Ford Motor Company :: Business Management Marketing Essays

track Motor follow is the worlds largest producer of trucks, and the secondlargest producer of railway cars and trucks combined. cut across has manufacturing, assemblyor sales affiliates in 34 countries and crossover companies employed 337,800 peopleworld-wide in 1996. crosswalk has manufacturing facilities in 22 countries on 5 continents, with 87 plant lifes in northmost America and 41 in Europe. In Europe, in 1995, fordings combined vehicle market share, at 12.2%, was the highest for eleven years, with three ofthe eight best-selling cars. In 1995, in the United States, quintuplet of the ten top-selling vehicles were Ford, including the best-selling car (Ford Taurus) andbest-selling truck (F-series).On January 1, 1995, Ford merged its North American Automotive Operations and itsEuropean Automotive Operations into a one organization, Ford AutomotiveOperations. Instead of being organized by geographical regions, the Company is nowrealigned by product line, with five Vehicle Centers, apiece responsible for onegroup of products worldwide. At the same time, Ford is reducing the time takento develop a recent vehicle from 48 to 24 months and reducing engines,transmissions, and basic vehicle platforms by 30% worldwide. Ford hopes that bypooling global skills and resources will result in more variations on eachvehicle platform, increasing the number of vehicles introduced over the nextfive years by 50%.One of the key strategies behind the realignment has been growth. Ford haslaunched a variety of new initiatives throughout the world, with juncture venturesfor the assembly of vehicles in countries as diverse as China, India, Thailandand Vietnam. In China, Ford expects to begin takings of light trucks with acompany named Jiangling Motors in the near future. In India, Mahindra Ford IndiaLtd. will begin manufacture and distribution of Ford products, beginning withthe Ford Escort, in mid-1996 and Fiesta in 1998. In Thailand, Ford has a fitventure to produce pick-up trucks and in Vietnam, Ford plans to build a vehicleassembly plant at Hanoi, together with partners Song Cong Diesel. In Poland, thePlonsk plant has begun to build Escorts and Transits.Joint ventures are establishing a presence for Ford only over the globe. Ford isworking with two companies in Korea, one to picture automotive air conditioningunits and the second as a new joint venture to produce electronic componentslater this year. In amplification to the 20% of Jiangling Motors, China, acquired byFord in 1995, four further manufacturing joint ventures in China have been setup to produce radiators, glass, credit card and electronic components. Ford has alsoacquired a 45% equity in South African company, Samcor, for the assembly of Ford