Ah, this email haunts my inbox again.

[zaimer]

Go to your local dealer and try to order some parts for your existing Ford. Chances are its on a nationwide backorder. The automobile world is a jacked up mess right now. :(

They've been using the China-flu excuse for nearly 3 years now. Why is it that auto customers are supposed to be understanding, but there is no leniency for other markets? LOL At least this has been the case for my sector. If my customers had to wait with such unpromising timelines, we would lose our shirts.

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[goodlettjr]

They've been using the China-flu excuse for nearly 3 years now. Why is it that auto customers are supposed to be understanding, but there is no leniency for other markets? LOL At least this has been the case for my sector. If my customers had to wait with such unpromising timelines, we would lose our shirts.

It is like this across the board for other markets I assure you.

Here is a different take. Covid happened. In a normal supply chain process, to support the life cycle of a part, you have several "suppliers" coming together to support the product. Before Covid there weren't many disruption in the world economy so things ran smoothly. Today, you are coming out of a major if not unprecedented disruption. Here is a rough list of what has to happen in a supply chain for parts. Full disclosure, I have worked for Ford as a factory rep facing the dealers on diesel engines, worked as a parts manager at the largest Ford Parts dealer in the country, and now moved back over to the heavy truck dealer side with Mack, Volvo, and Isuzu managing several locations (parts). Some of the things that some people speculate on here, I have had to work through prior to Covid, during, and after on a daily basis.

For a tie rod to be made by a manufacturer and delivered to a vehicle assy line or part distribution center

1. Materials have to be sourced (mined)
   1. includes trucks, excavators, and other infrastructure that can be subject to downtime.
2. Material shipped to a plant to make the stock metal
3. Stock metal ordered and shipped to the vendor
   1. Shipping must be available (example YRC freight in the US has a truck shortage because of vehicle allocations and a shortage of materials)
4. Assuming all of this happens with out a hitch then you have to send it to a production line. If you were shut down during Covid, you probably lost your spot on an assembly / production line. Most companies don't own their assembly / production line and purchase space / availability on one. There are 24 hours in a day and say you need 8 hours a day of assy / production. Some other company has bought 4 hours of the line. Now you either have to work within the 4 hours or find another place to get your product built.
5. Once some are built you have to ship to the customer. Ford, GM, Toyota, etc.. Most of these suppliers are selling to multiple manufacturers. Whose orders are going to be filled first? Oldest to newest, the one that yells the most, the one that is most profitable, the one that has the most volume, the one that has specifics in their contract?
   1. The part needs a packaging option. Maybe that supplier is having issues sourcing packaging required such as shipping containers in their region of the US or world. At one point I had a 4800 (4 full containers) brake drums on order and couldn't get them from Turkey. because of the combination of shipping container availability and ship cargo space as well. took me 14 months to get the first "batch" and took me almost 2 years to get all of them.
   2. Still need a shipping option. FYI....domestic freight in the US has been at an all time high for short and long haul trucking. It is starting to come down which will open up some shipping capacity and help alleviate freight increases.
6. Received in to the vehicle assy plant or PDC. Has to be checked for physical damage, packaging standards, labeling, then quality. Received on and placed in its "bin location."
   1. In a PDC they then release to the dealer body based upon the type of order and the age. Every once in a while a rep can pull some strings and get a fleet / trouble customer a part at the front of the line.
   2. In a vehicle assy line the parts are staged in holding areas with specific locations. As parts are used, small orders come across and they move that product to the assy line by forklift.

That is a general overview. I am sure most of you know these things, but I wanted to point out that anything in here that has an issue drags out and causes issues for other things in the process. Example a Forklift part at a point in here where there aren't extra forklifts. Or rental lifts are scarce because other people in the area are experiencing the same issue. Maybe it is a bad decision by someone to think they can wait an issue out and they causes a 2 week delay which is compounded by any other possible situation.

I had a truck in our body shop for a frame rail. It had a birthday it was here for over a year. Frame rails on a class 8 truck are fairly simple. The manufacturer takes a specified C channel spec and drills / cuts holes in it. May champers off one end a bit for a taper. Mining the material was the first issue, then they ran into the holes portion as the tool was down waiting for the part. To get the tool, they faced the delays of another supply chain issue. It is never ending sometimes.

At one point I was on allocation for 15W20 diesel oil. We have a 2000 gallon tank and had to turn away vehicles needing basic maintenance for oil and fuel filters because of no oil from Shell.

The simplistic view point of there are no supply chain issues because Covid is over doesn't hold water. The world economy is still trying to flatten out and we are still trying to work through areas that aren't bouncing back well due to several issues such as poor infrastructure, financial backing, and a rebalancing of product lines.

 

[KAlexander]

I also wanna add that when I ordered my F350 - it took nearly 18 months from order submit to taking delivery so I'm no stranger to waiting...I'm disappointed because because there is no communication from Ford. I'd rather have delays but having constant communication on what and why.
I have a DH and a Raptor Bronco now on order and ZERO comms from the Big Blue Oval besides "sorry. see you in 45 days."

Edit: My 350 was radio silent besides "Hey your truck's ready"

 

[Blueberrystang2000]

Sucks to be yall mine has been scheduled since may 1st

 

[dfwford]

While there are legitimate supply chain constraints, Ford's refusal to work collaboratively with its suppliers and their poor quality control is making the problem much worse for them than other OEMs.

No other major OEMs, to my knowledge, have been shutting down their production entirely, nor are having to do major reworks of their design/parts during their vehicle launches like Ford has.

 

[Lastoutlaw_21]

Lets be honest. This is not a supply chain issue first and foremost. This is greedy companies cutting so many corners during covid to make a profit and at they same time getting all the bail out money from they governments. They cut workers, closed plants and were chilling knowing they could use the whole " its because of covid" thing as an excuse and everyone would understand.

Covid was 3 years ago.. adapt and grow because this wtf use regular people had to do because we had no excuses to use. There is no supply chain issue. The issue is that these companies cut all their workers and found away to be greedy and cry wolf for more governments funding. So the issue is the lack of workers because the companies still trying to operate like covid still that big of an issue while trying to not lose money switching to EV. So the odd man out are the workers so they can save more money. No workers to work, no supplies. Hire more workers, pay them like they are supposed to be paid, and boom supply issues fixed.

Unfortunately we as consumers and people just accepted the covid thing too long ans we baby companies when they fuck up. So they kept using the covid excuse when really they just do not want to pay their workers.

 

[unfairslide]

Lets be honest. This is not a supply chain issue first and foremost. This is greedy companies cutting so many corners during covid to make a profit and at they same time getting all the bail out money from they governments. They cut workers, closed plants and were chilling knowing they could use the whole " its because of covid" thing as an excuse and everyone would understand.

Covid was 3 years ago.. adapt and grow because this wtf use regular people had to do because we had no excuses to use. There is no supply chain issue. The issue is that these companies cut all their workers and found away to be greedy and cry wolf for more governments funding. So the issue is the lack of workers because the companies still trying to operate like covid still that big of an issue while trying to not lose money switching to EV. So the odd man out are the workers so they can save more money. No workers to work, no supplies. Hire more workers, pay them like they are supposed to be paid, and boom supply issues fixed.

Unfortunately we as consumers and people just accepted the covid thing too long ans we baby companies when they fuck up. So they kept using the covid excuse when really they just do not want to pay their workers.

Please read what @goodlettjr wrote.

These companies are not gonna stop production (i.e. stop their cash flow from paying customers) to save money not paying workers. That literally makes no sense.

The longer they halt production the longer they lose out on incoming cash flow. They are most likely trying as hard as possible to get rolling again.

 

[dfwford]

Lets be honest. This is not a supply chain issue first and foremost. This is greedy companies cutting so many corners during covid to make a profit and at they same time getting all the bail out money from they governments. They cut workers, closed plants and were chilling knowing they could use the whole " its because of covid" thing as an excuse and everyone would understand.

Covid was 3 years ago.. adapt and grow because this wtf use regular people had to do because we had no excuses to use. There is no supply chain issue. The issue is that these companies cut all their workers and found away to be greedy and cry wolf for more governments funding. So the issue is the lack of workers because the companies still trying to operate like covid still that big of an issue while trying to not lose money switching to EV. So the odd man out are the workers so they can save more money. No workers to work, no supplies. Hire more workers, pay them like they are supposed to be paid, and boom supply issues fixed.

Unfortunately we as consumers and people just accepted the covid thing too long ans we baby companies when they fuck up. So they kept using the covid excuse when really they just do not want to pay their workers.

Make no mistake, Ford is losing plenty of money by shutting down the plant, easily millions of dollars per day.

While they may not be paying the assembly line workers, they still have to pay bills to keep the utlities on, pay for any equipment/tooling they're leasing, pay taxes on the property, ensure the plant is secure, etc.

That said, I do agree that calling it a Supply Chain issue is a stretch at best. Even Ford themselves said the current shut down is due entirely to what they deem to be a quality/engineering issue, which is on Ford & not the supply base.

 

[Lastoutlaw_21]

Please read what @goodlettjr wrote.

These companies are not gonna stop production (i.e. stop their cash flow from paying customers) to save money not paying workers. That literally makes no sense.

The longer they halt production the longer they lose out on incoming cash flow. They are most likely trying as hard as possible to get rolling again.

You ever ran a business? Go to your job and ask them how they use to do stuff and how staff use to be. Companies biggest loss comes from paying workers. Why you think American companies go overseas . No taxes, they don't have to pay workers mandatory minimum wage, and deal with regulation. They can pay a worker there 20 cents, work them non stop until they die. Idk what rock you been under but if you don't have workers, you don't have supplies smh. Companies have been cutting workers all across America to save money and make money. You know how much it is to pay for wages, medical insurance, pensions and matching retirement rates? That shit is not cheap at all. So yes absolutely companies will cut workers to save money and then get tax breaks from the government for being at certain levels . How they do that is because they use our Tax money to fund them or bail them out.

Taxes going up, everything costs more to buy, and companies have not increased any money to their current paid workers. They will make 3 person job become a 1 person job and keep working. Once covid hit, it just gave them a huge excuse to to decrease cost and workers while staying at the same production. Going EV costs money, so cutting workers offsets it and in America, tax money will help them with costs.

 

[Lastoutlaw_21]

Make no mistake, Ford is losing plenty of money by shutting down the plant, easily millions of dollars per day.

While they may not be paying the assembly line workers, they still have to pay bills to keep the utlities on, pay for any equipment/tooling they're leasing, pay taxes on the property, ensure the plant is secure, etc.

That said, I do agree that calling it a Supply Chain issue is a stretch at best. Even Ford themselves said the current shut down is due entirely to what they deem to be a quality/engineering issue, which is on Ford & not the supply base.

Facts! I best they did not have enough staff in the department they should have that monitors and looks at some issues and stuff got over looked. They asked them to so too many jobs at one time there.

 

[goodlettjr]

You ever ran a business? Go to your job and ask them how they use to do stuff and how staff use to be. Companies biggest loss comes from paying workers. Why you think American companies go overseas . No taxes, they don't have to pay workers mandatory minimum wage, and deal with regulation. They can pay a worker there 20 cents, work them non stop until they die. Idk what rock you been under but if you don't have workers, you don't have supplies smh. Companies have been cutting workers all across America to save money and make money. You know how much it is to pay for wages, medical insurance, pensions and matching retirement rates? That shit is not cheap at all. So yes absolutely companies will cut workers to save money and then get tax breaks from the government for being at certain levels . How they do that is because they use our Tax money to fund them or bail them out.

Taxes going up, everything costs more to buy, and companies have not increased any money to their current paid workers. They will make 3 person job become a 1 person job and keep working. Once covid hit, it just gave them a huge excuse to to decrease cost and workers while staying at the same production. Going EV costs money, so cutting workers offsets it and in America, tax money will help them with costs.

I have a very different experience than the one you state. In my company, I run a business. I have 85 employees. I didn't cut anyone during Covid as a promised to our employees, nor did we reduce pay. In fact we gave 2 raises and raised our 401K match for all of my employees. One was a COLA and the other was a merit increase. With as third raise in Feb of this year. They don't have to come to us and ask. We did dig into expenses to be frugal with the companies money which is the right thing to do. Outside sales people couldn't take customers to lunch and we asked them to drive the speed limit and limit idle time. Almost all other expenses remained the same. I am sure there are companies that took things to the extreme, but the reality is if you aren't sacking money away for unknown things like this (thankful my company did) then you did what you had to do to maintain a company. things aren't "always" so bleak if you manage correctly with a purpose in both the good and the bad.

 

[Lastoutlaw_21]

I have a very different experience than the one you state. In my company, I run a business. I have 85 employees. I didn't cut anyone during Covid as a promised to our employees, nor did we reduce pay. In fact we gave 2 raises and raised our 401K match for all of my employees. One was a COLA and the other was a merit increase. With as third raise in Feb of this year. They don't have to come to us and ask. We did dig into expenses to be frugal with the companies money which is the right thing to do. Outside sales people couldn't take customers to lunch and we asked them to drive the speed limit and limit idle time. Almost all other expenses remained the same. I am sure there are companies that took things to the extreme, but the reality is if you aren't sacking money away for unknown things like this (thankful my company did) then you did what you had to do to maintain a company. things aren't "always" so bleak if you manage correctly with a purpose in both the good and the bad.

That's understandable. But if you are a Huge big mega company it's way different. For example I work for a hospital currently. Before covid were good for a min, we had nurses and doctors and help. During covid the hospital for a split second temporarily increased pay for a few months. Fast forward to now and we barely have nurses and doctors to cover the 600 plus patients in the hospital. They have forced us to work short staffed and even doctors are leaving. They have been cutting different benefits left and right to save cash bc they said that they overpaid staff during covid. And still blame covid for having to do stuff different. However we only get a raise when they do a "market adjustment" which is base off what the other hospitals in the surrounding areas pay their employees lol. Which was 1 dollar. However they have forced all forms of staff to leave because they refuse to increase pay that's competitive, cut alot of benefits, and help, increased workload for workers. They will hire a contract worker and pay them 2 to 3 times more that regular staff. And tell us that it's cheaper for them to do that because they do not have to pay them any benefits. However the hospitals in my state received billions of dollars from the government to help with stuff during covid and after covid and to give to their employees. Lol that money went straight to the administration's and that was it. Only reason us workers found out was because the news and internet are undefeated when it comes to digging up stuff. And exposed the hospitals and other big companies. So companies do cut staff, they get tax breaks if they stay at a certain level, and government funding. While increasing workload for current workers and under paying them. I'm not saying that all companies so this. But any company with over 1000 employees actually do it and blame covid for it. They not affected by the lack of staff, they will just cut corners and it seems like they lose money but they do just enough to not cost themselves long-term and where they get tax money. Only people affected are the consumers, workers, and patients.

 

[Q6543]

It’s as simple as…. Farley’s ass is on the hot seat.
1 more major F up and he knows he’s toast.
So just being a little more cautious.

 

[IPOGT]

They've been using the China-flu excuse for nearly 3 years now. Why is it that auto customers are supposed to be understanding, but there is no leniency for other markets? LOL At least this has been the case for my sector. If my customers had to wait with such unpromising timelines, we would lose our shirts.

The supply chain in the electronics sector (which all modern cars rely heavily on) is an absolute MESS right now and has been since covid. I cannot believe it’s been as bad as it has been, 8 months for parts and limited quantities compared to order quantities. Manufacturers are scrambling and competing on the open market for semiconductors for the available quantities to build products. I can’t believe why this hasn’t been reported in the news. It’s astounding. We had products that actually would be faster to redesign for other components ( that there would still be competition for) rather than wait for the current spec chipset. Sadly, this is reality. This is a true and honest unreported crisis.

 

[DevilDog]

Very impressive that they're going to update you at least once every 45 days. I signed up for "update" emails on the 2024 Mustang right around the time Ford started releasing info. I think I've received 2 emails in 6-7 months. All the info has been old news. Thank you so much, Ford.

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