Ford still riding Six Sigma quality horse

Ford is combining Six Sigma with kaizen events at its plants around the globe to coax new ideas from its hourly workers in hopes of closing the gap with perennial vehicle-quality leader Toyota.

Studies such as the annual J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Survey typically put Toyota Motor Corp. at the top, but middle-of-the-packer Ford Motor Co. will tell you that it's not because Toyota's hourly workers are “better.”

End product quality is more a function of management's acumen than assembly line workers' abilities, according to Debbe Yeager, who has served in the position of Director of Consumer Driven Six-Sigma at Ford since February 2003 after serving as Director of Global Core Quality “The more I see, the more I think quality is a management initiative because the people on the line-and I've worked in the plants enough to know-will make a good product if you tell them that's what's expected of them,” she said.