Ford re-engineers its top brass

Ford Motor Co. is reorganizing its design and engineering centers in a move to make the company more global while speeding vehicle development.

By Plant Engineering Staff April 3, 2008

According to a Wall Street Journal report , Ford Motor Co . is reorganizing its design and engineering centers in a move to make the company more global while speeding vehicle development.

The company is reorganizing the top ranks of its product development and purchasing groups worldwide to cut costs, improve quality and accelerate the introduction of new cars and trucks.

As reported in The Detroit News , one of the main goals of the new structure is better collaboration. In the past, for example, different teams of engineers would develop the exhaust systems for each Ford vehicle. Those engineers would rarely talk to each other, and no effort was made to identify common solutions. The result was a complex parts bin that required a complicated supplier network to support.