|
Administrator
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: The Hills of North Georgia,USA
Posts: 7,868
|
Ford shifts focus to tech talent
Sunday, March 23, 2003
Program that values engineers will grow
By Mark Truby / The Detroit News
Daniel Mears / The Detroit News
DEARBORN -- Two years ago, Mike Freeman faced a tough choice: remain a manager at Ford Motor Co. and ride the fast career track or return to the nitty gritty engineering work he loved.
Ford at the time heaped opportunities on those pegged as future leaders and treated the front-line engineers who designed its cars and trucks like worker bees.
Even so, Freeman returned to designing body panels for the Ford Escape SUV, all but eliminating his chances for promotion and recognition.
"I accepted that I wasn't going to be the guy who brought home the big dollars," Freeman said.
While the 40-year-old Freeman followed his heart, many other talented engineers job-hopped, took a management post or left the company in frustration.
After struggling with quality problems and product launch delays in recent years, Ford is undergoing an attitude adjustment. The company is implementing a new program -- dubbed Experience and Stability of Personnel, or ESP in human resources lingo -- that rewards and encourages engineers like Freeman who develop technical expertise.
The success of Ford's cultural shift is crucial to the automaker's ability to compete with the likes of Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., and BMW AG -- companies where engineering and technical prowess are viewed as core values.
"In the past we told people that technical expertise was important but nobody believed it," Steve Dulieu, director of human resources for Ford's product development division. "We didn't back it up with the rewards and recognition."
Ford launched the ESP program last summer as a pilot program in the automaker's body engineering group. At the time, Ford Vice Chairman Allan Gilmour, speaking to Wall Street analysts, said the company was serious about changing a mindset that devalued front-line engineers.
"We said, We don't need people like you anymore,'" Gilmour said. "We need those who can move up the ladder. Run the world. That personnel system is changed. We're back to getting professionals to do the job."
The linchpin of the new program -- which will be implemented throughout Ford's entire 12,000-person North American engineering corps by this summer -- is the creation of a technical career path that can be equally rewarding as a management career.
A top-notch brake engineer who is not interested in a management career can be promoted to senior engineer, technical expert, executive technical leader and on up the ladder.
"We are encouraging them to stay in place and gain depth in their knowledge," said Joe Laymon, Ford's vice president and head of human resources.
In the past, Ford pushed engineers to change jobs every 18-24 months to gain a broad-based background needed for advancement. The result, according to some within Ford, was engineers who were "jacks of all trades, masters of none."
To one degree or another, many companies face the same issue: How to find the balance between developing experts in vital technical areas, while at the same time grooming future managers.
Many at Ford say the problems can be traced in part to former CEO Jacques Nasser's mission to create a company stocked with young leaders and change agents.
"Lead or leave," he would tell employees.
That approach clearly demoralized many Ford engineers.
"A large percentage of the people who are involved in launching new products ... are not going to run Ford Motor Co. or even a major part of it," Gilmour said. "But they were very competent professionals."
David Cole, head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, watched the exodus of talent with dismay.
"I know some absolutely world-class guys who retired early because they didn't want to be around in that environment," Cole said.
Ford says the early response to ESP from engineers has been overwhelmingly positive. Online surveys show that 60 percent of Ford's engineers now believe that technical expertise is valued again.
"People believe that senior management has bought into this," said Tom Single, a powertrain engineer who works on the Ford Mustang sports car. "They will really start believing it when the promotions start to come."
Earlier this month, Ford held a small ceremony naming the first 15 senior engineers. Among those promoted was Freeman, a father of three who thought he'd given up any chance of advancement.
He now receives perks and pay comparable to that of a manager in Ford's product development realm, but he still spends his days devising better body panels for the Escape.
Freeman, who holds a bachelor's degree along with two master's degrees, looks right at home in Ford's truck vehicle center in Dearborn.
The walls of his small cubicle are covered with technical drawings, family pictures and a print of Mexican artist Diego Rivera's famous mural depicting a Detroit auto factory.
As a senior engineer, Freeman is now considered a "go-to guy" when problems arise. Perhaps more importantly for Ford, he will be able to hone his body engineering skills over the years to come.
"I really enjoyed doing the engineering work and I knew I could contribute more as an engineer," Freeman said. "This is really the best thing that could have happened."
(Photo) Mike Freeman left the management track at Ford to go back to the engineering he loves. He was recently named senior engineer under Ford's new promotion track for engineers.
__________________
Stacy94PGT
My first car was a 67 Mustang Coupe, 2nd one was a 67 Cougar XR-7, 3rd one was a 66 Mustang Coupe. Why did I get rid of these cars for ? I know why, because I'm stupid, stupid, stupid. 
My next Ford.....
|
Linear Mode
