Ford Transmission Quality Study 

I love when companies (and individuals) make quality and improvement a priority. Interesting how the desire to rise to the competition led to such detailed and surprising findings that led to a whole overhaul. Seems like a win-win-win for the company, its workers, and the customer.

The video clearly demonstrates how breaking the process down and looking at each singular piece in production gives you the perspective to fix the entire part. I love that they ordered the ‘foreign’ parts and reverse engineered them to help them identify their own flaws.

This was a great example of how meeting expectation is not good enough and that you need to have continuous improvement when dealing with a competitive market.

This video highlights the value of minimizing process variability as opposed to measuring success strictly by specifications.

When I worked in the Tooling Machine Shop at Boeing Wichita back in the 1980's, we were required to watch this video in one of our Quality Circle Training meetings. The discoveries made in this study have stayed with me over all these years, and I no longer machine parts to print, but rather to the optimal design target value. As a result, QC Inspectors are no longer viewed as the opposition!

That must have been a real shock to see just how well the competition does. It shows the importance of being open to hear the truth. The first step in advancement is know where you are currently.

We spend so much money and time on making a better product, a product that can win against competitors. However, I realized that no matter how good your products are, you will not be able to win against your competitor, if you cannot consistently make the parts and assemble at the highest consistency. Without this, regardless of how good your parts are, the performance will be low and the customer satisfaction level will be low. This video shows the value of the quality and helped me to understand the importance of it.

I love that this video shines some light on the flawed perspectives of quality. Focusing on Specifications versus uniformity can blind us to the underlying need to improve what we believe is meeting the standard. To be competitive our processes must adhere to statistical control. This kind of control creates room to make improvement.

While this video is old it does point out many of the gaps in monitoring and controlling quality in business operations. 1. The senior leadership of this business set objectives but had no mechanism in place to collect or analyze feedback. 2. The business had lowered manufacturing and supplier production expectations allowing for a wide variance (tolerance) in the engineering specification (print). They had assumed that no improvement was possible. 3. We can also infer that the business was experiencing some failures and potentially had not pursued a root cause investigation until better results were seen from the competitor. 4. This plant location was recognized as producing a better product and had excepted the current level of success. We can only assume that they had not considered investing in improving their yield from operations until better results were seen with the competitor. It is very clear that many other businesses may be experiencing a lower level of quality today and are not collecting and analyzing feedback to improve their processes. This video is a good example of how quality and continuous improvement needs to be understood and managed at all levels of business operation.

To be competitive, a company must ensure quality control plus uniformity plus continues improvement to ensure less to no variability. Consistency is key. Good to learn from the experience of others. Thanks Ford for sharing.

Nice video to show how important quality is to survival and to get back focused on the customer.

This was a great way to highlight how variability affects quality.

Props to Ford for sharing this case study, and showing quality is not just making the parts to print. As said in video "Quality is never ending improvement", and Ford needed to improve on its part-to-part consistency.

This was part of my six-sigma course. It's reinforced how variations directly impacted quality as well as the importance of the customer feedback loop with their view on quality which influenced Ford to look at why and how their competition was producing better quality parts. Great study.

I think this shows how important everyone within an organization is customer focused. Because we can do our jobs right such as making parts to spec but we need to make parts specific to customer expectations . I think this is also a good example of the importance of striving for the correct target in your production. This helps with consistency as well. Be good but also be the best version of that good you can be.

This Video is an excellent example that part of continuous improvement is to always ask why are we doing things the way we are doing them.

Good example of listening to customers telling them that the competitions products were better. Five stars to Ford Batavia Management Team for addressing the root cause of how variation thought obscure tolerance contamination negatively impact the quality of the product along with the quality of the product the part is being fit to.

Very cool concept of minimizing the variation instead of just trying to build good parts within tolerance. Minimizing the variation is the key to good parts.

Good example of how variation can affect your product more than you realize, and that you can always improve.

This video showcases the importance of producing products with consistent quality versus simply building a product as planned. This approach has the potential to improve the company's and product's value to the customer.

"Meeting Blue Prints is not enough" Great and inspiring video to pursue control, uniformity and continuous improvement process.

This is good video to understand that process improvements is constantly needed when trying to make a quality product to be competitive and to have consumers believe in your product.

With social media these days, getting quality right is so critical - it can make or break a company. What I enjoyed about this video is the learnings that "making to specification" is not good enough and that quality is a journey of improvents that continue to evolve (companies should not become complacent....this enables competitors to gain an edge). Reducing variation and enabling uniformity is key - so is listening, acting and responding to the Voice of Customer....the customer is king !

It’s amazing how people strive for accuracy before precision. This highlights the importance of working on precision before accuracy. If a process is repeatable, it’s much easier to make adjustments to improve your output. It also allows more flexibility and adaptability

The illustration at the end of the Spike / Spread / Tolerance couldn't be better to describe the mechanism that LSS teaches in the evaluation process. Eye opening indeed. The sheer doggedness of the individuals in the video to identify the differences was admirable as well.

A very interesting video that really shows that meeting the specifications isn't the only thing that is important in quality. I really enjoyed how the video showed that using less of the specification limit to achieve more consistent products can significantly improve customer satisfied.

Great video, it shows why to reduce the variability of a problem is really important in order to manage the product, fight with the competence and by the end, have the best customer satisfaction.

This video showed the importance of widening our viewpoints to look at the whole product and not just our particular piece (silo). When Ford looked at the whole product and the customers' view, they could see that though they were in compliance with the printed specifications, the customer satisfaction was suffering.

This video highlights the need for consistency and uniformity. The difference between 27% and 70% is huge and it comes down to how the competitors really strove to have that uniformity with each of their parts.

I particularly appreciate the comments made in this video reinforcing the importance of consistency of quality in order to be competitive in the world market, and that quality is "never-ending improvement."

Excellent video. Demonstrates the value of uniformity, customer feedback, controls and continuous improvement.

Great example of a willingness to change without fear. To find such a variation difference in there product, it was amazing to see how they approach improving processes.

Great video that demonstrates you need to keep your eye on the competition.

A lot of great points were presented in this video. I really loved the part of "quality is measured by our customers..."which really made me think about how important it is to actively listen to customers and take and type of "return" seriously. Quality doesn't just mean high standards, but consistency in said standards. It's potentially easier to improve an entire system of units with 1 small tweak than it is to investigate every unit individually to identify a root cause. In my job, it makes me think about how customer concessions on orders are not just a result of the human fulfilling said order, but also the process itself overall or even the source of the item in said order too.

The biggest take away for me on this video was how their competition was able to side-step all the problems that the speakers were having trouble solving. And when you need to have an independent source verify that your quality guy's tools are true, you know that you are doing something right.

In a competitive market, the tolerance must be held to a higher standard. In the video, the explanation and insight of the breakdown of each part was a game changer for the company. The thought to the inspector was that his machine was broken when inspecting the competition because there parts were to precise compared to what their variations allowed. Always strive to be better.

Though dated, it's great to see that historically, competition wasn't only in automotive performance on the track but also in the quality of design, manufacturing, and repeatability. Very insightful!

Great to have the comments of the other mangers. The reverse engineering was eye-opening.

I like it. Breaking down the "competitor's" actual parts and comparing to their own seemed to be of great help for Ford. The QC Supervisor said it best at the end, going off the blueprints alone is not enough!

Nice video! great resource for understanding the real meaning of quality. it is so true that quality is not only following blueprints but quality is the consistency and uniformity in the workmen ship part after part.

Good video showing what you may think is great quality and standards are not always what your customer thinks. Batavia built to print versus decreasing part variation to lower defects and ensure a happy customer. Ford identified a few root causes; grinding process, spring suppliers along with managing the process.

It’s interesting to see how society’s interpretation and mentality of quality has changed. We rely so much on specifications. We often do not take the time to determine how stable a process or product is by conducting studies. These studies can go a long way in allowing us to understand how stable the process and product is by observing the variations in behavior.

Back in high school when I was member of the wrestling club, my coach would say that "practice makes perfect" is not good enough, that you have aspire to "perfect practice makes perfect" to be a champion. I feel this video captures that advice completely. If you do not seek to eliminate all variations from all parts of your process, then your competition will quickly outmaneuver you in quality and, of course, in sales.

learning the difference specifications and uniformity was very helpfull. Knowing that something is correct with its specifications and that their is also deviation in the same process.

Being self-critical when comparing with the competition's higher quality by Batavia management was a good first step to continuous improvement.

Commenting on this video is a requirement for the six sigma course I'm enrolled in. The video highlights the importance of minimizing variation in production to manufacture a high quality product. It's also interesting to note that prior to investigating the competitors product, Ford believed that producing transmissions to spec/print was good enough. Through their investigations they were able to realize the role consistent manufacturing had on a product.

Being competitive is even greater in today's workplace. In this video, the lessons learned are tremendous. Control, uniformity and consistent improvement are the best approach toward customer quality satisfaction.

This a great example on how removing variation increases the quality of the product along with improving the quality of the product the part is being used on. Its nice to see that Ford accepted that the competition was doing better and then worked to improve their processes.

Great video. Simple approach and montra...Control, Uniformity, Continuous Improvement...a better route to take in satisfying customers expectations rather than just meeting specifications/building to print.

When you believe that you are good without knowing another performance reality. Then your own standard became your only reference but your customer has more than yours. It was very useful for Ford to analyze competitor’s control of transmission and realized other variation and tolerance on their components.

Quality improvement has no end. It is a continuous process. Very interesting and eye opener in a way that one should always keep trying to improve to survive in this competitive world.

This was a six-sigma example in one of my classes today. Very interesting video - thanks for uploading!

control, uniformity and continuous improvement definitely a great way to maintain better part quality and customer satisfaction.

Building to spec is just the start. Uniformity and continuing to improve is never ending.

Great information! Great video! Really an eye opener! What have I gotten myself into! LOL

The video reiterates why you need to continuously improve your product and take a look at your competition.

Minimal variation is another way to differentiate suppliers... very valuable.

Interesting to see the shock in this video. Great lesson to be learned here...

Building to spec is good but it can have a flaw. Continuous Improvement is the KEY...

I agree with nick on this one, it all ties in together. I am going to strive for perfection!

My favorite quote in the video was "building parts to print isn't good enough", if I told that to any of the machine operator where I work at they would laugh at me. But it's true and this is a great example of that. Even though the plant in Batavia was running parts to spec they were using 70% of the total tolerance while the competition was only using 27% and were producing much better quality parts.

Very brave of Ford to call out that process variability was 43% better in parts developed by their competition at that time. I would be very interested to know how they match up today. I am particularly interested as I am a Ford Windstar owner, and have very much enjoyed my vehicle. This video demonstrates quite vividly that the practice of simply manufacturing (and performing in general) within tolerance is insufficient if we wish to stay competitive and satisfy the expectations of our customers (internal and external). It also, as a side benefit, shows the value that measuring performance and collecting data has in illustrating both current state system performance and in suggesting where future state needs to be to remain competitive. Finally, this video is a call to action for all businesses to practice continuous improvement, lest they lose their customers to businesses that already do.

This highlights how standards and consistency are vital to every operation. This allows flexibility and adaptivity in your production. Its about precision over accuracy

"Meeting blueprint is not good enough" is humbling and motivating.

I think this video gives a great example on how the other company really focused on Uniformity and being exactly the same while the other was focusing on consistently improving and getting the customer better product. What makes a great company, which I think ours strives towards is Constantly improving while keeping quality and uniformity across the board.

This was a an interesting video. The thing that stood out to me the most was consistency and continued improvement. The video also spoke of uniformity. All of these components are pessary to achieve true quality .

Excellent example of how being with in spec is not good enough. Continuous improvement to reduce variation is key to having the highest quality.

It was interesting that Ford thought that their gauge was broken when there was no variation in the competitors parts. They did not think that it was possible. They now know that reducing variation is key to success

i put this video every night before bed, it puts me to sleep everytime!

Amazing!!... Even though this clip must have been filmed more than 30 years ago, the fundamental aspects of quality controls are still relevant and current.

Always try to achieve better! I like how they agreed that the competitors product was better. They had a good product but when looking at the range of defective transmissions there was a huge difference. Improved Consistency=Improved Customer Satisfaction so true, which end result =$

Like how competition spurs us to continually improve.

Excellent example on understanding competition quality consistency, piece by piece to improve your process to build a better product.

Proof that looking at not only your own process as well and the competitor's process, there is always ways to continuous improve, maybe even reinvent a better way all together

A notable example of how continuous process improvement is not an option, and how meeting only the minimum requirements can very quickly hurt your business, both in reputation and the bottom line.

Enjoyed the case study showing that meeting specification is not necessarily good enough and improving individual component quality drives up overall assembly quality.

This video depicts the need for continuous improvement and how focusing on one area of the process can cause your competition to surpass you. Ford realized their competition was looking at controls, uniformity and continuous improvement & this made them stand out from the rest improving the product the customer received.

thanks for this great video...

This shows that there is always room for improvement and sometimes it's in places that you may not have ever realized needed it. He mentions how Batavia used around 70% of the valve tolerance and it was a surprising figure to him. It's important to know where you are faltering and to work towards consistency each time.

great video it was great how they showed how the COPQ effects a company

This is a great example of how you can’t be happy with the status quo ... just because some benchmarks were met doesn’t mean there is no room for improvement.

The reverse engineering was very interesting and showed their commitment to understanding how their competitor's product was better than theirs. Great way to see how variability impacts the end product.

This shows the importance of decreasing variation and not only being “within compliance”. You are able to really compete against competitors and provide reliable value to customers.

Building to print isn't always good enough, while parts may be to spec and within allowed tolerance, does not always mean that a stable process is in place. It may be "stable enough" and to spec to ship to the customer, but it allows for more unpredictable issues to arise throughout the process.

Great video in understanding that quality is not always manufacturing products to the blueprint but it is the uniformity and consistency of each part in order to manufacture a product with minimal variations in the parts. Batavia had to inspect their competitor's product to determine the tolerances of between the competitors and their parts, which had a difference of 50%.

I think that it is great that they finally were able to see the error in their standards, they perceived their parts were within an acceptable range, they were not. It is not surprising that Mazda was right within the acceptable allowances. They have always had a high standard in their company. Uniformity wins out over anything else. Knowing that your parts are exact in every detail and will be reliable and dependable is what will make or break a company.

This video makes a good point quality is not only making to spec, but rather never ending improvement. Meeting blue print is not good enough.

Very interesting to see how much variability can affect the end product even if in the blueprint everything looks perfect.

Good example of a burning platform. The competition making the exact same product, but better. It's an interesting example of how they used DMAIC to address the issue. Also, getting buy in from top management all the way through the shop floor.

Consistency is key! Even if you have a great quality part or material, if you are not consistent with the creation and fail to search for continuous improvement, your "quality" on the output will be compromised and the customer will notice and your brand will not be perceived positively as you had the expectation for.

Very interesting to see the comparison of Ford and its competitors years ago and Fords commitment toward continuous improvement.

We definitely struggle with repeatability and reproducibility and currently don't have enough controls in place to ensure part to part uniformity beyond producing parts that meet the print.

Interesting video.

The fact that they thought a gauge was broken bc it was reading the material was eye opening

This is Ford and Mazda (partially owned by Ford at the time) building transmissions for the Ford escort. Customers were complaining at a high rate about the Ford built and not the Mazda built. Ford tore down both and were shocked at the Japanese quality. American consultants, Deming and many others helped Japan after WWII. The secret weapon is Shewhart charts (predictability), from supplier to manufacturer to customer.

The principle of piece-to-piece variation is emphasized here in the manufacturing of auto transmissions. This was a completely new concept to the management at the Batavia plant. I laughed at the part in the video where the floor inspector thought the sensitive gauge he was using to measure the run-out or amount outside of tolerance of off-shore produced part was broken. This was because every part he measured had the same value returned. He couldn't believe there would be that much lack of variation between parts. It was also interesting as to the difference in range of tolerance in variation was 70% for the Batavia plant while their competitor's range was 27%, a much narrower range of acceptability. This translated into more reliable products for their competitor and in turn higher customer acceptance.

Paying attention to standardization process made with quality and not only focusing on the transmission function as overall was not enough, the competitors understood that the transmission was a result of multiple components, hence focussing in each part will make the transmission a far better part. Same applies for a business if you understand the business is a result of multiple functions and if you focus each function with consistency your business results will be better

This video illustrates why it is so important to reduce the amount of variation between individual parts of the same type as a way to ensure maximum quality of the overall product. While the video itself is dated, the concept is still relevant.

Good one. I saw this years ago but never could get a copy. Ford was real careful about keeping this video from getting out way back when.

Amazing how complacent it seems to accept quality that was achieved as complete. (If only we knew then...) A hard lesson to learn.