FORD is to close down its Australian car-making operations until next Wednesday

[csv8]

Ford to close plants

From: AAP April 26, 2012 2:22PM

FORD is to close down its Australian car-making operations until next Wednesday, a company spokeswoman said.

The company has made the decision in response to the failure of parts manufacturer CMI Industrial.

Ford spokeswoman Sinead Phipps said production would cease from the close of business today.

Thats not good news..what if the supplier cann't start supplying parts ???????
Lets hope Ford don't use this as an excuse to kill Falcon......

[Black F6]

They will just get new supplier, its only a minor setback, people will still get paid, i just dont know why they didnt get another supplier by now, if i cant get something from one person you go see the next person who has it

[EFFalcon]

Originally Posted by Black F6

They will just get new supplier, its only a minor setback, people will still get paid, i just dont know why they didnt get another supplier by now, if i cant get something from one person you go see the next person who has it

if they're custom components then no, no one else has it.
lead time is involved for tooling etc.

[BLUEYBA]

Originally Posted by EFFalcon

if they're custom components then no, no one else has it.
lead time is involved for tooling etc.

I think i read or heard that there is a company in New Zealand that can provide the product needed.

[SteveJH]

Originally Posted by BLUEYBA

I think i read or heard that there is a company in New Zealand that can provide the product needed.

Transport would be interesting though.

Shipments (at least initially) would need to be flown in, which adds considerable cost.

Does the New Zealand company have enough *free* production capacity to do the job? No point giving them a contract if they can only produce small numbers of units.

[HUNTER8]

Originally Posted by BLUEYBA

I think i read or heard that there is a company in New Zealand that can provide the product needed.

Funny about that.......
If you go to the CMI Industrial website you see it's not a smallish operation.
http://www.cmiindustrial.com.au/locations.html

[DJL351]

Originally Posted by Black F6

They will just get new supplier, its only a minor setback, people will still get paid, i just dont know why they didnt get another supplier by now, if i cant get something from one person you go see the next person who has it

So other than ZF - who makes the ZF gearbox?

Yes, people will be getting paid - assuming they have leave to cover the shutdown; if they don't.... well then they'll be hurting.

[SteveJH]

Originally Posted by DJL351

So other than ZF - who makes the ZF gearbox?

Yes, people will be getting paid - assuming they have leave to cover the shutdown; if they don't.... well then they'll be hurting.

1) Ford US manufacture a licensed build version of the ZF 6 speed gear box, this box is used in the diesel Territory and the Ecoboost falcon I believe.

2) If they are permanent employee's (not casual) and cannot work due to a fault of the company, as far as I am aware they still get paid?

[DJL351]

Originally Posted by SteveJH

1) Ford US manufacture a licensed build version of the ZF 6 speed gear box, this box is used in the diesel Territory and the Ecoboost falcon I believe.

It was in relation to the silly 'just find someone else' response.

Originally Posted by SteveJH

2) If they are permanent employee's (not casual) and cannot work due to a fault of the company, as far as I am aware they still get paid?

http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/...-1226338962233

Originally Posted by PerthNow

The company's Broadmeadows and Geelong factories already had a scheduled day off for Monday, and would bring workers' leave entitlements forward to ensure they were paid if the temporary stand-downs did occur.

[Road_Warrior]

I wonder what costs would be involved for Ford to assume control of the parts factory and start making those parts itself...and then spin the operation off on its own for sale as a going concern once it was trading profitably.

[greens_tuf]

You've gotta love the news headlines

"Ford shuts plant, workers stood down. FORD is to close its Australian car-making operations until Wednesday, with almost 2000 workers to be stood down."

Without reading the article, I thought Ford was closing its AUS operations LOL. That's really gonna help sales!

[Road_Warrior]

Well - one positive that can be drawn from this is a week of no production means the dealer and paddock stock of cars can be whittled down a bit.

[nstg8a]

im sure i read in one of the earlier articles that stood down employees will be paid 50% of their normal pay.

[Road_Warrior]

Here's an idea. Ford assumes all of CMI's debt and employee responsibilities, in exchange for all of CMI's tooling, materials and assets (apart from rented assets like the factory). The premises is handed back to the landlord (now that Ford has dealt with the outstanding rent) and Ford relocates all of the tooling, materials and workers to the Geelong plant and starts making all of the parts CMI used to make, itself. This should 1) give Ford a stable, more accessable supply of these parts 2) reduce overall costs and 3) give the Geelong plant an extra avenue to keep its plant ticking over and people in work for when production of the I6 starts to be wound back.

The way I'm seeing it, is that there are too many "middle man" suppliers. CMI makes the suspension arms, which are then sold to DANA, who fit them to suspension modules which are then sold to Ford. Surely they can make do without that extra supplier in the process adding costs to the price of parts and therefore the overall cost at the end ?? Or make it so DANA instead of Ford assumes the debt and employees but makes all the compoments, either way, there needs to be some sort of reduction in the amount of processes here. The car makers used to make all of this crap themselves but spun it all off in the 1990's and 2000's citing cost and efficiency dividends, but it seems to me that the wheel could turn full circle and the car makers could be forced into making their own parts again.

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Here's an idea. Ford assumes all of CMI's debt and employee responsibilities, in exchange for all of CMI's tooling, materials and assets (apart from rented assets like the factory)......

That's stupid, just buy the stuff you WANT off the administrator (stock and tooling) and let them sort out all the debt, liabilities and shut down the company.

[Cam]

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

That's stupid, just buy the stuff you WANT off the administrator (stock and tooling) and let them sort out all the debt, liabilities and shut down the company.

Aren't FoA still keeping ACL afloat after they went into administration 3(?) years ago? Pretty sure Ford will (or have?) end up buying ACL..

[JG34JA]

Hey thanks to all who explained how JIT helps a business to me. And to the example of offsourcing a part of a business for negligible cost benefit with inferior quality being the result (Big Damo's), I sympathise.

I have a question: how does JIT work in an environment when that which was considered reliable, becomes less so? Are there contingencies for this?

The reason I ask is considering the effects in the home of JIT, of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and nuclear disaster. It should be obvious that the entire supply chain was disrupted (and would have been if all production was in-house anyway, I admit.) If certain suppliers are located in devastated regions, does this mean the entire manufacturing complex gets taken down?

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

The issue I have with treating floor staff like crap is that if you demoralise them, they end up with IDGAF attitude towards everything, and pretty much just turn up for the pay check. If you treat them well, it might cost you a few BBQs and some meetings telling everyone you appreciate what they do, but they tend to have a better attitude towards work and you end up with a better product.

We used to be well treated and were always kept informed of what was happening around the place. We're just mushrooms now. The only way be found out info about the CMI situation was to listen to the radio or watch the news on TV. They only told us what was happening an hour or so before the end of shift on Thursday that we wouldn't need to come back till Wednesday. Poor communication.

Originally Posted by Cam

Aren't FoA still keeping ACL afloat after they went into administration 3(?) years ago? Pretty sure Ford will (or have?) end up buying ACL..

They had to give a few million to ACL to keep them afloat, but they didn't or aren't buying into them.

[Archilino]

A union rep just said on channel 10 news that Ford could've stopped this if it wanted to (re closure of plant until wednesday). Is he insinuating they should've paid the rent or found the part elsewhere?

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by Archilino

A union rep just said on channel 10 news that Ford could've stopped this if it wanted to (re closure of plant until wednesday). Is he insinuating they should've paid the rent or found the part elsewhere?

union reps will always say management could have done better, regardless of the actual costs or ramifications of 'better' options.

as said, its only a few days, and easily made up by swapping round the down days.

[Stefan]

Latest article all seem to mention ford is in dispute with the supplier, I dare say Ford has not paid it's bills for some reason or another which has obviously dented cash-flow sending the company into receivership.

I dare say Ford has initiated this in some way or another.

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Latest article all seem to mention ford is in dispute with the supplier, I dare say Ford has not paid it's bills for some reason or another which has obviously dented cash-flow sending the company into receivership.

I dare say Ford has initiated this in some way or another.

Please have some sort of facts before you say things like that!!!!

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Latest article all seem to mention ford is in dispute with the supplier, I dare say Ford has not paid it's bills for some reason or another which has obviously dented cash-flow sending the company into receivership.

I dare say Ford has initiated this in some way or another.

Rubbish !

Manufacturing in this country is struggling, especially component suppliers to the Automotive industry due to reduced volume from the 3 local Automotive manufacturer's.

Ford Australia is profitable and pay's it's bills as required.

I dare say you don't know what you're talking about

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by Barraxr8

Rubbish !

Manufacturing in this country is struggling, especially component suppliers to the Automotive industry due to reduced volume from the 3 local Automotive manufacturer's.

Ford Australia is profitable and pay's it's bills as required.

I dare say you don't know what you're talking about

Really? This is not Ma and Pa Kettle or Barra XR8 buying a rotten apple at Wollies.

CMI supply suspension parts for Territories, these are currently under recall for ball joints. I'm certain supply contracts would contain damages clauses, ie in the event of a recall the rectification costs can be passed on to the supplier like CMI. This would be enough to with hold payment until rectification or at least the "dispute" is complete.

Might be a coincidence but I doubt it.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Barraxr8

Rubbish !

Manufacturing in this country is struggling, especially component suppliers to the Automotive industry due to reduced volume from the 3 local Automotive manufacturer's.

Ford Australia is profitable and pay's it's bills as required.

I dare say you don't know what you're talking about

We had a meeting this morning, a quite serious one saying we're on our way to losing our contracts to our competitor, because they're putting out a better quality product, and our client is sick of our quality issues.

It all started when we sacked our fabricating business and started getting furniture from China, we spend lots of time re-working it, its making the whole vehicle build take much longer, the car is coming out crappier, we're taking short cuts here and there to save time, cheaping out on the little things, for example its taking our reverse camera monitor, 10 seconds to come on when you select reverse because we opted for the cheapest model and they didn't like that.

The doors on the cabinets have massive gaps in them because they arent made properly, they rattle when you drive, there are 4 or 5 different shades of white on the furniture inside the vehicle and their powercoating is crap.

We've lost 50% of the contract to our competitor, who are delivering MUCH better quality vehicles and they manufacture all their furniture here in Australia, they actually support the little manufacturing workshops etc.

We're in manufacturing, which is basically the Titanic here in Victoria and instead of supporting Australians who are also in the manufacturing industry, we're supporting the Chinese who are sending us a crap product, which in the end cost us a lot of business. It would have been cheaper to be supporting our own people, even if it did cost more for labour and materials, because we'd still have the majority of not all of the contract.

We spend more time re-working crap from China, which would have been alright in the first place if we made it here. In the end it still looks like *** anyways.

Death by KPI, cheap out on everything, looks great on paper, unfortunately its backfired big time and they're playing the blame game now.

If we lose the contract, its game over for us in Victoria, might see us on the news too.

[superroo]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Here's an idea. Ford assumes all of CMI's debt and employee responsibilities, in exchange for all of CMI's tooling, materials and assets

Slight problem with that. Ford should already own the tooling.

Originally Posted by Stefan

Latest article all seem to mention ford is in dispute with the supplier, I dare say Ford has not paid it's bills for some reason or another which has obviously dented cash-flow sending the company into receivership.

I dare say Ford has initiated this in some way or another.

This is very close to home to what happens throughout the entire auto industry of late. Any excuses from the big guys to not pay invoices, and they are on to it.

Cheers

[Joe5619]

This topic is a repost...


As been said in the other topic, there is so many down days schedule over the next 2 months that these will mean NOTHING to Ford.. Other planned down days will just be cancell to replace these ones.. It is a tea cup in a storm, or what ever the saying is!!

[Jim Goose]

ahh there is thread on this already...

[Polyal]

JIT...awesome! Cant even last what 2-3 days of production if one supplier cracks it?

[JG34JA]

Isn't JIT the philosophical antithesis of Henry Ford's vertical integration of all of his manufacturing? River Rouge comes to mind.