GETRAG FORD Transmissions

The creation of an automotive joint venture.

The Client

GETRAG FORD Transmissions was founded in 2001 as a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and transmission specialist GETRAG. The company develops and produces manual, automated manual and dual clutch transmissions.

The company has a turnover of approximately 1.19 Billion Euros, produces over 2.03 million transmissions and has over 4,800 employees. The customers of GETRAG FORD Transmissions are Ford, Jaguar, Mazda, Volvo, Land Rover, Otosan, Chrysler, Mitsubishi and Dodge.

The headquarters and product development teams, including the division's prototype centre and testing, are located in Germany. There is an additional product development team in Sweden and the company has production sites in Germany, England, France and now Slovakia.

GETRAG FORD Transmissions is a member of the GETRAG Corporate Group. GETRAG FORD Transmissions, GETRAG Group, GETRAG Americas and GETRAG Asia Pacific combine their strength under this umbrella and the brand name GETRAG.

The Challenge

Ford of Europe and GETRAG Group made the business decision to bring the manual transmission manufacturing plants at Cologne, Halewood and Bordeaux under the control of a new 50:50 joint venture - GETRAG FORD Transmissions GmbH. The responsibilities of the joint venture would include all product development, manufacturing and assembly of manual transmissions required by Ford's vehicle range.

This strategy required the integration of Ford's Manual Transmissions Manufacturing and Product Engineering activities with GETRAG's Testing Operations, Prototype Operations, Administrative and Group Support functions within a new legal entity.

Aggressive timescales were proposed for the launch of the joint venture which would meet all of Ford's manual transmissions requirements in the future. All existing and planned transmission programs would be managed by the the new entity and would be supported, in turn, by a combination of existing Ford services and IT systems along with new services and processes introduced by the GETRAG Group.

Ford employees, whilst working for the joint venture would remain within the employment of Ford which necessitated great sensitivity in the development of arrangements and communicating these to 3300 employees who were affected.

Ford and GETRAG recognised the need for a central, impartial program management office to coordinate and drive the two organizations towards their shared objective.

Key challenges included:

• Coordination and amalgamation of all Ford and Getrag functions
• The merging of two culturally different and geographically dispersed organizations
• Rapid escalation and resolution of program issues and risks to safeguard timescales

The Pcubed Solution

To execute this critical and complex initiative, a centrally coordinated approach was required combining Ford and GETRAG's key central functions. Pcubed rapidly defined and deployed a dedicated Program Management Office (PMO). This harnessed the abilities of a group of expert project managers who were responsible for coordinating the activities of the central functions, including Manufacturing, Product Development, IT, Finance, Purchasing, Logistics and HR.

Pcubed implemented a robust project control cycle comprising Project Management process and tools, Issues Management, Risk Management and Management Reporting. The PMO owned the plans (held in Microsoft Project) and disseminated information via weekly management reports.

The PMO's key roles were:

• To define, track and control the project plans for all areas
• To ensure visibility of information to project members
• To assist in the communication process by the installation of project frameworks
• To mentor teams with best practice program management

The Results

• The project and joint venture was completed within the agreed timescales
• Successful integration of new facilities whilst maintaining 'business as usual' operations
• The development of a third party process for the execution of the new products
• Quality initiatives successfully managed with the implementation of the transmissions into a new facility