis) have a habit of doing things like taking the VP's son and putting him in some job where he can do the least damage.

VP: "Tanner just graduated from Devry with an engineering degree. I'd love for him to be a part of the Ford family."

(Tanner was a drunk, barely graduated and hates cars because his dad never hugged him enough.)

HR: "Yes sir! We'll find a great home for him."

(HR puts Tanner in manual seat lever and window crank design with 27 other VP's kids.)

Come on. Be real.

They sent Tanner to work on FordPass.

 

[DadzBoyz]

Come on. Be real.

They sent Tanner to work on FordPass.

He does like Apps and spends all his time on his phone....

 

[KevinS]

Tanner likes the 4.1.2 small cards.

 

[khbkhb]

Automatic transmission - no
Cooling - less

The electric motors aren't direct drive, the reduction gear system is sort of an automatic transmission. Simpler, but not zero.

Change "Cooling" to temp management, as the batteries need to be heated at low temp, as well as actively cooled, so I'd conjecture total engineering effort would be similar to ICE (possibly a bit higher, as its newer, not baked into generations of corporate engineering experience).

I didn't hear the original interview; from the headline being passed around, I'd assumed he was boasting about how much faster they'd innovate because they'd invested in more staff (as opposed to threatening cutbacks).

 

[Blue highway]

The electric motors aren't direct drive, the reduction gear system is sort of an automatic transmission. Simpler, but not zero.

Change "Cooling" to temp management, as the batteries need to be heated at low temp, as well as actively cooled, so I'd conjecture total engineering effort would be similar to ICE (possibly a bit higher, as its newer, not baked into generations of corporate engineering experience).

I didn't hear the original interview; from the headline being passed around, I'd assumed he was boasting about how much faster they'd innovate because they'd invested in more staff (as opposed to threatening cutbacks).

The electric motors aren't direct drive, the reduction gear system is sort of an automatic transmission. Simpler, but not zero.

There is a one speed planetary gear setup that is really cool engineering, but a lot less design and testing than say a 9 speed automatic.

 

[SalsabyJake]

Speaking as a career engineer, it's a bit hard to interpret this. IHMO, the most important factors in engineering development is consistency in personnel and the level of talent in the group. If the project is split up too much, it can suffer ("A camel is a horse designed by committee!!" is one of my favorite sayings). And if the group gets split up or splintered by firings or people leaving, it leaves a gap in development as new people have to get up to speed. So far, in my experience, Ford is working hard on their software engineering, but that area is still the most likely to mess up the user experience too!

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