The disastrous 2023 Super Duty launch sparked a revolution at Ford. Ford parted ways with managers who had a “that’s good enough” mentality. Jim Farley says Ford is now obsessed with quality, much like Toyota. For the past few years, Ford has been fixated on solving quality control issues that have frequently forced it to issue more recalls than any of its competitors. Things are starting to improve, and chief executive Jim Farley has lifted the curtain on what prompted Ford’s re-commitment to quality. In 2023, Ford launched the fifth-generation F-Series Super Duty, a hugely important model for the brand. Things did not go smoothly. Software issues and semiconductor shortages forced the company to park thousands of nearly finished trucks in parking lots across the United States, and they had to be fixed before being sent to dealerships. Read: Ford Went From Recall King To JD Power’s Top Mainstream Brand For Initial Quality While speaking with the Detroit Free Press, Farley said the disastrous Super Duty launch was “a catalyst for change” at the company. He revealed that since the truck’s launch, two-thirds of Ford’s leaders in its industrial system, manufacturing, supply chain, and engineering departments have been replaced. Those who had an “it’s good enough” mentality were given their marching orders, kicking off a huge hiring change across the company. New Leaders And A New Mentality In the past few years, Ford has recruited hundreds of new leaders and made changes to encourage improved collaboration across its multiple divisions. Farley added that a shift in company culture from finger-pointing to problem-solving has been transformative. Now, when a worker reports an issue, Ford immediately sets about fixing it and identifying the root cause. “In the past, we would have released that (Super Duty) and it would go to the dealers, and then we would have recalls,” Farley told the Detroit Free Press. “We didn’t want to pass along any of the problems to the customer. It sounds very simple. But it’s not because that means that we had to slow production down. We had to delay vehicle launches. We had to take the pain at the company to do that. It was very hard to do that.” The Improvements Can’t End Now Ford was recently ranked number 1 among mainstream brands in JD Power’s important Initial Quality Survey, indicating that the changes are already bearing fruit. However, Ford is still leading the industry in recalls this year and will need to remain committed to quality in the years and decades to come if it is to have any chance of matching rivals like Toyota in this regard. Also: Ford Hit 13.5 Million Recalls This Year With A Driver’s Seat That Reclines On Its Own “The real challenge is executing high-quality new-vehicle launches and production over a period of five, 10, 15 years,” iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer said. “That’s what Toyota has done — created a reputation for high-quality cars based on decades of producing long-lasting vehicles that suffer minimal post-purchase issues.”