A few more details trickled in. Dispute was over a MMOG requirement which Ford originally verbally waived. Company has been Q1 since about 1991.
Sam said:
And I'm sure this person will blame it on the employees when comes time for the layoffs.
No - Ford is not the majority of their business so they can afford to say "....enough is enough..." so no layoffs (my, that was a serious note!). Bottom line to me is any company stupid enough to pin their fortunes on one or two accounts, especially automotive, are down right speculative and are high risk bets.
My delight is I have several clients who do Ford work. I've been to Ford supplier meetings on Rotunda (one of which I wrote here about in a thread and both Ford and Omnex let me know they knew with Ford 'talking to' one of my clients who knew what was happening so he said "And your point is?" to the Ford guy!). I've watched Ford cost these and other companies a small fortune (including paying for me...) over really stupid stuff. Then they want a price reduction.
But, Ford's financial picture is most telling. Couple that with Dan Reid admitting last winter that QS didn't show the savings they anticipated (which many of us predicted back in 1995) and his unbelieveable gall to blame the failure on the auditing, I just have to laugh out loud. I well remember the QS-9000 Interpretations. What was that one release - something like 45 pages of 'Interpretations'? Give me a break.
On the other hand I will say what I have said many times: If you want to dance with Ford, or any other huge, obnoxious company, you have to follow their lead and do as they say - right or wrong. So you deserve what you ask for.
The last thing in the world I would want to be (i.e.: you'd really have to pay me a lot of $) is a quality manager (much less a QE) at an automotive supplier because I'm not a masochist.
