Ford To Restructure Product Development

Wednesday 4:17 pm ET

DETROIT February 19, 2003; Dow Jones reports Ford Motor Co. is continuing its restructuring efforts by changing its North American product-development unit from five brand- oriented teams to four platform-based teams.

The change should help Ford streamline operations and offer opportunities to cut costs, said spokesman Todd Nissan. There are no layoffs planned with the restructuring, he said, although there will be some management changes.

The 14,000 employees involved in product development will be broken into groups for small vehicles, medium and large vehicles, SUV and body frames, and pickup trucks and commercial vehicles.

In 2002, Ford posted a $980 million loss and saw its U.S. market share slip. But that was a much better showing than in 2001, when the company lost $5.45 billion, prompting a companywide restructuring.

Ford has said the five-year restructuring plan will restore earnings to $2 a share by cutting 35,000 jobs and closing five manufacturing plants by the middle of the decade.

In discussions with analysts in January, Ford Chief Executive William Clay Ford said the company will be accelerating cost-cutting efforts this year, and promised to beat 2002 earnings by 30 cents a share, hitting 70 cents a share for the year.