Although choices are always a good thing to have, it’s still possible to have too much of a good thing. Case and point: the 2008 Ford F-150 . The outgoing model of Ford ’s popular pickup truck can be ordered in billions of different combination. This staggering fact has inflated production costs and reduced dealer turnover. But the Blue Oval has addressed the problem and will greatly reduce the number of order combinations for the ’09 truck.
For 2009, Ford will reduce the number of F-150 options from the billions to around 10 million – a reduction of more than 90 percent, according to the Michigan automaker.
By reducing the number of available combinations, it will allow Ford to streamline its production operation and will also ensure that dealers get popular models instead of highly-customized trucks that often sit on dealer lots for up to 12 months.
But the F-150 will be just the first in a long line of vehicles that will represent the new way of thinking at Ford, according to Automotive News. Following the F-150’s October launch, Ford will reduce the number of combination available of the Expedition from 250,000 to less than 10,000, and has set a goal to average about a 1,000 combinations throughout its car offerings. As previously reported, the 2010 Ford Focus will have just 150 possible combinations.
