(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- The 2010 Quality Leader of the Year Award was presented to Bennie Fowler, group vice president of Global Quality and New Model Launch, Ford Motor Co., at the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Automotive Division annual awards event held on June 21, 2011, at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan.
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The Quality Leader of the Year Award is presented annually to recognize the quality leadership contributions of an outstanding automotive industry leader. The recipient is an executive who has consistently demonstrated a customer-focused quality philosophy and a defect-prevention-oriented vision.
“It is truly an honor to be recognized among the top quality leaders of the automotive industry,” says Ha Dao, chairman of the ASQ Automotive Division. “Quality leadership must be the overriding goal. Fowler was selected for this award for his visionary leadership and transformational change in driving quality improvement. He is most deserving of this prestigious recognition.”
Fowler was nominated for his visionary leadership, ability to drive transformational change, demonstration of customer focus, demonstration of the quality philosophy, demonstration of sustained results, and building of organizational capabilities.
“It is a true honor to be the recipient of the Quality Leader of the Year Award by the leading quality institution in the world,” says Fowler. “Quality is part of Ford’s DNA, and the Ford team is dedicated to continually finding new ways to please our customers.”
Fowler’s accomplishments include the development of a vision of achieving world-class quality in every region; a quality strategy centering around product, process, people, and perception; a standardized quality operating system to sustain business results; and driving a cultural change that embraces continuous improvement by sharing best practices to spread quality improvement.
Ford’s quality achievements include:
• Ford now ranks fifth overall among major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), rising from 11th place in 2010, according to Consumer Reports. This is based on improvements in both reliability and road test evaluations.
• J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study ranked Lincoln as the top most dependable brand in the 2011 study of 3-year-old vehicles.
• J.D. Power APEAL ranks Ford second among volume manufacturers.
• J.D. Power Retention study shows Ford is tied with Honda for leadership among volume manufacturers.
• 2010 Polk Owner Loyalty shows Ford Motor Co. at 63.1 percent and the Ford brand at 60.3 percent—higher than others.
• 2011 ALG Perceived Quality Study shows that Ford cars had a 16-percent improvement, and trucks 19.6-percent improvement since a 2008 survey—higher than other OEMs.
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