I believe that Ford has always tried to improved the way we do business,
however, I have never seen (in my 20+ years at Ford) the effort that
management is taking to keep the employees informed of the changes that
are occurring now (what Ford calls "Ford 2000") and to ask for their comments
and suggestions. Information is being distributed by EMail, electronic
bulletin boards, newsletters, video, live TV presentations (distributed
worldwide via our internal communication network), and cascade meetings.
Management seems very interested in all hearing from all levels.
Employees at all levels are being asked to rethink the way they do their
jobs. North American Automotive Operations and European Operations
are now combined to become Ford Automotive Operations. The two groups are
working together at all levels to combine and/or improve the way things are
done. This is going to take a great deal of understanding of other cultures
in addition to the understanding of the processes themselves. I just want
to do my part (however small it may be) to make Ford the best auto company
worldwide.
In response to Sean Gawne message, simply because one part of the company has
created a model (such as the Lincoln project) doesn't mean that the rest of
the company knows about it. I only heard about the Lincoln project and
"The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook" a few weeks ago and have not as yet had a
chance to read the book (which is why I wanted to stay "lurking in the back-
ground" of this forum). The half-hour presentation that I attended peaked
my interest and that is why I joined this forum. In my personal opinion,
we have a long way to go to give employees the ability to find the
information that would be useful to them without overwhelming them with
information that they don't need.
Judy Shepard
Ford Motor Company
Dearborn, Michigan
****** The opinions expressed above are soley those of the writer **********
****** and are not necessarily those of Ford Motor Company **********
------------------------- Original Message Follows --------------------------
From: "Chas. A. Barclay" <BARCLAY@busadm.cba.hawaii.edu>
Organization: College of Business Administration
To: learning-org@world.std.com
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 1994 08:38:16 -1000
Subject: Ford & lurking
Judy Shepard don't stay lurking in the background!
To help you from your lurking tendencies could you answer why Ford's
teams and managers are just now asking you to look for ways to
eliminate steps and entire processes in the quest for reduced costs
and global competitiveness?
Why wasn't it done in 1990? or 1986? Or 1980-1 when you where losing
billions? hmmmmmm?
We really want to know, well I really want to know?
Charles Barclay 2404 Maile Way
Dept. of Mgmt & Ind Relations Honolulu, HI 96822
University of Hawaii Fax: 808 956-2774
barclay@busadm1.cba.hawaii.edu Phone: 808 956-8545
The Anita Hill--Clarence Thomas debate is NOT about sexual
harassment!
------------------------- End of Original Message ---------------------------