Interestingly, Farley is also taking this difference to shift Ford back to more vertical integration. Rather than lay off workers, Farley aims to retrain them to produce more parts within the walls of Ford. As Farley says it, “we have to insource, so that everyone has a role in this growth.” Nonetheless, that’s not easy and certainly not going to be 100% smooth. Farley noted that the transition to EVs would involve “storm clouds.” Recall that Ford aims to reach 50% EV sales by 2030, up from just a few percent in 2022. Making that massive transition provides the opportunity for a new approach and retraining, but also plenty of likely hurdles and challenges.
The FT highlighted that back in the days of Henry Ford, vertical integration was the name of the game. “A shift in corporate strategy towards more vertical integration at Ford would hark back to the company’s early days when founder Henry Ford owned forest, iron mines, limestone quarries and even a rubber plantation in Brazil to wholly control the company’s supply chain,” the media outlet stated. “If Henry Ford came back to life, he would have thought the last 60 years weren’t that exciting, but he would love it right now because we’re totally reinventing the company,” Farley said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
