Ford Motor's Presence in Australia - Example

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• Executive Summary

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Ford Motor Australia. With considerations given to the company’s historical background, the report determines how the company has been operating in order to understand the root causes of problems it currently faces. This has revealed a significant connection to the economic state of the country and various trade agreements and regulations. The company records indicate serious production and manufacturing losses within the past recent years. The report indicates the losses have been a subject of unbearable conditions of operations within the country and identify the appreciation of the Australian dollar because of the financial crisis as one of the major causes.

The report then looks at how various trade agreements have affected Ford’s operation. The report then considers various challenges that Ford Australia has to deal with such as R&D, suppliers, and employees. Through a comprehensive analysis, it is realized that closure is inevitable. The report then comes up with suggestions that would enable the company to remain within the Australian market, and at the same time retain its design and engineering operations as these two sections have been noted to be sustainable among many other strategic conclusions. This report hence concludes by recognizing that although the planned 2016 closure is inevitable, Ford Australia and the Australian government can still come up with policies that can help redeem the company or maintain certain aspects of its operations.

• Introduction

Ford Motor Australia being one of the three largest automotive industries in Australia, is faced with the closure of its manufacturing plant. This report tends to look at the various issues facing this company in order to come up with viable options that would otherwise try to prevent total cease of its operations. The report starts with a focus on the company’s background then looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths. It is through these four aspects that the report then discusses the various strategic issues. The analysis revealing that various factors prompting this closure are external issues beyond the company’s control, and hence propose only mitigation solutions that it can use to try to contain the situation.

• Ford Motor Australia Company background

Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited is one of the four largest subsidiaries of Ford Motor Company. The parent company having been formed in 1903 by Henry Ford, has its headquarters in Dearborn, USA. Company statistics as of 2013 indicated that the company has over 171,000 employees worldwide, and hence, is one of the giant global industries in the world. Being a motor vehicle industry, it deals with the manufacturing and distribution of motor vehicles with over 90 manufacturing plants all across the six continents. The company focuses mainly on the manufacturing of two motor vehicle brands; Lincoln and Ford. Apart from the manufacturing of motor vehicles, the company has an owners Ford Credit, a finance company, that is currently one of the largest automotive finance companies in the world.

Ford Australia, being a major subsidiary of the parent company, is one of the major automotive manufactures with operations in Lara, Geelong, and Broadmeadows, Victoria. The main activities in these manufacturing facilities are designing engineering, and manufacturing of company brands. This subsidiary has an extensive link to other subsidiaries and hence, has world-class facilities, with extensive technical and infrastructure capability investment. Ford Australia remains a center of excellence in design and engineering in the whole of the Asia-Pacific region. This makes it one of the major four design hub centers alongside Camacary in Brazil, Dearborn in the USA, and Cologne in Germany. The motor vehicle company has operated in Australia since 1925 and is, unfortunately, planning to close its manufacturing operations in October 2016.