OPPapers.com

Ford Case Study

The main points of the case study are:-

. Ford Motor Co. has continuously been number 2 to General Motors Corp.
in the automotive industry.

. Ford's CEO in 1999, Jacques Nasser tried to push IT in the automotive
industry, but failed at most of the attempts, causing a major loss to
the company.

. Nasser introduced cars high in technology, looking to make more money
on service fees.

. Nasser also created the Wingcast telematics unit, allowing users to
utilize their cars as internet portals.

. He formed Covisint (a B2B auction site), trying to sell custom-built
cars directly to consumers.

. Nasser also began forming ventures with different high-tech companies,
such as Yahoo and Qualcomm Inc., to give workers the opportunity to
each have a computer.

. In 2002, Ford lost $1,913 per vehicle and its stocks dropped by 1.8%.,
leaving them at $9 a share.

. Ford's new CIO Marv Adams plans to cut a total of $450 million from
the IT budget.

. Adams created Project Edison, meant to standardize all IT processes
and consolidate all servers in larger servers.

. The goal is to cut production cost by $700 per vehicle, using a "Back
to Basics" strategy.

. Adams created Project Renaissance, increasing Ford's insourcing (from
30% to 70%) thus having more skilled IT workers within the company and
not having to rely on outside companies which are more expensive.

. Also created was Project Rigorous Execution, which uses bar-coding,
sensors and software to track the progress of a vehicle's assembly and
is aimed at improving product quality.

. Information from other sources - warranty, quality system, problem and
call centre information, is also being used to keep check on completed
vehicles, reducing the number of vehicle recalls.

. Collaboration technology can cut costs in product development by
reducing the number of prototypes required before a vehicle is
approved.

. Adams also wants...