I was perusing the WWW and came across this story somewhere, written by an insider at Ford supposedly. Most of it is probably already known here, but I've been seeing a lot of questions about ordering, waiting, allocation, how and when Ford actually pulls the orders, so thought it may help someone here that doesn't know all about it. Please chime in if you can clarify any of it for me.
Thought it was pretty interesting, but a few years old, so not sure how accurate it all is now. Oh, and it is very long, but here it goes...Part I
Order Types
There are 3 basic order types; Stock, Retail, Fleet. There are others, but I'm just going to use these three for this.
Stock- Unsold orders for dealer inventory. Order Type 2.
Retail- Sold orders; have a customer name assigned to them in the system. These also usually have price protection in case of an increase, whereas Stock units don't. Order Type 1. (Also known as A, X, K for the weird order types.)
Fleet- Sold orders for companies with a valid Fleet ID. (A fleet ID requires 15 units in service). This order schedules differently and also gets different pricing. Rebates don't apply to fleets (but they do have a "Retail greater than Fleet" discount if rebates are bigger than fleet discounts. They also don't pay the FDAF fees and other things. Orders are scheduled out of a fleet pool and not the dealers allocation. Order Type 0.
Order Number
Next on an order is an order number; it’s just a way of tracking. Its a 4 digit number (or letters) and is assigned by the dealer. I use the order date for mine. This is one of the items you need in order to check the status of an order.
Body Type
Identifies what the truck is. For example a X14 is a Supercab 4x4 styleside. The first letter is the cab style (F=Regular cab, X= Supercab, W=Crewcab). The second digit tells more, on the
F-150 a 0 is a flareside, 1 is a styleside. The third digit tells whether 2 or 4 wheel drive (on new F-150, 2 is 2WD, 4 is 4x4; old style was 7 and 8). This applies to F-Series trucks, cars can be different.
Dealer Code
This is a set of 2 numbers, a letter, and 3 more numbers. The first two corespond to the region, letter tells the zone in that region, and last 3 identify the dealer. Example is 53W544 (53=KC region, Zone W, dealer 544). This is also needed to check the status of an order.
The Order Number and Dealer Code are listed together on a DORA on the Upper portion far right a few blank lines below the priority code.
DORA
A DORA is a Dealer Order Receipt Acknowledgement. It is a printout issued from Ford after ordering. You should get one from your dealer after ordering, and is a good way to verify what has been ordered.
Priority Codes
Priority codes are listed on the far right upper portion of a DORA. They are also on the dealer’s printout of order status. This only applies until a unit is scheduled. Once assigned a VIN the priority codes no longer apply.
The codes start at 1 and run through 99. A dealer can only assign between 10 and 99. A 99 order can't be scheduled, but are used for people that want a unit on a date (later than normal orders take). A 99 order is used to hold an order in the system without getting lost, and can then be changed to a buildable priority when the customer is ready for the truck.
The region (or other Ford divisions) can prioritize below 10. They do this in the event of something unusual, most orders never see a priority 01. An example is if they're manually scheduling (like the First F-150 for each dealer, or first year T Birds) or if it’s something that’s urgent (first order destroyed in shipping, etc). If you do get a priority 01, things usually get scheduled fast even if you have some hard to get commodities (but not hold items).
It is believed that the under 10 priorities go first through the allocation system.
Other priorities are to organize what order the dealer wants the trucks in. These only affect that dealer and have no bearing on other dealers.
If a dealer only uses 50 or higher, another dealer that starts at 10 won't get his trucks any sooner. This system is to organize the order so they are "in a row" for scheduling. That way in the first pass of scheduling they only look at 1 truck per dealer, then on second pass look at 2nd one, etc., regardless of what the number actually is. If 50 is the lowest at dealer A and 10 is the lowest at dealer B, they are both in the first pass, and are equal to each other.
More than one order can have the same priority. If this happens the system looks at order types and then order date. Retail orders take priority over Stock orders, and oldest takes priority.
For example:
Order 1234 Retail order date 9/3/03, priority 20
Order 4321 Retail order date 5/5/03, priority 20
Order 5555 Stock order date 4/4/03, priority 20
The Retail orders take priority, then the oldest of the Retail orders comes first. So the system would look at these in this order:
Order 4321 1st, because it’s the oldest retail at this priority.
Order 1234 2nd, as it is a retail order, which comes before…
Order 5555 3rd, being as it is a stock order.
Priority can override stock, retail or order date. If a retail order is priority 20 and a stock order is priority 19, the stock tries to schedule first since the order type and date only applies to orders with the same priority number.
On Fleet orders, none of this priority stuff applies. The priority codes are to control build date and are a letter and a number that correspond to a build month and week. This isn't to get stuff quicker but actually slower. Often fleets will order in January and not want the units for a few months.
Fleet units don't compete with retail or stock at all for scheduling as fleet comes out of their own pool and not from a dealers allocation.
Terms
MATL HOLD - unit can't schedule, something is not available.
UNSCHD / CLEAN - unit isn't scheduled (no VIN, no date, no guarantee to build), but is a buildable order once allocation and commodities allow.
SUBMITTED TO PLANT – Order has been pulled, unit assigned a VIN and assembly plant, plant is assigning build date.
SCHEDULED - has a build date.
LOCKED IN - Changes can no longer be made to this order, unit is either close to being built, or at the end of the year they lock in orders early so they don't have left over parts between model years.
BUCKED - Unit is close to production, it’s my understanding that this means the frame is on a buck that is used to roll it down the line.
PRODUCED - Unit is built.
REL FROM PLANT – Unit is through inspection, available to ship. May also say REL TO RAIL or REL TO CONVOY depending on location.
TTGxx7837934 - or some similar number sequence means unit is on a rail car and that is the number.
ARRIVED AT RAMP xx – UNIT has arrived at the rail head and been unloaded, the xx is a usually a number and letter depending on destination, ie. 6P (Kansas City) or 4T (Joliet, IL).
Allocation
Allocation determines who gets the units for that build week. The way allocation is split is based on sales and availability. They don't count equally; I think sales factor 60% and availability 40%.
The region likes to call it turn and earn. The more you sell and fewer you have, the more you get. So if you've got lots of units on the ground and haven't been selling them, you won't get many new allocations. If you have none because you sold them all you should get a good number allocated.
This information doesn't help a customer much, as you really can't tell what dealers will get allocation. Larger dealers will get more allocation, but will have more orders also, so that doesn't mean faster scheduling.
Generally most dealers are in similar situations and wait times will be similar. There are exceptions to this. For example 1999 Super Duties were hard to get, but we had plenty of them as in a rural community we've always sold lots of HD trucks. The sales history helped us and hurt the city dealers. This will hurt us the other way when the new Mustang comes out, as I don't sell many normally, I'll have a harder time getting them.
Now this system ends up with leftovers as not every dealer is earning exact allocation. The leftovers are used to get allocation to dealers that have retail orders and didn't earn (or earn enough) allocation to schedule them.
Dealers
There are 2 classifications of dealers, Select (smaller dealers) and Contact (large dealers), for scheduling there are sometimes some differences. In the past for F150s, both worked in the same allocation system, but currently on most models the Select dealers won't have to get allocation, they get every order they place automatically. So on most models, the smaller dealer will be able to get them quickly.
Fleet doesn't go through the allocation system. Fleet gets a percentage of the weeks production and schedules by order date so this eliminates any time differences between dealers and also allows them to sell to fleets without using an allocation that should go to a normal customer. Fleet unit sales don't count to earn allocation either.
Commodities
A list of controlled commodities is usually distributed on Wednesdays. These are the items that are not available (not material hold, but short term supply shortage) and items that aren't going to be "free demand".
Free demand items are those that are readily available, supply outdoes demand. Other items may have a restriction.
For example let me give a list of controls (not actual amounts, just for example based on things seen in the past.
Two tone paint (Supercab/Regular cab) 30%
Two tone paint (SuperCrew) 18%
Total SuperCrew 35%
5.4L V-8 80%
What this means is the % of the trucks scheduled that can have this option. That isn't an individual dealer thing, but all dealers in the region (controls are often regional, but usually most regions are the same). That means that if one dealer doesn't use his share, another may get a higher percentage, or if another doesn't prioritize right, he may miss all the controls and get the free demand items only.
Keep reading part II in the next post...
