http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/27/f...ngine-quickly/

 

is cat a good idea

 

News of this isn't really new, although this is the first I have seen of the media really picking up on it.

I like the idea of jointly developing a new diesel engine lineup with CAT for reasons which I have stated here before. That said, it isn't going to happen for a few reasons. First, Ford has been burnt on joint engine development programs with both Yamaha and International in the course of this decade. And Yamaha arguably got one over on Ford last decade as well. Ford does still have some joint engine progams in the works, particularly in Europe. But the above events have no doubt made the powers that be at FoMoCo a bit more leary than they once were to enter in to such agreements.

Second, Ford seems to have all the resources they need to do this on their own. Most of the tech you would arguably want to keep out of the Navistar designs belong to Ford, not International. And while there are reasons why working with a company like CAT could be beneficial this, along with the above mentioned developments, make Ford going the heavy duty diesel route on their own this go-round anything but a surprise.

 

There's a huge reason it will happen: Mulally. As he did at Boeing, Mulally's a big fan of designing internally but then contracting out production. You get the money savings of contracted production, but doing the design yourself you're sure of the product. I think this is the perfect way to approach a CAT relationship. Ford pours it's global engineering into the engine, and CAT cranks them out.

This approach has a huge public perception benefit, too. Most people don't associate the current Diesel with a third party. Unlike the Cummins badging on Doge, for example, the Navistar engines are percieved by the public to simply be Ford engines. So by dumping Navistar and just producing internally, you aren't solving the perception that your last couple engines have been poor. Slap a CAT logo on it, though, and it looks like you've moved mountains.

 

As you know the idea of Ford co-developing an engine/engines with CAT appeals to me personally. And the point you bring up with Mulally is interesting. He is an unashamed champion of outsourcing. In fact, here is currently an argument that Mulally went too far in this respect with Boeing taking that company from being a manufacturer of airplanes to be nothing more than an assembler of airplane components. Only time will tell if Mulally sacrificed long term Boeing viability on the altar of short term profits.

Those fears not withstanding, the mulally factor certainly makes me reconsider the plausibility that this is a path that could still be taken by Ford. The question is wether the issues I mention earlier have given Bill Ford pause. He still holds veto power over anything Mulally does, and I'd be curious to know wether or not he would balk at such a move