Facing falling sales and shrinking market share, Ford Motor Co. announced Thursday that it will combine its car and truck product development operations.
The reorganization will take effect Oct. 1.
Chris Theodore will head the joint operations as vice president, Ford North America Product Development. He had been vice president of car product development since March 1999. Gurminder Bedi, vice president of truck product development, will retire. He has been vice president of the truck product development group since January 1988.
"By combining the truck and car product development teams, we will have one common process for all products and increase focus on the customer," said Nick Scheele, group vice president North America, to whom Theodore will report.
As part of the reorganization, the manufacturing team will work more closely with the product development team.
No word yet as to what this may mean for Ford's medium-duty commercial truck operations. Ford recently announced a joint venture with Navistar, Blue Diamond Truck Co., to produce medium-duty commercial trucks.
Ford last month announced plans to cut 4,000 to 5,000 salaried positions, about 10 percent of its white-collar work force, by the end of the year. Top executives and managers won't get any bonuses this year, either.