Ford Fusion

month we'll hear from three North American chiefs. And will begin with Ford's new president of the Americans. -- here and Rex. He's only been on the job about five months replacing mark fields who -- named the blue Mobil's chief operating officer. Early in his career -- worked for General Motors. And later spent time at a manufacturing. Investment group. Henrikson joins Ford in 2000. To manage the van dyke transmission plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan. He would go on to lead Ford of Canada. And then North American manufacturing. In 2009. Hendrix was asked to head Ford's Asia Pacific Africa region. At the time Ford was at best a marginal player in China trailing far behind Volkswagen and GM. But he quickly put a plan in place to produce up to one point two million vehicles a year there by 2015. Doubling its current capacity. The 46 year old Hendricks is now back in Dearborn. -- recently sat down with us to discuss a number of items including -- Ford is modifying its vehicle launch procedures. To catch problems early year. What's been the biggest challenge for you. Well I think clearly getting through launch issues on the Lincoln and Khazei and and and brain that great product to life. A car many believe is Lincoln's one last shot -- survival. But quality glitches in parts shortages at Ford's factory in Hermosillo Mexico. Forced the company to ship hundreds of -- To a suburban Detroit plant for quality inspections and repairs this year. As a result many early and -- customers had to wait months for their cars. So Ford implemented process improvements. Betting in the first quarter. The list includes monthly launch reviews. That's were manufacturing. Product development. Quality in purchasing

part -- -- of growth in the future. Edwards believes expanding the Ford and Lincoln lineups presents a quote great opportunity to make changes to the vehicles. One area in particular. The my Ford touch infotainment system which is hurt the auto makers ratings in quality survey. Hedrick says Ford continues to upgrade software to make the system simpler and faster but keep an eye out for hardware to. -- of the team look at our strategy that we use for knobs and the senators back and sliders. Negate a lot of feedback consumers want from now to keep aren't -- -- -- to introduce those back into the vehicles. Through April Ford motor's US market share is increasing nine tenths of a percentage point in sales are up 13%. To keep up with the man. In the third quarter. Ford will begin hiring 2000 workers at its Kansas City, Missouri assembly plants. To build more F 150 pick ups and transit commercial vehicles. In the fall the auto maker will craft fusion at a second plant in flat rock Michigan. We are looking to build a few more explorers for example -- explorers been