Introduction
The Ford Motor Company is one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world, and as a result, it commands a large portion of the financial pie in the automotive sector (Ford Motor Company, 2015). The purpose for this particular investigation will be to look into the quality management of the company as a whole. All companies have strengths and weaknesses associated with their various business models and Ford, although a well established and stable company with many assets, is no exception to this rule regarding room for improvements within the company (Mubarak Al-Mubaraki & Busler, 2010). This discussion will present a SWOT analysis for the Ford Motor Company, and will then elucidate on the issues within the company and determine the major problems facing the Ford Motor Company as an institution and company domestically and internationally.
Description of the Problem
Focus
The focus of this particular study will be on the development of a coherent plan for dealing with the Ford Motor Company’s problems in Europe and the various European markets. The problem is, currently, that the Ford Motor Company is weak in these markets—to strengthen the company, steps must be taken in the European markets in the next five years.
Significance
The Ford Motor Company controls a huge swath of the global automotive market, but there are still significant places where the company is weak. Addressing the issues of weakness within the organization means looking into the many different layers of the organization, including the SWOT and Six-Sigma analysis of the organization (Leavitt, n.d.). These analyses will provide the basis for a number of important recommendations for the company.
Literature Review
SWOT Analysis
Strengths. Ford is an incredibly well-established company, and it has been a significant part of the automotive market for a number of years (Dewson, 2006). The philosophy that founded the Ford Motor Company has been adjusted over the years, but it has been a very stable, well known company since the beginning of the automotive industry (Dewson, 2006; Reidenbach & Robin, 1991). In addition to this stability, it is very clear that the Ford Motor Company still commands significant brand recognition within the United States; it is the largest automotive maker in the country, and it is the second largest automotive company in the world as a whole (Ford Motor Company, 2015). These are impressive achievements and indicate that Ford enjoys an impressive command of the market in the automotive world internationally (Ford Motor Company, 2015). Another strength that the Ford Motor Company demonstrates throughout the history of the company is the ability to dominate the market, including the global market (Mubarak Al-Mubaraki & Busler, 2010). Today, the strong position that the Ford Motor Company enjoys in the United States’ automotive market is paired with a significant global presence that cannot be overstated as a significant benefit for the company, especially moving forward into a more globalized world (Mubarak Al-Mubaraki & Busler, 2010).
Weaknesses. Although they enjoy a strong overall global presence—including, somewhat paradoxically, Asia—the Ford Motor Company has recently been demonstrating lackluster performance in Europe (Mubarak Al-Mubaraki & Busler, 2010). This lackluster performance could be the result of the Ford Motor Company’s bad record in terms of environmental concern—there are numerous reports that suggest that the Ford Motor Company is lagging behind other automotive companies when it comes to developing new “green” technologies (Williander, 2007). Indeed, this lack of concern for environmental issues has been a specter following the Ford Motor Company for a number of years (Williander, 2007; Leavitt, n.d.; Sunassee & Sewry, 2002).
Opportunities. Changes in the market structure have allowed the market to grow for new technologies, most notably the “green” car systems that are now popular around the world (Williander, 2007). Ford has been developing a number of new technologies that are more environmentally friendly, and these could be used to boost the overall perceptions of the Ford Motor Company in places where the company and the perception of the company is floundering, particularly in places like Europe, where the demand for “green” and fuel-efficient cars is extremely high. In these markets, Ford has the ability to network and collaborate with other companies to build products better suited to specific niches within the automotive market (Sunassee & Sewry, 2002).
Threats. There are a number of important threats that the Ford Motor Company has to take into account moving forward, particularly in areas where there are potential weaknesses. There is intense competition in the automotive world, and in the markets where the Ford Motor Company does not have complete control, there is room for competition and the development of new and different technologies that could edge out Ford’s financial superiority (Dewson, 2006). It is also important to note that the Ford Motor Company, as an institution, still carries debt—the amount is readily available through the balance sheets that the company submits to the Security and Exchange Commission and makes available; today, the Ford Motor Company carries over $12.9 billion in debt, which is a significant threat to the longevity of the business and its future success (Ford Motor Company, 2015).
Best Practices of Quality Management
There are a number of important practices to quality management in organizations (Leavitt, n.d.). Leavitt (n.d.) suggests that the first way to drive quality management is to ensure that all the activities that the quality department is responsible for are well-aligned with the overall goals of the organization. This ensures that the company is not forcing people to do work that is inappropriate or unnecessary (Leavitt, n.d.). In addition, all management personnel in the company must be encouraged to support the mission of aligning all practices within the organization towards a single goal or set of goals (Leavitt, n.d.). For the Ford Motor Company, this can be a complex process, because Ford has a number of different markets and a number of different complex issues that must be addressed within the many facets of the organization.
Discussion and Conclusions
The Ford Motor Company is an incredibly large organization, and its reach is global; the brand itself is recognized around the world, and has been for a number of years. Chelsom (1994) notes that the Ford Motor Company struck upon a formula for success relatively early in the company history; one of the reasons that the company has been so successful is because of the constant adaptation of that formula as society and the automotive industry as a whole changed and developed (Chelsom, 1994). Although there are weaknesses, the strengths of the Ford Motor Company generally outweigh the weaknesses.
References
Chelsom, J. V. (1994). Concurrent engineering case studies: Lessons from Ford Motor Company experience. In Concurrent Engineering (pp. 25-48). Springer Netherlands.
Dewson, P. (2006). Identifying improvements to the engine assembly line simulation philosophies within Ford Motor Company.
Ford Motor Company. (2015). The Ford Motor Company. Ford Corporate. Retrieved 21 June 2015, from http://corporate.ford.com/homepage.html
Leavitt, P. Using enterprise quality measurement to drive business value.
Mubarak Al-Mubaraki, H., & Busler, M. (2010). Business incubators models of the USA and UK: A SWOT analysis. World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 6(4), 335-354.
Reidenbach, R. E., & Robin, D. P. (1991). A conceptual model of corporate moral development. Journal of Business ethics, 10(4), 273-284.
Sunassee, N. N., & Sewry, D. A. (2002). A theoretical framework for knowledge management implementation. In Proceedings of the 2002 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on Enablement through technology (pp. 235-245). South African Institute for Computer Scientists and Information Technologists.
Williander, M. (2007). Absorptive capacity and interpretation system's impact when ‘going green’: an empirical study of Ford, Volvo Cars and Toyota.Business Strategy and the Environment, 16(3), 202-213.
