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Ford Motor Company Aligning Case

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Submitted By Jonathanb
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Aligned Business Framework, or ABF is a supply chain strategy that requires a goal oriented relationship between buyers and suppliers. Considering Ford’s vast amount of suppliers, it would be difficult for Ford to align themselves with so many different suppliers, so first he needs to shrink the supply base. However, the most important task for implementing ABF is receiving support from top management. Tony Brown needs Ford to commit to the principles of ABF in order to gain the trust of suppliers. If the suppliers believe that Ford is not actually committed to ABF, then they will not be willing to do it themselves. Also, if lower level Ford employees do not believe that top management is committed to ABF, they will continue working their own culture. Basically, it all starts from the top, management needs to show that they are seriously committed to change in order to convince others to commit to change. According to the case, Ford has historically based their supply chain strategy on price instead of efficiency, which upset both suppliers and employees. This shows both a lack of alignment from the suppliers and employees. This lack of alignment and trust shows that even though the business model has stayed the same for 100 years, it probably should be have changed earlier, so they need to start changing as soon as possible. As a Ford supplier, I would be concerned about Ford’s commitment to ABF and if my company would make the cut. Ford is asking if we can make a culture change in our practices, but why should we believe that they will too. Also, if we are cut from the supply base, we have just lost a big time buyer. Suppliers can take advantage of Ford in ABF considering that they will have less competition for selling supplies. If the supplier makes the cut but does not commit to ABF, they will be able to manipulate prices. Ford cannot afford

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