Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
I love to EAT Mexican and Dodges!

 

Oh, come now. It's not like the Mexican people were banging on Ford's door demanding this work. Ford Co. made the decision to build assembly plants in Mexico, as well as other locations, and decided to send American work to there. It's a move that all major manufacturers have to make to be able to compete in the global economy, which didn't exist 25 years ago. Times have changed, the companies are changing with it, and unfortunately the byproduct is the affect on regional economies. Our state governor and entourage just paid a visit to GM to beg them not to close the Baltimore GM plant, which was planned because the Astro, etc, vehicles aren't selling well.

And as far as the generalization, I don't think the "boom blaster" generation (good name) really care about American jobs. They just care about blasting people who are different from them, or are foreigners.

 

Well this has nothing to do with Ford products but I can, on a very narrow and small example, relate and expand on the “built in Mexico and quality is worse”.

We manufacture electric motors, all types. Our company decided to send some of the more labor intensive motors to a manufacture in Mexico for cost savings. That’s the ONLY reason things our done outside of America is cost savings and NOT quality.

Long story short, after 1 ½ years of trips to Mexico, myself included (4 trips) to get these people squared away the quality completely sucked. We would have to rework over 50% of the motors manufactured in Mexico due to POOR quality standards in Mexico.

Yes, we had all our procedures in place there for production and quality control. However unless we were visiting they were not following it. How did we know because when we were there we would mark the shipments they were going to make to us of the product they built while we were there. It was much lower rework and fall out when we received it.

Eventually our company decided after costing them much more money doing business with Mexico to pull out and bring the motors back here to America.

We are a small company and we would have to rework the crappy quality of Mexico. I am willing to bet that since Ford and the others are so huge it is much harder for them to pull out and I can guarantee you that Ford and the others are not “reworking” some of the poor quality vehicles that come from Mexico.

That means if you have a vehicle built in Mexico Ford is hoping one of two things, you got lucky and got a decent quality vehicle from Mexico or it will last until the warranty is up…

 

Well, how about we bring the Dodge factory back to the U.S.? Oh no but wait, then these Mexicans would come to the U.S. in search for work. Then everybody gets all pissy again.....



IGNORANCE AND GENERALIZATIONS KILL.

 

Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico- - In the fertile irrigated fields surrounding this city 235 miles northwest of Mexico City, farmers raise two potato crops each year for the country's metropolitan markets. Of the two, it is the winter crop of white- skinned tubers preferred by Mexican consumers that has spelled the financial difference between a so- so year and a good one.


But this off- season crop is vulnerable to a wide range of pests and diseases, particularly the potato tuber moth, rated as the top enemy of the potato in the developing world. Until recently, the first line of defense against the moth was increasingly heavy doses of chemical pesticides. But continuing crop losses have led area farmers to adopt integrated pest management measures that rely on a mix of environmentally safe methods and minimal chemical sprays.


The potato preferred by Mexican consumers is Alpha, a variety developed in Europe more than 50 years ago. Despite its popularity, growing Alpha in a two- crops- a- year cycle is a highly risky venture. "Because it's late maturing," says Jose Luis Fox Quesada, a major grower, "we have about a 10- day window at the beginning and end of each of the two growing seasons to escape frost or rains. It's a risk."


Alpha is also highly susceptible to pests and diseases. Increasingly heavy infestations and subsequent crop damage from pests, particularly the potato tuber moth, led farmers to increase the use of pesticides to control them. In 1990 farmers were applying a kind of "pesticide ****tail," a mixture containing as many as three different chemical compounds, many of them banned in more industrialized countries.

 

Whos is to blame for all the bad manufacturing done in Mexico? The Mexican people or the quality control personal? I see this aimed at the Mexican race. Im sure theres alot of Mexican people working in U.S. plants, so who do we blame for a bad product? I dont see anyone complaining about the soldiers of Mexican decent fighting wars for this country.

 

The trouble all started a long time ago when they wouldn't wear those stinkin' badges.

 

Good question, and in our companies case it was not because of the actual workers. The actual workers will do what they are taught, as like any company anywhere in the world. Nobody goes in and decides today they are going to make a crappy product.

It is the management system in places, wherever it may be, for this decision Mexico. They are poorly trained, and lack the proper structure to manage up to par with America companies. In other words, our company like many others figures pay a few visits, set them up with some machinery, usually less quality then what companies in America are using, send a ton of quality manuals, procedures etc down and then don’t worry about it and sit back and make your profit.

I was extremely impressed with the actual Mexican workers that where manufacturing our motors and in my opinion their work ethics where higher then those at our company in America. If you showed them something or told them how to do something they would do it with no questions. On top of that they had lots of questions about what they were doing and how could they do it better.

In our case the few that ran this shop did not spend much time there. They figured if they showed a few people (supervisors) how to do it then fine. They did not have the technical support or engineering support to overcome any in house at the minute problems. If you don’t have someone to support them then you bound to get bad product and we did LOT’S of it and had to pull out.

The workers do what they are told “no questions asked” so when there supervisors tell them to skip steps because things are behind they do as told.

It is not the actual worker themselves to blame for poor quality but the structure in place to support them or lack of it. I can tell you we were not the only company with major problems in Mexico…

 

I'm not going to editoralize on the quality issues that have been brought up here but in fact, Mexico has plants that assemble not only American and German vehicles but also Japanese and French cars and trucks.

BMW/Honda/Nissan/Renault/Volkswagen to be specific.
Nissan has assembled over a quarter of a million cars and trucks through the end of November according to Automotive News.

Just to keep the debate honest.
Bill

 

This is exactly what I was saying earlier. I work for Xerox and we moved a plant of proven mutlifunction units to Mexico. Prior to the move, these units were the standard of the industry. After the move, the number of defects per unit skyrocketed and the set up time increased by a factor of 3. I believe the company is now considering moving the factory to China because it has proven to be impossible to increase the level of quality in Mexico.

TB