Jim Farley Breaks Down his ‘Gemba’ Strategy with the Detroit News

In a recent interview with The Detroit News, CEO Jim Farley discussed his hands-on approach to plant visits, known as "gembas," and how they're driving Ford's quality turnaround. 

“When I became CEO of Ford, I think we were 25th in initial quality. It was very important for me to understand the real issues at the plant,” he told Automotive and Business Reporter Breana Noble in the interview published Tuesday. “What I found is that we were on the wrong side of the invisible line for the dignity of the workplace. How could we expect our American workers to beat the Japanese and South Korean imported workers [...] if they didn't have the proper tools, or even felt pride in their workplace?”

Today, Farley considers a range of factors when evaluating a plant’s culture of quality, including:

• AI token usage (“The cultures that have the best quality operating system are trying to use AI to improve their quality and costs”)  

• Workstation kaizens (“This is what gets me up in the morning after seven years as CEO: Seeing our people's creativity and commitment to perfection come to life in front of our eyes”) 

• Problem-solving attitude (“One of the most important things I think about is: Will this activity go away if my management team were to go away? Is it self-sustaining?”) 

Read the full article on The Detroit News website, or as a PDF.