Ford CEO: 2024 F-150 refresh to have 2400 fewer parts

[dolsen]

And considering F150 and SD cabs are the same I would say they do a lot of this

Yep, the expedition/nav and the SD and F150 have MANY shared parts

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[JJSnell]

They already do this to some extent. All of the sheet metal aside from class “A” surfaces are the same from the B-Pillar forward between all of those models. Also lots of dash and interior trim parts are shared too.

Well how can that be when F150s alone have 4 different wiring harnesses for seats? At least.
My wife's Explorer, my truck and the piece of crap loaner they give me Escape I think, all have different dashes and screens?
What does the F150 mirror with front body panels? Not the Expedition and the SD body panels, hood fenders etc are all bigger, as is the bed and tailgates....

 

[dolsen]

Well how can that be when F150s alone have 4 different wiring harnesses for seats? At least.
My wife's Explorer, my truck and the piece of crap loaner they give me Escape I think, all have different dashes and screens?
What does the F150 mirror with front body panels? Not the Expedition and the SD body panels, hood fenders etc are all bigger, as is the bed and tailgates....

You misread what I said. From the B-pillar forward, those 4 models share most non class “A” sheet metal. Class “A” being the visible exterior surfaces. There’s several layers to the doors and hood, not to mention things like the fire wall, b- pillar, a-pillar, crumple zones, etc.

And as far as the wiring harness comment, again most non-visible components are shared. I didn’t say all. You’re focusing on very specific items, but think about things like seat belts and latches, seat frames, fasteners, body plugs. There’s so many more parts to a vehicle than what you see or what you think about

 

[GregBC]

Having skimmed the latest couple 2024 threads, I think I see where the 2400 part reduction comes from: it might just be a reduction from the TOTAL number of parts available for ALL options and trims.

So by killing the 3.3 engine, for example, that’s gotta be a few hundred or even 1000 less parts right there.

 

[amschind]

On a platform level, the way to do this is "eliminate trims, powertrains and options". 145" and 167" HDPP frames with either a 2.3L or 3.5L in XL, Lariat and Platinum Supercab and SCrew would cover all of the bases, particularly if the Ranger and Superduty platforms were involved. Ford needs a grand total of 6 frames for its entire consumer pickup line (Maverick, Ranger, F150 short/long and Superduty short/long). I'd go so far as to say that if they made all F150 frames HDPP spec, then the Superduty could be offered in 1 -ton only with SRW/DRW option AND a factory de-rate as a paper option for those who were worried about CDLs.

Finally, all of the makers are moving toward selling white vehicles which are wrapped to customer preference; that gets back to Model T levels of "You can have any color you want...so long as it's black OR you're willing to pay to have the dealer wrap it." levels of simplicity.

 

[HammaMan]

Finally, all of the makers are moving toward selling white vehicles which are wrapped to customer preference; that gets back to Model T levels of "You can have any color you want...so long as it's black OR you're willing to pay to have the dealer wrap it." levels of simplicity.

That'd cost more $. The robots can spray different colors as each body passes through. They've got the painting down, and robots can do it. Robots aren't doing a wrap just yet.

 

[amschind]

That'd cost more $. The robots can spray different colors as each body passes through. They've got the painting down, and robots can do it. Robots aren't doing a wrap just yet.

I agree that the automation is more efficient vs hand labor wrap, and that's almost certainly the reason why we're not seeing point of sale wraps dominant yet. I think the issue that will drive the change is the cost of unsold or marked down inventory due to color being an inefficiency that gets eliminated. To your point, I bet the solution is a kind of hybrid where every vehicle gets painted in one color on the assembly line and all of the others are a dealer option that's maybe $3k (or whatever the price of a wrap winds up at).

 

[Calson]

The auto companies lost production when parts were out of stock. The number of parts makes it difficult for purchasing people to maintain inventory levels needed for production scheduling.

The Japanese have long chosen to make more items standard equipment on their cars and trucks and have far fewer special order items. The base Toyota trucks for example have the same safety features as the top of the line trucks for items like cross traffic alert or lane assist.

Working on my cars and trucks over the years I was impressed by the ones from Japanese manufacturers where an assembly only used 3 parts instead of 6 parts with American vehicles. A lot of these design ideas came from workers on the assembly lines and not the engineers at their desks.

 

[Gros Ventre]

So-o-o... Did they really drop 2400 items out of the production line? Or did they just consolidate a bunch of part numbers? Remember, an individual screw or bolt is a part.

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