Job One Done at FordCongratulations are due the Ford Motor Co. for its excellent showing in Consumer Reports magazine's reliability ratings, which were released this week. The automaker was lauded by the magazine's editors for producing products with "world-class reliability," placing its vehicles in the same category as its Asian rivals. For years, cars made by Detroit manufacturers have been derided as inferior in quality to those produced by Toyota and Honda. Ford has made a consistent effort to upgrade the quality of its vehicles so they could compete with the Japanese. The results are paying off in good publicity, the kind Detroit auto officials say is too often withheld from domestic companies no matter what they do. But Ford has demonstrated that the answer is to just keep focused on one of its well-known advertising slogans, making "quality job one." General Motors and Chrysler did not do as well in the ratings, with Chrysler in particular continuing to have trouble.
It may well be that Chrysler's cash-flow problems have hampered its ability to put in place needed quality control systems. Hopefully, its marriage with Fiat will help it improve its manufacturing processes. It's extremely important for this region that GM and Chrysler improve the reliability — and perceived reliability — of their products. Flexible work rules and a sound balance sheet are necessary but not sufficient to guarantee success in the auto industry. Ultimately a firm rises and falls on the willingness of customers to buy its products. Reliability and appealing design remain the keys to sales success. This is hardly news to executives at all three domestic carmakers. But producing reliable vehicles requires the kind of corporate culture and dedication demonstrated by Ford to reap the kind of publicity it is enjoying this week. REPRINTED FROM THE DETROIT NEWS DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
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