Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is the world's largest producer of trucks, and the second
largest producer of cars and trucks combined. Ford has manufacturing, assembly
or sales affiliates in 34 countries and Ford companies employed 337,800 people
world-wide in 1996.
Ford has manufacturing facilities in 22 countries on 5 continents, with 87
plants in North America and 41 in Europe. In Europe, in 1995, Ford's combined
vehicle market share, at 12.2%, was the highest for eleven years, with three of
the eight best-selling cars. In 1995, in the United States, five of the ten top-
selling vehicles were Ford, including the best-selling car (Ford Taurus) and
best-selling truck (F-series).
On January 1, 1995, Ford merged its North American Automotive Operations and its
European Automotive Operations into a single organization, Ford Automotive
Operations. Instead of being organized by geographic regions, the Company is now
realigned by product line, with five Vehicle Centers, each responsible for one
group of products worldwide. At the same time, Ford is reducing the time taken
to develop a new vehicle from 48 to 24 months and reducing engines,
transmissions, and basic vehicle platforms by 30% worldwide. Ford hopes that by
pooling global skills and resources will result in more variations on each
vehicle platform, increasing the number of vehicles introduced over the next
five years by 50%.
One of the key strategies behind the realignment has been growth. Ford has
launched a variety of new initiatives throughout the world, with joint ventures
for the assembly of vehicles in countries as diverse as China, India, Thailand
and Vietnam. In China, Ford expects to begin production of light tru ...