Ford quality has certainly seemed to suffer in recent months as the automaker has issued a number of recalls, including one for select 2020-2022 Ford Escape, Lincoln Corsair, and 2022 Ford Maverick hybrid and plug-in hybrid models over a crankshaft machining problem that can lead to engine failures and fires, as well as 2021 Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator for under hood fires, too. This phenomenon is nothing new, as Ford quality has suffered quite a bit over the past few years, a problem that CEO Jim Farley has addressed on numerous occasions. However, Ford’s new executive director of quality, Josh Halliburton, believes that these problems will begin to subside as early as next year, as he recently explained to The Detroit News.
“In terms of the prevention activities, we are doing work upstream with engineering to improve our understanding of how customers use their vehicles and the things that could go wrong, Halliburton explained. “And we’re making sure that our engineering sign-offs are more robust around those use cases so that the products have less likelihood to fail, which is, I think, very critical to how we move forward in terms of our designs.”
Halliburton is also working on cultural changes within The Blue Oval by getting development teams to work together and communicate, as well as raising their hand and speaking out when something’s wrong. “Historically, we’ve been very celebratory of people who resolve the issues, but the reaction is too late,” he said. Additionally, Halliburton wants to measure Ford’s quality against its rivals instead of only itself, provide clarity in terms of what teams are responsible for which quality targets, and make quality a big part of the company’s culture once again. The automaker is also using tools like data analytics and over-the-air software capabilities to identify and fix problems more quickly.
Ultimately, Halliburton feels that these changes will begin to make a difference in the next year or so, though product development improvements may take longer to arrive. In the meantime, Ford actually ranked above average in J.D. Power’s 2022 Initial Quality Study, though all automakers suffered more problems than in the previous study. Regardless, making changes such as paying dealer technicians to submit photos of issues and naming quality as a central focus of the automaker’s new reorganization plan aim to have a positive impact moving forward.
We’ll have more on Ford’s efforts to improve quality soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
WTF does mean quality issues should go away in 2023? Does this guy have any clue as to how much this will cost Ford? I doubt it and I doubt it will be gone in 2023. It’s just a way of life at Ford!
It means, my stock options don’t kick in until 2023 so I need to stay employed until then.
This time they mean it huh? I doubt they would ever say that they promise quality will get worse. Only time will tell for sure whether they are serious.
Now there is a Class Action law suit over a recall that doesn’t totally fix the recall! Sounds like Ford doesn’t know what the fix is or how to fix the problem!
Nor how to prevent those problems in the first place. Some people at FORD aren’t doing their job and leadership is looking the other way. …at FORD quality is…what’s that?
It should be obvious since they are building lousy cars and trucks. Something was being disregarded.
If people hold off commenting until FORD does something about their problems, judgement day may take place. These problems should not be happening in the first place.
Figure of speech to illustrate how long it could take for FORD to get things right again.
If Ford wish to be a better company and to gain peoples trust, there is no other way to do it other than standing 100% behind their customers and offering longer warranties like Hyundai and Kia offers. That has helped both brands to be such a success. Ford also need to consider better designs especially interior designs especially with their SUV lineup. The Explorer and Escape suffers a lot from bland interiors.
Too little too late for me. I have lost confidence in Ford products, therefore my next vehicle ( within the next year ) will not be a Ford.
I switched to Toyota in 2016 after buying Ford’s exclusively for 30+ years.
135,000 miles now and nothing more than brakes, tires, and oil changes.
The last two Fords I had both needed transmissions before 80,000 miles.
I left and I’m NEVER going back
Farley seems to be putting a lot of faith in Over The Air Updates as a way to improve quality and makes repairs seamless to the customer. Tell that to the Mach E owners right now.
Changing the culture from top to bottom is the key. I recently toured an F-150 factory and during a production break the workers used the hood of a truck on the assembly line as their kitchen table, with bags and bottles clearly perched there. No respect for the machine or the customer or the company.
I also recall reading how, when developing the Explorer, nobody was willing to volunteer to management that there were problems.
Top to bottom, bottom to top.
I like the plan to move quality controls up stream, or much earlier in the build. It is the best and perhaps only way to avoid hearing about issues once in the customers hands. Ford seems to be tackling the issues of quality control in a much more integrated fashion that finds, fixes things before they are sold. I still find Ford/Lincoln paint quality very poor. Touch points and small part fitments are still lacking the quality found in some competitors… And, if they don’t soon build a performance sedan I will be gone as a long time customer.
Sounds like a typical top management publicity ploy. If they really think this will work then they have absolutely no idea what it takes to build a top quality, reliable product. It goes so much deeper. Honda and Toyota are two corporations who understand what it takes to be a leader in the field. It starts at the top. I didn’t realize it myself until we became a supplier to Honda. Made a believer out of me. My last four cars have been Honda’s!
In 2021 I was seriously considering purchasing a new F 150. I never purchase a ” next gen” vehicle the first year they come out. I take a wait and see approach because usually they have a few issues. Glad I waited after seeing all the recalls and didn’t pull the trigger on a 2021. I decided to wait until the new 2022 F 150’s came out and see if Ford had addressed the issues and the recalls would be minimal. Sadly this wasn’t the case. Business as usually at Ford. Sell it as is and then make the costumer bring the vehicle in to have it repaired. Now, I have no choice but to wait until the 2023’s come out. I’ll wait for the reviews and see if there any recalls or problems. I don’t expect a perfect flawless vehicle, but the 2021-2022 F 150……Come on Ford! I know you can do better that.