bop11

In the early 70's I worked for a company that made the blower wheels for all the major car companies, so I had to visit their design groups.
Went to GM and they had a guard at the front door and a reception area that looked like a Subway station, all yellow tile. Everything almost military in the designs and organization. Had to be escorted everywhere.
Went to Chrysler and they had a beautiful building, big reception area, beautiful woman at the desk. Each designer had his own cubicle, although people from one group didn't know people from the next group, but still very organized. One guy on the AC ****, one guy on the temp ****, another on the duct for each design. Compartmentalized designs evolved from last design.
Went to FORD, no reception area, just walk in. Ask the first guy you see, "where is AC/Heating?" "Oh, hey bob where's AC?" "I think up on the third floor" I just walk up and ask around. Everyone talking to each other, designs seem quite open, so you may have parts from all different areas.
Different philosophies at different companies. So your Ford maybe a bit different that the one built just before it.

fastbackford351

My bosses father retired from GM in the late 70's and he has regaled us with stories of the bureaucracy that ran (runs) rampant in GM.

ie, when you reach a certain level of management, you WILL have 'X' desk, 'X' curtains, 'X' credenza, 'X' fake plants, down to the infinitesimal detail. And if an impromptu meeting needed to be held, "Oh, we can't have the meeting in "Bob's" office, he's only an "x" level manager.


He says that it's a wonder they ever got anything built.

kdgoff

Back then they would use whatever they had on hand.

cashs mom

And don't forget counting the tiles in the ceiling to make sure the office was the right size. I had no idea anyone did that until we moved our office into an engineering company's building and one of the engineers informed us that the vice president's office was a 1/2 tile larger than the president's. It does make you wonder how anything gets done.