{"id":12648,"date":"2021-02-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lei.flywheelsites.com\/the-lean-post\/articles\/how-ford-built-an-aligned-team-using-matched-pairs\/"},"modified":"2023-08-23T16:36:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T20:36:51","slug":"how-ford-built-an-aligned-team-using-matched-pairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lean.org\/the-lean-post\/articles\/how-ford-built-an-aligned-team-using-matched-pairs\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ford Built an Aligned Team Using \u2018Matched Pairs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/span>In this video<\/a>, my friend and former colleague Susan DeSandre mentions the \u201cmatched pair\u201d initiative at Ford Motor Company.<\/span> I thought it might be<\/span> helpful to explain this concept<\/span> in a bit more detail. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building an Aligned Team <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Conflicting objectives and the resulting organizational feuding<\/span> had caused poor relationships to develop between Supply Chain and Engineering at Ford. This internal strife then contributed to<\/span> poor supplier relationships, which ultimately<\/span> proved quite costly for the company in terms of cost, quality, and technology. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n
\n
\"Design<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

As a countermeasur<\/span>e<\/span>, the Supply Chain and Engineering leadership<\/span> established<\/span> the <\/span>\u201c<\/span>matched pairs<\/span>\u201d <\/span>in<\/span>i<\/span>tiative<\/span> to improve transparency, teamwork<\/span>,<\/span> and communication both wi<\/span>thin Ford<\/span> and with <\/span>its<\/span> supplier partners. <\/span>They<\/span> started the<\/span> matched pair structure<\/span> with the <\/span>global<\/span> directors of supply chain and e<\/span>ngineering for <\/span>each major vehicle system<\/span> such as Electrical, Powertrain, Chassis<\/span>,<\/span> and<\/span> Body<\/span>. <\/span>They<\/span> then<\/span> cascaded <\/span>the structure <\/span>down within each organiza<\/span>t<\/span>ion to subsystem chiefs<\/span>, managers<\/span>,<\/span> and s<\/span>upervisors<\/span>, establishing<\/span> aligned <\/span>and jointly owned targets for all <\/span>supplier<\/span>–<\/span>related activities<\/span> at each level<\/span>. <\/span>This <\/span>structure<\/span> was<\/span> applied<\/span> across all <\/span>the <\/span>new<\/span>–<\/span>model programs, annual cos<\/span>t reduction objectives<\/span>,<\/span> and long-<\/span>term vehicle subsystem strategies<\/span>,<\/span> as jointly established by <\/span>Commodity Business Plans<\/span>. <\/span>To enable the teams to work together effectively<\/span>,<\/span> they created an <\/span>operating system, shared metrics<\/span>,<\/span> and basic infrastructure that was all <\/span>orchestrated<\/span> during<\/span> the Monday <\/span>morning meetings <\/span>mention<\/span>ed<\/span> in the video.  <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better <\/span><\/strong>T<\/span><\/strong>eamwork<\/span><\/strong> = <\/span><\/strong>B<\/span><\/strong>etter<\/span><\/strong> R<\/span><\/strong>esults<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The matched pair work resulted in <\/span>much <\/span>stronger relationships <\/span>both inside and outside Ford. A<\/span>dditionally,<\/span> the resulting improved team<\/span>work <\/span>led to<\/span> significantly <\/span>lower costs, shorter lead times<\/span>, improved quality<\/span>,<\/span> and better technologies <\/span>that<\/span> Ford<\/span> could <\/span>share<\/span> with<\/span> its <\/span>customers. <\/span>What\u2019s more<\/span>,<\/span> matched pair<\/span>ing<\/span> created a dramatically improved working environment<\/span> for all of us<\/span>.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going <\/span><\/strong>B<\/span><\/strong>eyond Ford<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Susan later went on to do similar work<\/span> — <\/span>in spirit if not in structure<\/span> — <\/span>at Apple<\/span>.<\/span> Also, <\/span>a<\/span>t<\/span> least one of <\/span>LEI\u2019s <\/span>LPPD L<\/span>earning <\/span>P<\/span>artners<\/span> is<\/span> experimenting with <\/span>\u201c<\/span>m<\/span>atched <\/span>t<\/span>rios<\/span>\u201d<\/span> by adding<\/span> manufacturing engineers<\/span> to the mix<\/span>. <\/span>The point is that no matter the specific countermeasure<\/span> applied<\/span>, improved teamwork results in better performance no matter the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inside a winning strategy for Ford Motor Company’s new product development process.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"13582,13037,13059,13098,6938,4174","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[27],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Ford Built an Aligned Team Using \u2018Matched Pairs\u2019 - Lean Enterprise Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lean.org\/the-lean-post\/articles\/how-ford-built-an-aligned-team-using-matched-pairs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Ford Built an Aligned Team Using \u2018Matched Pairs\u2019 - 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