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SPECIAL

Ford Territory

SPECIAL

Ford Territory

News Watch Issue 5, Thursday 2nd August 2001

Staff, Friday August 3, 2001.

Page 1 of 1

WORK AND LIFE A BALANCING ACT AT FORD
Balancing work and your personal life means different things to different people, according to Ford President, Geoff Polites. "What works for me is not necessarily going to work for someone else," he explained. "But it is an issue for everyone who wants to have a more fulfilling life and a successful career." Ford Australia has been recognized for its efforts in encouraging balance in the lives and careers of employees as a finalist in the National Work and Family Awards run by the Australian Chamber of Commerce. Award winners will be announced in Sydney on September 12, 2001. Ford initiatives include offering flexible work practices such as part-time, job sharing and telecommuting work arrangements, setting up an employee-run Work Life Balance Taskforce, and operating on-site company gyms to contribute to employee health and fitness. So how does Ford's top employee achieve balance in his life. Geoff Polites says he avoids work on weekends whenever possible. This enables him to indulge in his passion for the Sydney Swans. He rarely misses a game and regularly flies to Sydney to take up his role as the contact for the coach on the Swans bench.

LOVE OF MOLTEN METAL LEADS TO AWARD
Jo McKeown is used to standing out from the crowd at work. As an employee at a Queensland foundry, the 31-year-old was the only woman in the industry in the entire state. Unperturbed she went on to become the first woman President of the Foundry Institute of Queensland. She joined Ford Australia 12-months-ago as Business Unit Leader in Iron Casting at Ford's Geelong Casting Plant. Her achievements in the industry were recognized last night when she was announced as the winner of the "Workforce More Than Five Years" category of the National Awards for Women in Non Traditional Areas of Work and Study. Jo's love affair with molten metal began when she was studying engineering at the University of Queensland. "I initially wanted to get into genetic engineering but I took metallurgy as a subject in my first year and was hooked." She swapped courses to a Bachelor of Science, majoring in metallurgy. Jo loves the challenges that her job throws up and the variety if offers. "The whole process is fairly complicated and a lot of things can go wrong. Every day is a new challenge," she said. "I also like the environment and the people. They are really down to earth."

FORD WORKS TO SOLVE MYSTERY OF FLIGHT
Ford Motor Company is lending part of its vast research and engineering resources to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. Nearly 100 years ago, Orville and Wilbur Wright taught the world to fly. How they did it has remained a mystery. During the next 18 months, the Wright Experience, with assistance from Ford and the Experimental Aircraft Association, will research, design, build, test and fly the first authentic, full-scale reproduction of the Wright brothers' 1903 "Kitty Hawk" flyer. Ford is providing computer equipment and support, woodworking and machine shop tools and exclusive access to wind tunnel and material testing facilities. Ford computer programmers and engineers will also help develop a database to record, catalogue and retrieve the massive amounts of data collected from libraries and museums about the Wright brothers' inventions. This collection includes thousands of photographs, newspaper articles and personal correspondence. "The history of Ford is inseparably linked to the history of flight," said Richard Parry-Jones, Chief Technical Officer and Group Vice President of Product Development. "The company was founded the same year as the Wright brothers' famous flight and in the same spirit of innovation and scientific optimism."

FORD T IS A MASTERPIECE OF SIMPLICITY AND INNOVATION
A ride in one of Ford Motor Company's classic original Model Ts or one of the six new 2001 Model T-100s built for the company's centennial in 2003 is really something special. The differences are obvious right from the start, said Guy Zaninovich, historical and technical consultant, Ford T-100 Programs. Instead of turning a key, you turn a hand crank to get the trusty "Tin Lizzie" – as it came to be known – running. The 20 horsepower, four-cylinder engine may be a bit noisy by todays' standards, but it was state-of-the-art for its time. With a top speed of about 45mph, the Model T quickly became the world's most popular mode of transportation. Then there are the three floor pedals – the shift or clutch, brake and reverse pedals. You shift with your feet, and you accelerate by using a hand lever located on the steering column. Once you get the Model T rolling, steering is a snap, according to Zaninovich. "A Model T weighs only about 1,300 pounds, and because of that, it steers like a child's wagon.” It gets between 13 and 21 miles per gallon, and to check the nine-gallon gas tank is full, you'll need a yardstick. Zaninovich said the car featured legendary innovations for its time. "The transmission is actually a forerunner of automatic transmissions. It's a planetary gear set, which is the way we make transmissions now. The throttle is the forerunner of what we call cruise control today and the car also sported breakthrough ignition and centralised lubrication."

NEW LAB PROVIDES UNPARALLED IN-DEPTH QUALITY PICTURE
New technology is empowering Ford engineers to see through 20 inches of solid steel with the potential to significantly impact quality and safety of automotive components. Supervisor of Ford Motor Company's Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) Lab in Michigan, Bob McGee oversees sophisticated equipment that melds military and medical X-ray technology to produce amazingly accurate details of automotive components – in either static (immobile) or dynamic (in motion) states – without the need for disassembly. "This is the most advanced non-destructive evaluation facility of its type in the automotive industry," said McGee. "We can take a detailed look at any component made by the company or competitors, even a fully assembled vehicle, and quickly provide images that can be used for computer-aided engineering to test componentry strength, verify design intent or for benchmarking purposes." Another remarkable feature of the NDE Lab is the computer room. With its archive and transmission capabilities, an operator can acquire and share specific data with Ford colleagues or industry partners worldwide in as little as three minutes.

For further information contact:
Ford Australia Communications
Phone: (03) 9359 8491

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