Shar -
There are a large number of resources available for discussion of Ford
Motor's drive to increase productivity and reduce costs. It perhaps
was the most-vulnerable of U.S. automakers because Henry Ford's early
strategy had been to build the company's industrial base through
vertical integration. Ford in the early 1900's was trying to bring
new low-cost production technologies into the motor vehicle industry
and often Ford financed and developed the component technologies
itself. Thus, by the 1980s Ford alone (among U.S. manufacturers) had
its own steel plant at River Rouge - - but it was uncompetitive with
world steel producers.
Ford's strategic decisions were not the same as Chrysler and General
Motors, particularly because Ford has had a higher percentage of
non-U.S. sales (at least until the merger of Daimler with Chrysler).
But automakers for the past 30 years have been pushing for increases
in productivity and QUALITY because of international competitive
pressures.
This answer is an attempt to get you the best mix of economic,
financial and management data available. Several books are highly
recommended. They're so well-respected that you'll find summaries and
discussion of them online, should they be difficult to get from your
local library. I've listed them in PRIORITY order rather than
historical order, knowing that you want to concentrate on the 1990s.
Both Thurow and Keller's books have cost-comparisons that would allow
you to get a good picture of what's happened over the past 10 years:
"Collision: GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and the Race of the 21st Century,"
Maryann Keller, Doubleday, 1993
"Head to Head," Lester Thurow, William Morrow and Co., 1992
"Against all odds : the story of the Toyota Motor Corporation and the
family that created it," Yukiyasu Togo and William Wartman, St.
Martin's Press, 1993
"The Reckoning," David Halberstam, William Morrow and Co., 1986
Ford Motor's own financial reports are available online back to 1994
at the SEC Edgar database:
SEC Edgar
Ford Motor Filings (to June 3, 2003)
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000037996&owner=exclude
The annual report/form 10K includes detailed financial information, as
well as discussion of company strategy. These are probably best read
in historical order, as strategies from 1994 have their real financial
impact in 3-5 years. Not knowing how familiar you are with SEC
filings, a couple of notes:
1. the 10-K/annual report sounds as if it's the most-important for
what you're doing but there are more than 400 financial filings for
Ford Motor - and that doesn't include Ford Credit or other companies
2. Ford is really two companies: the one that produces cars and
financial services. Be careful in doing cost analyses that their
numbers are separated.
Here's the 1994 annual report, linked directly:
SEC Edgar Database
1994 Ford 10-K/Annual Report
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/37996/0000037996-94-000005.txt
Just today, the New York Times released the latest Harbour Report, an
annual analysis of the cost of auto production. (The New York Times
archives these stories after 3 days, so you may wish to print story
and accompanying charts ASAP):
New York Times
"U.S. Automakers Improve Efficiency, but Some Troubling Figures
Remain" (June 18, 2003)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/19/business/19AUTO.html
It shows that Nissan leads the productivity (measured man-hours to
build a car) but that Toyota, Honda and Nissan are still ahead or the
Big Three:
HOURS TO BUILD A VEHICLE
Nissan: 16.8
Toyota: 21.8
Honda: 22.3
General Motors : 24.4
Ford : 26.1
Daimler Chrysler: 28.0
Using the "Harbour Report" as a search term is particularly
productive, as many auto industry publications follow the statistics.
You'll find that Harbour & Associates tracks productivity of engine,
transmission and other components. Ford has spun off its component
activities in a company called Visteon, so these measures are
important to more than just the 3 auto assemblers:
Visteon Corp.
"Harbour Report Shows Where Automakers Can Improve Efficiency" (June
28, 2002)
http://www.visteon.com/newsroom/autoline/2002/062802.shtml
And you can also go to the source:
Harbour & Associates
Home Page
http://www.harbourinc.com/
Another excellent commentator on the state of the auto industry in its
drive for competitiveness with Japan is Michael Smitka, a Washington &
Lee economics professor who studies both Japanese industrial structure
and the auto industry. This presentation is a good overview of the
worldwide business:
"The Japanese Auto Industry" presentation by Michael Smitka, (July 20,
2000):
home.wlu.edu/~smitkam/2000-01research/alumni_talk.ppt
Again, using a Google search focusing on his commentary, you'll find
Ford often mentioned as a model for restructuring - even for Japanese
companies:
Japan Economic Institute
"Corporate Japan's Restructuring Efforts: A Progress Report" (May 19,
2000)
http://www.jei.org/Archive/JEIR00/0020f.html
A final excellent resource for business coverage of the auto industry
is the Detroit Free-Press website. Because of its location, the
newspaper covers Ford and other auto producers in detail. You'll
probably find excellent comments and reaction - particularly to
reports like the Harbour & Associates cost analysis from Tom Walsh,
their excellent business columnist, and other news stories:
Detroit Free-Press
Auto.com
http://www.freep.com/index/autos.htm
And here are some specific articles that may help:
Motor Trend
"CEO Says Ford Slashes Expenses by $500M" (Associated Press, June 17,
2003)
http://www.motortrend.com/features/news/112_news43/
MSNBC
"Ford Bets the Farm on New Pick-up" (June 10, 2003)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/924848.asp
As background information on the development of the auto industry, see
these Google Answers:
"Marketing" (Omnivorous-GA)
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=96612
The Google search strategy involved searches on Google Answers for
Ford and "Ford Motor" because quite a number of questions have already
been posted here on analyses of the auto industry.
Also, searching in Google you can use:
"Ford Motor" + productivity
"Harbour Report"
""Michael Smitka" + Washington & Lee + Ford
"Maryann Keller" + Ford
"Ford Motor" + costs + Jaguar is also an interesting search strategy
because when Ford acquired the U.K. car maker, it was well-known in
the auto industry that there was a huge opportunity for cost-reduction
at Jaguar
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
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