Ford 2003 Annual Report Download - page 5

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2003 ANNUAL REPORT 3
We are calling 2004 the “Year of the Car” because
most of the new products we are introducing in
North America this year are cars. That includes
the 2005 Ford Focus, Five Hundred, Freestyle,
GT and Mustang, as well as the Mercury Montego.
Adding these new cars to our best-selling lineup
of sport utility vehicles and trucks will give us a
strong and balanced competitive lineup in our
most important market.
Great products by themselves are not enough
to ensure success in today’s fiercely competitive
automotive market. A business structure and
processes that maximize operational quality and
efficiency are essential. From the beginning our
plans have focused on making fundamental and
far-reaching improvements in these areas. As
with our new products, we have begun to see
solid results from our efforts.
Consumer Driven 6-Sigma, our quality improvement
and waste elimination methodology, has had an
increasingly dramatic impact on our operations.
Since its inception we’ve completed more than
9,500 projects that have saved us $1.7 billion
worldwide, including $731 million in 2003. In
addition, we attribute about half of our current-
model quality improvement to Consumer Driven
6-Sigma projects.
Team Value Management (TVM), a process that
brings together cross-functional teams to improve
value and quality, was implemented in North
America and across all our business units during
2003. Working collaboratively with our supply
base, we assessed the gaps between actual
and industry benchmark costs and, with
supplier support, achieved record total
material cost reductions.
The transformation of our assembly plants
into lean and flexible centers of manufacturing
excellence also is gaining momentum. Our new
next-generation flexible manufacturing system
standardizes operations, allows multiple models
to be built on the same assembly line and enables
Ford Chairman and CEO Bill Ford introduces the 2005 Mustang to the media at the 2004 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
EDITORIALpg1_7 3/26/04 9:45 AM Page 3