A Comparison

How a Honda Employee bakes a potato:
>Preheat new, high quality oven to 350 degrees
>Insert a 1.0 lb. Idaho potato
>Go do something productive for 45 minutes
>Check for doneness
>Remove perfectly baked potato and serve


How a Ford Employee bakes a potato:
>Conduct market test with suppliers in Brazil, Mexico and Turkistan to supply .75 lb potato
>Choose lowest cost supplier with best Red Wing tickets
>Change to incumbent supplier of Idaho potatoes, insist they meet Turkistan pricing with 3% annual price reductions
>Upgrade to 1.0 lb potato, insist supplier erred pricing for .75 lbs as instructed when he knows Honda uses 1.0 lb potatoes
>Instruct supplier to turn oven on to 350 F and demand that the supplier show you how he turned the dial to 350 F. Have him come up with documentation from the oven manufacturer to ensure it has been properly calibrated.
>Review documentation and then have supplier check the temperature using a sophisticated temperature probe.
>Direct supplier to insert potato and set timer to 45 minutes
>Have supplier open oven to ensure that potato has been inserted properly and request a free study proving that 45 minutes is the ideal time to bake a potato in this type of oven at this temperature
>Request a Six Sigma study showing variable cook times for various potato sizes and orientations.
>Check potato for doneness after 10 minutes
>Check potato for doneness after 12 minutes
>Check potato for doneness after 14 minutes
>Become impatient with supplier (why is this damn potato taking so long to bake!?!)
>Demand status reports every two minutes
>Conduct value engineering and new market test
>Change to a .9 lb potato because customers will only notice if potato weight is reduced to .85 lbs.
>Check potato for doneness after 15 minutes
>After 35 minutes, conclude that the potato is nearing completion
>Pass through Gateway review reporting all green status
>Congratulate supplier then update your boss on all the great work you have done despite having to work with an uncooperative supplier
>Remove potato from oven at 40 minutes as a cost save without loss of function or quality vs. the original 45 minute bake time
>Serve potato
>Wonder out loud just what it is that those Japanese folks are doing over there to make such good, low-cost baked potatoes that people seem to like better than Ford potatoes.

 

There is a lot more truth there than first meets the eye

 

5 letters vs 4
prounounced differently
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While I'm not really sure how true this is with regard to Ford culture. I do find this rather amusing.

 

While it is in jest, it was sent to me by someone in high middle management at Ford who probably would saddly agree with Palmateer. If anyone saw last Sunday's show on Autoline Detroit, you know it doesn't just apply to Ford -- it applies to what was called the big 3 at one time.

 

heheh. I've worked with engineers from both companies quite a bit. I'd say this is pretty much true of the two cultures.

Someone mentioned earlier that Ford always chooses the cheapest part from their suppliers. I'd say this is defintely not true for Ford, but is true for Chrysler. They are always saying "can't you make it cheaper?". Ford, OTOH, always wants lots of meaningless tests and data in their material specs. Every single product had to be fingerprinted nine ways to sunday to fully characterize the product. I once just about burst out laughing when one of their engineers asked for a stereoscopic SEM image of one of our drivetrain products (did it), then asked if I could give it to him IN COLOR.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by snoopy
[B]I once just about burst out laughing when one of their engineers asked for a stereoscopic SEM image of one of our drivetrain products (did it), then asked if I could give it to him IN COLOR.