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Ford Takes the High Road - The New Ford Q1 Second Edition Guidelines

The entire automotive industry - the Americans, Europeans and the Asians, have consolidated the quality expectations for their supply base around the TS-16949, Second Edition: Quality Management Standard. And right now, when this feat is almost over, Ford has particularized itself with its own Q1 standards, which include a manufacturing assessment.

This manufacturing assessment has a striking similarity to the Ford Q-101 type of standard which was harmonized to create the QS-9000 standard. The manufacturing assessment will be conducted for troubled companies.

The New Ford Q1 Second Edition Requirements, which were rolled out on May 2, 2001 to the top 30 Ford Suppliers, hold many surprises. Suppliers who attended the roll out session did not express any bitterness surrounding the new standards and actually voiced a sense of partnership with Ford.

Highlights of the Changes

Capable Systems

The reintroduction of the manufacturing assessment may seem to be a repudiation of the third party registration scheme. Far from it! The New Ford Q1 actually finally requires Ford Suppliers to register to both QS 9000 or TS-16949 and ISO 14001:2004 standards. This is the first time that Ford has required their supply base to become third party registered. Additionally, compliance to MS-9000 is sought.

High Performance

This area of supplier performance gages several supplier related metrics. Five key metrics including - field actions, Stop Shipments, PPM Performance, PSW Slippage to Date and Delivery Performance are measured by Ford

Manufacturing Assessment 

This assessment is divided into tow areas- planning for manufacturing process capability, and demonstration of manufacturing process capability. The manufacturing assessment will affect the documented and implemented Quality System, ie. QS-9000 or TS-16949 to the greatest degree. The manufacturing assessment has fifteen questions each with two to nine requirements. There is a total of 77 different requirements that are one or more sentences long.

Continual Improvement: Ongoing Excellence

The threshold for performance metrics and manufacturing assessment thresholds will be raised annually to encourage continuous improvement.

Change in Strategy

Ford will hire a large crew of STA engineers to carry out the supplier development envisioned. This strategy is exactly the reverse of what they did in 1995 when they decided that they would allow Suppliers to develop their own strategies for improvement.

Ford gets high marks for this well thought out assessment. This has what QS-9000 or TS-16949 does not - performance requirements.

The challenge in this strategy is in the execution of it. Ford has an entirely new, young group of bright STAs. Will they be able to carry out this manufacturing assessment? The assessment cuts across many methodologies including - Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), Lean Manufacturing, FMEAs/Control Plans, 8- D Problem Solving, Statistics, Measurement Analysis and more.

Chad Kymal is President of Omnex, INc., and a much sought-after international consultant and trainer. He is on the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Examiners and has a BSME from General Motors Institute and has an MS degree in Industrial Operations Engineering and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Dave Watkins is President of Omnex Management and Engineering Consultants and a senior trainer/consultant. He has a wide range of international experience focused on enhancing his clients' ability to create value for customers and stockholders and integrating quality and manufacturing systems to enhance performance.

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