David Cole
David Cole
basically believe betting company ford inside major people
This is a major restructuring. The people inside of Ford basically believe they are betting their company on this restructuring.
betting company higher level realize viewed
There's a much higher level of urgency. I think they realize that they're betting the company on this. Our sense is this is being viewed as this is a change-or-die kind of thing.
giving great sort
It's sort of like giving yourself a great big garage.
chemicals critical drop eight mix sort
It's sort of a critical ingredient. It's like when you mix eight or 10 chemicals and nothing happens. Then you drop this in and all of a sudden, boom, you get an explosion.
aware change cost driven everybody faces per plays problem produced profitable three vehicle
Every one of the Big Three faces a problem right now of about $2,000 to $2,500 per vehicle produced cost disadvantage. If that plays out over time, they're all dead. It's change or die. Everything is driven by a profitable business. If you can't be profitable, you can't be in business. That is, I think, recognition that everybody is aware of.
active average costs employee medicare savings
The average costs of an active employee is $130,000 a year, and the average cost for a retiree before Medicare is about $50,000. The savings are enormous.
bad certainly news
The bad news certainly isn't going to end for a while.
auto educated future industry jobs workers younger
The auto industry of the future will be a younger and more educated workforce. High-paying jobs for educated workers are not going away.
additional gives
They've really outgrown their Georgetown facility. This gives them a little additional capacity.
alignment capacity create sales
They've got to create alignment between capacity and sales volume.
benefit certainly chance competitor cuts enter factory field hot incentives lose maybe move price stay volume
There's the thought that if this is going to be so hot, why not price it higher? But if you do, maybe you lose volume and it doesn't stay hot as long, or you have to move to incentives and price cuts sooner, or you give a competitor a chance to enter the field sooner. The dealers certainly are making money. But the factory doesn't benefit from that.
add average cost costs dollars easier killer less number players structure trying
The new players have a cost structure that is on the average of about 2,500 dollars less a vehicle. That's a killer number when you're trying to get competitive. It's a lot easier to add costs than to take out costs.
opportunity refresh
It's really an opportunity to refresh the organization,
cases conflict extend hope include schools state
I hope that they will extend their investigation to include Rutgers and other state schools because the cases of conflict are shockingly similar,