Ford CEO Jim Farley slams 'absenteeism' and warns he HAS to make cuts trends now
Ford CEO Jim Farley has hit out at 'absenteeism' after his company returned shocking annual earnings - as he warned the iconic automaker will be forced to make urgent cuts to turn itself around.
The motor company fell well short of the mark as its fourth-quarter returns rolled in on Thursday, where it missed its target earnings for the year by up to $2 billion.
Following the dismal returns, Farley listed off a number of factors that have led to the decline, where he lay the blame at a lack of efficiency and a rise in 'absenteeism'.
'We have to change our cost profile,' he told CNBC, in an interview which came after a call with analysts where he rifled through the company's failing bottom line.
'We know what we have to go after. I'd love to give you all the metrics and all the specific gaps we see.
'But you know, whether it's absenteeism, the number of sequencing centers, the number of wiring harnesses we have, we know what it is.'
Ford CEO Jim Farley has hit out at 'absenteeism' when explaining why the company posted shocking fourth quarter returns
The business leader's call to action comes as a rise in work-from-home employment has rocked numerous industries following the pandemic.
Ford reported 2022 adjusted earnings of $10.4 billion, despite telling analysts it expected to make between $11.5 billion and $12.5 billion just three months earlier.
The company also produced 100,000 vehicles less than it expected over the time frame, while supply-chain issues and a shortage of semiconductor chips increased costs by $1 billion more than planned.
Faced with the mounting problems, which has also included several recalls and troubled launches of new vehicles that sent its warranty costs through the roof, Farley was forced with the question: 'What went wrong?'
'We have a lot of complexity relative to the customer and also inside our company,' he said.
'And we can cut the customer-facing complexity like we have, but it takes time to work that down to parts on the line, to the manufacturing line.
'It just takes time to work through that and that's what we'll do.'
Despite massive layoffs sweeping several industries including the tech field, Farley said he didn't believe that mass firings would be the answer.
'There are things we could do in the short term, but I don't want to just make the output the cuts without redesigning the work,' he said.
'This has to be
