Ford Says It Takes 25% More Engineers to Do The Same Work As Rivals.

[MustangMac67]

https://www.carscoops.com/2023/02/f...more-engineers-to-do-the-same-work-as-rivals/

This could explain some of the inefficiencies we have seen in the past few years.

Any thoughts?

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[Nightmonkey]

Let's face it, such problems are always down to the businessmen and managers who don't listen to the engineers they later blame.

 

[lcbrownz]

Whoever made that statement is adding "the EV division" into their current numbers of ICE engineers.

 

[DeluxeStang]

While such news doesn't surprise me too much, I don't believe the answer is to layoff thousands of engineers. The last thing you want to do is overwork your employees and stretch them thin. That never leads to anything good.

 

[shogun32]

The guaranteed way to make a late project be later and fail is to put more resources against it.

 

[lcbrownz]

The guaranteed way to make a late project be later and fail is to put more resources against it.

It happens all of the time in U.S. Government R&D projects when they are only funded by annual appropriations (and they can't spend past September 30th).

 

[Tinpot]

The cull has begun.
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/1-300-jobs-to-go-at-ford-in-the-uk-12810610

 

[lcbrownz]

They need to cut back on the Ford family members in supervisory positions.

 

[Ace]

https://www.carscoops.com/2023/02/f...more-engineers-to-do-the-same-work-as-rivals/

This could explain some of the inefficiencies we have seen in the past few years.

Any thoughts?

Just look at the S650, it's obvious the car came together after many many shifts on what the car will actually be. How could they not decide to go all in for the last big ICE Mustang? Some bean counters calculated and calculated what the engineers should do and they ended up with a more or less a 2nd refresh. I love the styling of the S650, but everything under got me worried we can't expect any big performance improvements

 

[IPOGT]

Let's face it, such problems are always down to the businessmen and managers who don't listen to the engineers they later blame.

A lot of times the engineers don’t listen to the field technicians either….but I digress.

 

[17Magnetic5.0]

It’s gotta come down to inefficiency and pay. Maybe the rivals have better engineers because they are paid better or do a better job at training and recruiting. I know for sure the reason Ford isn’t meeting its goals isn’t because of a few more engineers or even the materials they use in their cars as they’re not the best so in my opinion it has to be upper management.

 

[lcbrownz]

The article doesn't say the job cuts are just in North America or worldwide. Ford UK just laid off a bunch of folks because they quit manufacturing the Euro-spec Fiesta in Essex.

 

[Nightmonkey]

A lot of times the engineers don’t listen to the field technicians either….but I digress.

This happens especially when the engineer has not been in a field job and done hands-on work.
In extreme cases, we called such engineers best-paid apprentices.
I had to deal with this in an industrial environment during my time as a field technician before becoming an engineer myself.

 

[lcbrownz]

This happens especially when the engineer has not been in a field job and done hands-on work.
In extreme cases, we called such engineers best-paid apprentices.
I had to deal with this in an industrial environment during my time as a field technician before becoming an engineer myself.

I agree with you. Design engineers never work in the field or visit dealership repair shops. The Ford Probe was a case of bad engineering for the sake of budget constraints. It was built around a Mazda G platform.

 

[shogun32]

No design engineer should be allowed to design anything without no less than 6 months of hands-on line maintenance first with existing product, and 3 months "refresher" every 2 years. And they also get to be the first to wrangle their own creations on the line.

CAD was the "worst" invention of all time for engineering. When my mechanic tells me he had to drop the entire rear subframe, the drive shaft and exhaust just to change the rear sway bar bushings, you know you're looking at a German engineer's handiwork.

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