THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 13, 1995 TAG: 9503110375
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: LON WAGNER
BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
As a veteran of 14 different automobile plants, William E. Boggs has diagnosed and corrected numerous manufacturing bugs. But one February morning at Norfolk Assembly Plant, Boggs and the workers in the paint shop were stumped.
Needle-sized dots started appearing on the hoods of freshly painted Ford pickups.
There was a time when the car makers would have turned such a problem over to the engineering staff for study, but in this new era, Boggs, 47, put his head together with paint shop manager Lindsay Benson and the line workers to compare notes on the causes of paint imperfections they had seen down through the years.
It's that kind of hands-on experience that Ford Motor Co. tries to develop in its plant managers, a job Boggs assumed at the Norfolk plant in October. In getting that experience, Boggs has moved around more than some military families.
``It's extremely difficult on the family,'' Boggs said of the constant relocations required of plant managers. ``This is our tenth house as a family. For me, it's not as hard because I plug into the plant life.''
Boggs was named plant manager in Norfolk Oct. 1, just six weeks after he was made manufacturing manager at a Ford assembly plant in Ohio. After working for Chrysler and Volkswagen, he began his career at Ford Motor Co. in October 1987. ``Black Friday,'' Boggs says. ``You remember Black Friday.''
Boggs would be glad to keep his family - Nancy, his wife, and Josh, 9, and Matt, 7 - in Norfolk for a while. But that probably won't happen. The Ford philosophy is to make someone plant manager at a few locations, then make him a program manager in charge of several plants.
The Norfolk assignment has two draws for Boggs: he's from Big Stone Gap, though that Western Virginia town is nearer Ford facilities in other states than the Norfolk plant; and the plant here is a top performer in the company.
``It's a pleasure to be in this plant,'' he says. ``I tell all the guys, `When I wake up in the morning, I pinch myself.' I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and believe me, this is good.''
In some ways, though, it is easier to turn around an inefficient plant than to keep one on top, Boggs said. ``When you're number one, you really have to work to stay there, because all the other plants are shooting at you.''
Boggs wants to ``bring the history back'' to the Norfolk plant, a facility set up by Henry Ford himself. The plant in Norfolk's Campostella area, marks its 70th anniversary this year. To commemorate, Ford executives will travel to Norfolk in May to conduct the company's annual shareholders meeting.
The pin-dot problem in the painted trucks was solved through the troubleshooting experience of assembly plant workers. It took them half a shift to figure it out: an overhead mechanized sprayer was dripping solvent thinner onto the trucks as it painted them.
Even before finding the cause, Boggs guaranteed one thing:
``Believe me, they will not leave the paint shop like that, that's for sure.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page 12 of Business Weekly for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
William E. Boggs
by CNB