Ford Layoffs

Ford has allegedly embraced the JustInTime manufacturing aspect of the LeanDevelopmentProcess, but not the design aspect.

I saw a headline about the huge Ford layoffs recently, and the first thing that came to mind was "the drumbeat of the obvious has been in their ears for 3 decades and their PointyHairedBosses still didn't get it. They would rather fire employees than ditch their useless and self-competing excess brands." --PhlIp

Firing employees is often significantly easier and less risky. Many of the big-3 automakers have contracts with their dealers (who often sell only a single brand, or at most a small subset) that prevents them from eliminating the brand. There are probably more employees of independent dealer franchises than of Ford. Moreover, Ford needs the dealers in order to sell cars; they only need the employees to make cars. A dealer revolt would impact the bottom line much earlier than an employee revolt would - and, depending on their contracts, the dealers may have more legal recourse. -- JonathanTang

Per SoftwareProductLines, why can't they just take half the Jaguars on the assembly line and stamp little Mercury nameplates on them?