Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant Mistakes

A Ford quality control inspector at the Dearborn (Mustang) Assembly Plant found that their supplier mixed 180 control arms with obsolete bushings installed in them on the same pallet with control arms incorporating the newer design bushings.

Sometime during the year, Ford decided to use a more durable bushing in the design of the control arms offering a better resistance to wear.

At least 65 Mustangs had already been built before the problem was noticed. The control arms were NOT defective; however, Ford had upgraded the bushings for better durability.

None of the Mustangs assembled with the outdated control arm bushings left the asembly plant - all of the Mustangs produced with the incorrect bushings were taken apart while inside the assembly plant and replaced with the newer bushing design.

Realistically, Ford could have simply allowed the 65 Mustangs to leave the plant; however, since the specification of that certain part had been altered by Ford, Ford itself decided to absorb that cost insuring that each Mustang would leave the plant with a Q1 rating. . . .finding its way to an ever loving Mustang owner.

My Mustang is rare. It was a plant goof up!

Suppose you purchased a 1999 Mustang Cobra and found that the front right side of the car had GT brakes while the left side had the correct Cobra brakes. What would you think about your purchase? You would most likely wonder if the rest of your Cobra was built in the same manner. It creates second thoughts about your loyalty to Ford as a consumer - having second thoughts about your purchase produces those kinds of thoughts and emotions.

A customer recently contacted Ford Motor Company in which that very senario actually happend. That customer wrote Ford: "received a 99 Cobra that is scheduled to be a Bondurant build that had a GT brake package on the right front. The left front is the Cobra package. The vehicle was prepped by DAP (Dearborn Aseembly Plant) and WHQ prior to shipment. . ."

Ford corrected the customer's problem and sent a letter to the Dearborn Assembly Plant. Here are some of the comments from that letter to the Dearborn Assembly Plant:

"This is not what we want to send our customers, this is not good PR (public relations) and worse we can NEVER explain why this vehicle left our plant. We need to review all of our processes that permitted this vehicle to escape and redesign those systems to preclude such a vehicle ever getting out of CHASSIS, PREDELIVERY, YARD, etc. Winners take action and ask why not? Losers take no action and wonder why! Be a winner.

MAIL IT TO FORD

If you have ever mailed Ford a letter and wonder what happens to it - you can stop wondering. Ford does forward them to the PVT (project vehicle team) for evalution. We've seen various letters from Mustang owners reporting problems, making suggestions or offering general comments about what they would like to see changed in the next Mustang. So don't be too afraid to fire of a letter to the people who design the world's most loved sports car.

BlueOvalNews.com