The Ford ordering/scheduling process explained from start to finish

[Av8tor]

Ford Ordering Process
Ford Scheduling Process

So, I've been watching all the threads on ordering and scheduling and could not figure out the rhyme or reason to how it works.

Did a search, not sure how accurate, but it made a lot of sense:

Here is the summary. URL for original post at the end and is a very good read, it has examples of vehicles, dealers, allocation, and commodities coming together.

Order Types

• Stock - Blue Window Sticker
• Retail - Sold, assigned customer name, price protection, Green Window Sticker
• Fleet

Priority Codes

• Range 1 to 99
• Dealer sets 10 to 99. 99 will not get scheduled, dealer use as a placeholder
• Ford Regions/Divisions Prioritize below 10

Allocation

• Based on dealer sales (More you sell the fewer you have on lot, the more they get)
• There are provisions for smaller dealers when activated

Commodities (parts on hand) Wednesdays

• supply issues
• short term shortages
• material HOLDs
• supply vs demand on parts

Scheduling (able to build) Thursday's night

• based on Commodities and Allocation
• Dealers with allocation - list is generated in random order via computer
• selection is done via rounds through list - round 1 takes 1st order from each dealer with allocation, then round 2, etc.
• if allocation but no commodities, dealer order is skipped
• Scheduling Status
  • Matl HOLD - something missing, can't schedule
  • unschd/clean - No Schedule, waiting on allocation or commodities
  • submitted (VIN)
  • scheduled (Build Date / VIN)
  • locked in (No Changes)
  • bucked (on the manufacturing floor)
  • produced (Built)
  • release from plant (Inspection, Available to ship)
  • arrived at ramp

Original Article from another forum:
The Ford ordering process explained from start to finish | Ford Focus RS Forum

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[Cobra427]

Ford Ordering Process
Ford Scheduling Process
...
Allocation

• Based on dealer sales (More you sell the fewer you have on lot, the more they get)
• There are provisions for smaller dealers when activated

...

Original Article from another forum:
The Ford ordering process explained from start to finish | Ford Focus RS Forum

Can someone explain the "...provisions for smaller dealers when activated"...?

 

[RickMachE]

The allocation apparently also takes into account states that have adopted goals for zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) deployment. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/what-zev

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont

They get priority, because the automaker gets ZEV credits for selling there.

 

[Av8tor]

Can someone explain the "...provisions for smaller dealers when activated"...?

@Cobra427 Since it's all about allocation, the larger dealers that order more inventory and sell that inventory faster will be given more cars to sell. A smaller dealer, then could potential be penalized and get very few cars. They have a way when demand is high, that they can make sure it does not allocate to just the bigger dealers.

@RickMachE is correct, Ford Regions also play in the allocation game.

 

[Cobra427]

@Cobra427 Since it's all about allocation, the larger dealers that order more inventory and sell that inventory faster will be given more cars to sell. A smaller dealer, then could potential be penalized and get very few cars. They have a way when demand is high, that they can make sure it does not allocate to just the bigger dealers.

@RickMachE is correct, Ford Regions also play in the allocation game.

So since I don't live in a ZEV state, and am dealing with a smaller dealer, I'm screwed?

 

[RickMachE]

So since I don't live in a ZEV state, and am dealing with a smaller dealer, I'm screwed?

Who knows?

I ordered on 5/29 from a large volume dealer, one of the biggest. My 2021 is bumped to a 2022, as of now being made the week of 1/10. So, let's assume an end of Feb delivery (probably mid, but who knows). That's 9 months. I see people on here that ordered in September and October getting theirs sooner. Caveat - I picked up the exact same car from the exact same dealer on 7/2 from a cancelled order, so I'm not anxiously waiting. Likely to take the 2022 and sell the 2021.

 

[Av8tor]

So since I don't live in a ZEV state, and am dealing with a smaller dealer, I'm screwed?

@Cobra427 not screwed, but sometimes it might feel like that.

Lets say my dealer comes in the random lottery on Thursdays, and my GT-PE is allocated, but the Magna-ride parts are not available, my order will be skipped, and the next vehicle from the dealer is a Premium, and all parts are available. It will get schedule instead of mine.

I now have to wait for another Thursday, and this time, I might be randomly lower in the list, and 10 GT-PE's get scheduled, but when mine is being looked at, I have allocation, but now the something else that prohibits it be being build, something bigger than chips, it's skipped again.

Ford is doing all they can, very creativity in purchasing all the parts months in advance, they are scheduling for I think March now.

Supply and Demand, there is more demand than supply, and Parts shortages and Shipping container, trucking driver shortages just make the wait once it's built even more frustrating.

 

[Cobra427]

@Cobra427 not screwed, but sometimes it might feel like that.

Lets say my dealer comes in the random lottery on Thursdays, and my GT-PE is allocated, but the Magna-ride parts are not available, my order will be skipped, and the next vehicle from the dealer is a Premium, and all parts are available. It will get schedule instead of mine.

I now have to wait for another Thursday, and this time, I might be randomly lower in the list, and 10 GT-PE's get scheduled, but when mine is being looked at, I have allocation, but now the something else that prohibits it be being build, something bigger than chips, it's skipped again.

Ford is doing all they can, very creativity in purchasing all the parts months in advance, they are scheduling for I think March now.

Supply and Demand, there is more demand than supply, and Parts shortages and Shipping container, trucking driver shortages just make the wait once it's built even more frustrating.

I understand parts shortages, but in light of Ford's recent announcement that they are increasing production more than threefold, the 'shortage of commodities' excuse rings hollow, don't you think ?

 

[Av8tor]

I understand parts shortages, but in light of Ford's recent announcement that they are increasing production more than threefold, the 'shortage of commodities' excuse rings hollow, don't you think ?

@Cobra427 Maybe, but I think it said something about the Mexico plant will now focus all their lines on the Mach-e. They are doing what they can to increase supply through 2022. That would imply they would be working on "shortages" for the expansion of those lines producing more Mach-e.

In this environment, the parts and logistics people face a new hurdle daily. I know that the company I work for, that team deserves major kudos because of what they do to find our parts for our products on the spot market. I sit amazed on the conference calls.

 

[Av8tor]

Just look at the locations of orders within this forum.

 

[FLmac]

I understand parts shortages, but in light of Ford's recent announcement that they are increasing production more than threefold, the 'shortage of commodities' excuse rings hollow, don't you think ?

From the article I read I understood that they are hoping to increase production threefold by the end of 2022. Maybe I understood it wrong, but I took that to mean they will probably slowly start to increase production throughout the year. Maybe it will help some of us who should be in production in Q1 2022 but will really help as the year goes on. Maybe I interpreted this news differently.

 

[Glen]

From the article I read I understood that they are hoping to increase production threefold by the end of 2022. Maybe I understood it wrong, but I took that to mean they will probably slowly start to increase production throughout the year. Maybe it will help some of us who should be in production in Q1 2022 but will really help as the year goes on. Maybe I interpreted this news differently.

I read somewhere that Ford is going to build mach e's at a plant they built Explorers and Aviators. And cancelling the Explorer & Aviator builds for one year, NO builds of them period. But who knows if that was accurate. Just my 2 cents.

 

[mmap]

Maybe I understood it wrong, but I took that to mean they will probably slowly start to increase production throughout the year. M

I don't think it grows slowly, I think it will grow in big steps as they convert over and start up additional assembly lines. It's a lot of work to retool a line and there's also some amount of training for the people working it. Once the line is ready, then it can turn out cars at a pretty constant rate, and then they can start working on the next line.

(Disclaimer, I don't actually know anything about manufacturing)

Also, I don't know if they actually said 200,000 cars produced in 2022 or if they said "up to a 200,000 car capacity by the end of 2022"... Because there's a subtle but important difference there.

 

[Mike Curtis]

My understanding/experience is that it takes time to ramp up. Once the line is physically built, it has to be tested, staff has to be trained, and slowly things brought up to full speed. Also, from a marketing perspective (I used to work in marketing), you throw out the most impressive statistic you can. I have read the "200,000/year" number as well, and I interpreted it as "we hope to be able to build cars at a rate of 200,000 per year by the end of this year" instead of "we'll produce 200,000 this year". The difference is that AFAIK they sold about 30,000 MMEs last year. Monthly, that'd be about 2500/month. 200,000/year would be 16,666/month. That's 8 times higher production rate. I've also read something about triple production for this year - if 30K last year, that'd be 90,000 for this year, or an average of 7500/month. So putting all that together, I'd take that to mean they were making something vaguely like 3000/month at the beginning of the year (if 30K total, and they're making them faster now than when they started); and will increase to a rate of roughly 16,500/month by end of year. If I weren't so lazy I could do some math to figure out the ramping curve to come up with the right total of tripled production (90K total), but you get the idea. That's my best guess, but I could well be wrong.

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