Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409290021
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: AVON LAKE, OHIO LENGTH: Medium
So it's not surprising that Ford Motor Co.'s naming of the first woman ever to head one of its assembly plants has been met with more than passing interest.
Deborah S. Kent, 41, the new manager of Ford's 3,746-employee Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, also is the first black female plant manager at the No.2 automaker - or at any automaker, for that matter.
The well-supplied grapevine at the Avon Lake plant - where United Auto Workers Local 2000 members make the Mercury Villager and Nissan Quest and the bodies for the Econoline and Club Wagon - has done a good job of getting the word out on the new boss.
``It's about time,'' said Cherri Cordes, a Lorain, Ohio, resident, as she worked on a minivan frame inching down the assembly line.
``She comes with credentials,'' said Jesse Ross, who has worked at the Ford plant for four years.
``It's a new era,'' he said. Ross said it doesn't make a difference to him and his co-workers that Kent is a woman.
``We have a lot of women working around here. Maybe she'll have a different view of how we do things here. It'll be a nice change,'' he said. Kent succeeds David S. Porter, plant manager for the last six years, who will take a position as director of manufacturing for Ford's China operations.
Kent said Monday that the challenge in the auto business ``is the constant, steady need to make improvements.''
The third of nine children whose mother never worked outside the home, she said, ``We had a father who taught us we could be anything we wanted to be. So I never did understand when people said I couldn't succeed in manufacturing.''
Ford officials say Kent was tapped for her strong background in manufacturing management, which began as a trainee at a General Motors plant in her hometown of St. Louis. ``This is a great and important plant,'' Ford spokesman Bill Carroll said.
Kent comes to a plant that endured some tough labor negotiations that threatened a strike in the spring.
Ford and Nissan formed a joint venture in 1988 to produce the Villager and Quest minivans. The Ohio Assembly Plant is Ford's only production facility operating under two different labor contracts - a traditional agreement and a modern operating agreement, which employs the team concept and gives employees more input on the way they do their work.
John Hatcher, president and chairman of Local 2000, said his discussions with Kent have been positive. He expects she'll continue ``all the positive things we've started here.''
Kent began her career with GM in 1977 and was hired by Ford in 1987 to be area manager at Ford's assembly plant in Wixom, Mich. She comes to Avon Lake from that plant, where she was named manufacturing manager in February.
Kent joins the small cadre of women who run smaller manufacturing plants in this male-dominated industry.
General Motors and Chrysler Corp. both have female plant managers, but overall, women still represent a small percentage of top decision makers in the industry.
Kent said she wants to be judged on her skills and accomplishments, not her gender.
Asked how she would like to be remembered when she eventually goes elsewhere, she said, ``I'd like them to say that I did a good job, that they hate to see me go.''
by CNB