Ford Australia has announced that it will be cutting around 400 jobs from its vehicle development and design departments, which is about equal to 20% of its remaining staff in these departments, Car Expert reported.
The reported cuts come after the automaker’s Australian division had already made redundant 170 staff from these departments in April this year, the publication wrote. The job cuts in April were due to the end of development cycles for the Ranger and Everest, while the most recent round was for internal cost-cutting, or cited as “Ford’s global drive to improve efficiency,” it added.
Australia will continue to be Ford’s global hub for design and development of the global-market Ranger pick-up truck and Everest SUV despite these instances of downsizing, the manufacturer was quoted as saying.
“We have begun consultation with our employees and unions on our intention to offer a separation program for approximately 400 to 1,800 of our employees in Australia. The majority of these will be in product development and design, with a small number in other functions. The changes are part of Ford’s global drive to improve efficiency and transform its operations to meet future needs,” Ford told Car Expert in a statement.
Late last year, Ford said it would contribute extensively to future global programmes, having invested AUD$12 million (RM37.8 million) in an expanded design studio in Melbourne which opened in 2021. Ford was previously quoted as saying that it invests AUD$500 million (RM1.6 billion) every year into its operations.
In 2021, Ford claimed to have more than 2,500 personnel in engineering, design, technical, and automotive specialist roles, and Ford Australia designers and engineers have also worked on products for Chinese, Indian and South American markets including the Escort and previous-generation Taurus.
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yea, apple, tesla all looking at manufacturing/outsourcing to india, the land of promises. But remember, just promises.
I would see a chinese car company suddenly opening their R&D office in Australia, to scoop up all the human resource and R&D knowledge from these redundant personnel’s.
vehicle development and design experience is something very difficult and expensive to acquire, and this can be a shortcut for another automotive manufacturer to get this.
that’s the plan.
Industries are fast leaving Aussie, car manufacturing has long gone and all these talks about global R&D hub is just temporary as more jobs are getting pushed to cheaper countries so even that R&D thing will soon be gone from Aussie.
#RIPAussieIndustry
When you have RnD but you do not have manufacturing side by side, your RnD does not have much meaning. You design your car to be produced efficiently at very cost effective. Not the other way round.
R&D should be done in countries with a continuous knowledge and experience in design.
Manufacturing should be done in countries that has plenty of cheap labor
R&D does not have to be side-by-side with manufacturing.
Companies like KIA and Hyundai have R&D and design centres in North America and Europe, but manufacturing is done back in korea or in low cost countries.