Back in August 2022, Ford CEO Jim Farley stated that the automaker’s ICE lineup was “too complex,” which is both confusing to customers and a financial drain on the company itself. Last April, Jim Baumbick – Ford’s vice president, product development operations and quality – added that the automaker planned to begin simplifying its lineup starting with the 2024 model year, and thus far, that’s exactly what it has done with the refreshed 2024 Ford F-150, not to mention the refreshed 2025 Ford Explorer and its counterpart, the 2025 Lincoln Aviator. However, FoMoCo won’t be alone in this mission, as its cross-town rival – General Motors – will also work on simplifying its lineup this year, according to GM Authority.
GM even has a fancy name for this new effort – “Winning With Simplicity” – which is expected to save it millions of dollars in expenses – upwards of $200 million in 2024 alone, in fact – via everything from streamlining design and engineering efforts to reducing manufacturing complexity to the number of vehicle configurations it offers customers.
“We are beginning to see savings from Winning with Simplicity, and all of our current and future programs have embraced this very important way of designing products,” GM CEO Mary Barry said during the automaker’s Q4 2023 earnings call with investors. “Each team is responsible for creating trim series that make vehicles easy to order, with the content customers want, and far fewer standalone options.”
“For example, we have eliminated over 1,000 selectable options across our current and near-term product programs, which is reducing hardware, software, ordering, and manufacturing complexity, and importantly, all the costs associated with them,” Barra added. “To be clear, we’re talking about $200 million of savings to execute the same product plan. These savings will grow over time as we apply the discipline to future products like our next-generation full-size pickups.”
We’ll have more on everything Ford’s competition is up to soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
I only own a 2016 Ford Flex , and stopped buying Lincolns . When I traded in a 2005 Lincoln Town Car Limited , I was through with Lincolns ! They are overpriced, pure quality, and not well assembled. The Ford Flex has beena dependable auto , well built in Canada, and rides well with many electronic features that were not on the Lincoln !
Good observation my friend!