Ford Reconsiders Product Deliveries After Quality Issues

Here comes a time when apologies aren’t enough, and for Ford that time has come.

The automaker is reconsidering its launch strategy after issues with vehicles including the fresh Ford Escape required early recalls and quality-related delays hurt the Lincoln MKZ start schedule.

On the customer side, Lincoln was left trying to calm disappointed buyers with pre-orders in place for the fresh MKZ sedan including suggesting $100 dinner gift cards.

“We’ve made a detailed analysis,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford Head of the Americas, informed Carsbase, “on lessons learned in the last few years, including the recent MKZ start, and are now incorporating a lot of changes in our development and new-car start process.”

While the changes will influence dealers more directly than buyers, the end result will perhaps translate to an upgraded client experience.

Talking about changes, Ford informs it will conduct monthly start reviews featuring quality comparisons against competing cars. The brand is also hiring engineers and assigning them to supplier factories to keep track of them and control their ability to keep pace with model launches. At last, technology featuring 3D computer simulations will be used more to find potential issues earlier.

Ford’s ambitious start schedule crowded the market, and while the fresh product array is helping to increase sales figures, it overflowed production.

“We’ve gone through several rising issues getting these new processes and factories started, and we’ve learned a lot from that,” Hinrichs informed.