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Monday 23 September 2013

The Ian O'Rourke Story



Ian O’Rourke
Former National Service Manager
Ford Australia Limited Tractor & Equipment Operations

 



I first met Ian when I worked as a tractor demonstrator with the Ford Motor Company during 1969.

At that time he was working as a Sales Manager and had Tasmania as part of his territory. I was stationed there for a six week period and domiciled in a hotel in Hobart, Ian found where I was staying and sought me out. He introduced himself and insisted on taking me to a good restaurant for dinner and he further impressed me by settling the account.

Over the next twenty odd years our paths crossed with the changing of our careers, Ian is a great communicator and has passed on many of the trends and ideas of the day. Much of the stuff I learnt from Ian still stays with me today.

As Ian is one of the best story tellers the Farm Machinery Industry has produced, he can take it from here:

 

IN THE BEGINNING 


   School Days...  
My early life was spent growing up on a large farm at Wakool in New South Wales. At the time this was mainly a grazing property and Echuca to the South was the biggest town in our area. Later the family moved to Blighty near Deniliquin, this property had irrigation which allowed us to run dairy cattle, sheep and grow a rotation of cereal crops. Because of this diversity I learnt many skills that prepared me for my life in the farm machinery industry.


Unfortunately by 1959 many different situations had developed on the farm and it caused me to leave. I headed to Melbourne to look for work that would be associated with the land. My quest took me to Massey Ferguson in Sunshine where I had an interview with the Company’s Chief Field Test Engineer, Jock Berry. He said this was a whole new division for MF and I had a job as soon as he had his budget approved.

To fill in time, I spent two weeks on the assembly line. What an eye opener that turned out to be. The union rep became quite agitated with me, as in his opinion I was working too fast.



   Ian and the MF585 on the test track...
I joined the Field Test Team, at that time it consisted of five personnel. This job turned out to be more than I could have hoped for. I was helping to assemble newly invented machines, I also assisted them to develop a test plan and put it to work. My initial job was conducting the final tests for over a year on the prototype MF585 Self Propelled header. It was a crowning moment to see it released into production. The biggest programme that I was involved in was the testing and development of the MF585 PTO header. We conducted testing and efficiency trials around Melton and Ballarat in Victoria. We even took the machines as far afield as Griffith in New South Wales to test the machine’s suitability for harvesting rice.

I worked on another project trialing a new hay machinery line of mowers and the MF503 baler in conjunction with Walsh Bros who were contract haymakers working in and around the Warrigul area of Gippsland in Victoria.

By this time the Test Team had grown to eighteen members and Jock Berry was promoted upstairs into administration and he asked me to join him, I did.  My new position was to work out test schedules and programmes for upcoming new inventions, it was a great job, but the downside was it had no outside work. I transferred from Engineering to Massey Ferguson’s Melbourne Branch, at the time this was the Victorian Division of MF. I started as Service Rep. I was issued with a bright new panel van and charged with a task of looking after the Western half of Victoria I had so many miles to travel ahead of me.

 
   MF585 Training in Hamilton Victoria...
Luckily most of the machines that I had been involved in testing had just hit the market. However the first twenty five MF585 PTO headers were delivered into my area without instruction books. Most of the problems I encountered were due to a lack of information. The manuals had been written to coincide with the header’s release but printing missed the deadline and the machines were shipped without them. From where I stood it was an easy task to assist dealers and owners to get the headers working; and all due to my previous years testing.

On one occasion I had to visit an owner in North West Victoria to check his 585 header. When we arrived on the farm to meet Keith Geneil he and another man were shearing. They were chipping away at some sheep and I thought when watching them that it was not a good sight. I mentioned to Keith that they seemed to be making a very hard job of it and he said, “I’ll bet you couldn’t do any better.”  I won that ₤2 bet.

My territory was by far the biggest in area, and although I had eighteen dealers to service. It was unfair when compared to the other two reps. They looked after nine dealers each, but they were all close to their home town and these guys were receiving ₤28.10.0 per week, about 12.5% more than me.

There was some relief in sight as a new sales/service rep joined MF and took about seven dealers out of my hands. His name, Noel Howard, and Noel would later join Ford and go onto many great things. We frequently met while out on territory and assisted one another wherever possible.

####

Early in 1964 a large advertisement appeared in a Friday’s edition of The Melbourne Herald. Ford Australia was looking for people to join a new division to cover the impending release of a new tractor range. Seeing this as a good opportunity, I applied for a position and found there were at least seventy applicants for a total of six positions.

My interview was with the then Tractor Service Manager, Jack Walker. The question I remember most about that day was “What salary would you require?”  I drew myself to my full height I said, “Nothing less than ₤30 per. week.” Three days later Jack rang me and asked if I could start the following Monday for ₤35.10.00 per week!!!

I drove the MF panel van out to Sunshine to hand in my resignation and got a very cold reception. Especially when I was marched into see the Branch Manager George Johnson. He told me in no uncertain terms that, you are probably leaving for another one pound per week. He threatened, “I’m going to see to it that you will never get another job in the agricultural industry.”

I joined Ford Tractors & Equipment at their first small plant in the north Melbourne suburb of Coburg on February 10th 1964. During that day met many people and made new friends, Col Knox was from New Holland, John Vaughan, Ron Sommerville were also from Massey Ferguson, and Peter Newman. Two months later the team was joined by Les Ward and Roy Pinney.

Initially I teamed with Col Knox and we spent sixty plus days driving down to our Training School at Mornington. We were learning and covering the whole list of the Fordson Super Major, and Super Dexter products out of Britain. We also had little time to learn everything we could about the new Ford 6000 that had arrived from the USA.

Working with Col Knox was almost unbelievable. He was knowledgeable, witty, tough and funny but so sincere in everything he did.

 
Training at Mornington was quite a task as it also included a range of implements from Napier Implements in Dalby. Our team had to manage a hay machinery line as well. Ford added a range of 520 and 530 baler models and also the 531 and 532 mower range which we presented to about twenty five dealer personnel per week. About midyear I went to the South Island of New Zealand for three weeks to introduce the Ford haymaking products to the South Island dealers. Les Ward covered the North Island.

Back in Australia, and about August 1964, Jack Walker informed John Vaughan and I that we were going to Texas, U.S.A. We would be receiving product training on the new Ford 6X range of tractors on one of the Ford’s training farms. So after about eight months of being told that I would never get another job in the agricultural industry, I was in a Boeing 707 heading to U.S.A. and was travelling First Class.

John Vaughan and I met our international colleagues at the training farm in the deep South town of Vienna, Georgia. We were all eager to learn about the new range of tractors.  To look, listen, learn and drive for two weeks what a huge experience for a farm-boy from Wakool.

    Souvenirs from many of my trips with FORD....
The Farm Manager, Wally Burgess, was a larger than life Texan who delighted in telling us he was born halfway between Oobligoochi, Tulifni and Weedowi, we became great friends. I met him many more times when he came to Australia to run training sessions on the Ford Tractor Loader Backhoes. These were machines he handled with expert fineness and skill.

In addition to the 6X range, we had to understand enough to train our Australian and NZ service technicians to expertly maintain the Ford industrial range, these were 3400/ 3500/4400/4500 models and could be specified with various combinations of loaders and backhoes.
 

On our return to Australia the training team was split into pairs. Peter Newman and Roy Pinney were one team, Ron Sommerville teamed with Les Ward, while Col Knox and I made up the other pair. For many weeks we zigzagged across Australia, Completing a one week’s course to about twenty dealer personnel, and then moving on to another new group the following week.

By the end of the 6X tractor training and travelling around Australia during 1964/65, my diary recorded that in those 12 months I had travelled approx 60,000 air miles and 30,000 road miles.

As mentioned earlier, at times I was teamed with Col Knox and we enjoyed working together. However, Col had one big failing, food. There never seemed to be enough for him. His wife, Tina, in encouraging him to lose weight tried everything but her words always fell on deaf ears. One day he arrived at the Brisbane Office with two empty packets of Limmits Slimming Biscuits. These were supposed to be eaten as his midday meal while he was on territory for five days. They tasted good and Col ate the lot on the half hour trip into the office. It was not unusual for Col, when in the Brisbane Office, to pinch and eat the lunch of Tom Brown, the Tractor Plant Supervisor. Tom would then have to buy his lunch at the canteen.
 
Late in the 1960’s I became a “Zoney” or Zone Manager. I covered a group of dealers between Melbourne and Albury, Melbourne and Bairnsdale, plus four dealers Tasmania. It was a big territory.

 
This brought me into the 1970’s.and it appeared at that time that my opportunities in Ford had become limited so I resigned. I went to New Zealand for a couple of years working all sorts of sales jobs. It was a great experience that I enjoyed a lot.
 
 
About Christmas 1973, I was still living in Wellington, New Zealand and received a call from an old friend from my Ford Days, John Oulton. We agreed to meet and had a long chat over a few beers.  John had just been appointed Ford’s General Manager of their N.Z. operations and was very excited about his new position. We talked for a while and he asked me when I would be going back to Australia.  I told him I was taking the family home in about 3 weeks. He said I should rejoin Ford, but I told him that at his stage I’d not made any plans. However on Boxing Day, I received a phone call from Noel Howard who was back in Australia after his stint with Ford South Africa.  After quite a long call Noel suggested that I come to see him when I arrived back in Australia, which I did.

 
Clarence Reagan (ex U.S.A.) was the General Manager for the Tractor & Equipment Division in Australia and after we had some discussion I rejoined Ford T & E as an Industrial Zone Manager. A role in which continued until 1975.

On a Sunday afternoon, early in 1975, Noel Howard, who had taken over as General Manager for Australia phoned me at home and asked me to come over for a couple of beers. So I went over to his home about five kilometres from where I lived. Joan and Noel were weeding the garden when I arrived but we were soon sipping some coldies. 

After a while Noel stood up and shook my hand and said, “Congratulations, you are now our new Service Manager.”  That day could never have been better, and to this day I have never regretted rejoining Ford. Up until then, I thought I had a fairly good understanding of what would be required in the service arena. However times were changing and our consumers were becoming more aware of their equipment needs and their performance.

In 1964 the company had only two tractor models available but by the mid sixties there were four main models and each model had up to twenty options available. In the seventies Ford was venturing into new areas and introduced a range of Industrial Ford wheel loaders – A62, A64, A66 for action in Australia. These were very good machines and in the first year took they upwards of 16% of the Australian market for their specific category.

   Excavator and Wheel Loader Training:     FORD... 
Ford had purchased a European company called Richier which was based in France and this was where the wheel loaders were manufactured. Richier also manufactured excavators and tower cranes which were destined to be marketed in Australia. Vin Smith and I travelled to France to gain an understanding of this new product line and work up plans for introduction into Australia.  Although the tower cranes did not gain local government approval for release, a number of excavators were brought into Australia and sold easily.

Incidentally, seven Richier tower cranes were used to build the Sydney Opera House – then they were moved to West Australia for further construction work.

 
   Some of the Service Managers from across the World....
As many people would be aware, the Company kept bringing out new models or updating current units.  To keep abreast of these developments, I was required to attend the worldwide service managers’ meetings that were usually held annually in either Detroit or Boreham House in U.K. There were twenty seven of us in the group plus the World Service Manager, Bill Hepburn, and some of his assistants.

Bill was a strong character and he achieved many changes that became necessary engineering items as a result of our meetings. One of his greatest achievements was to bring in engineers for each section of the tractor design department whereby a great exchange of ideas occurred. I really enjoyed these meetings; not only for the information on the new products but the opportunity to exchange ideas between my counterparts from other parts of the world.

One meeting was held at one of the Ford training farms in Paris, Texas, home of Campbell’s soups, and boy was it cold. When I flew out of Melbourne it was 39 degrees C and on arrival in Dallas it was minus 13 degrees C.  The whole group from all over the world took over a whole motel. It may have changed by now, but in the seventies Texas was a “dry” State. You could only buy alcohol with a meal in a restaurant no hotels or bottle shops. We had to overcome this serious problem. Two of our personnel were sent off in a company van to Oklahoma, twenty six miles away. They were directed to purchase “supplies” from houses on the border. Booze could be seen stacked on the verandas. At one of these places, we found an oldish and happy African American sitting on a rocking chair. He was drawing on a corn cob pipe he had in his mouth, he would welcome us and for a large purchase like ours, his face would light up. The merchandise was taken back to the motel where we would place the alcohol in plastic bins and fill each bin with snow.

In 1981 I had the pleasure, in company with Keith Pincott, of escorting thirty dealers, or their staff to the United Kingdom for approximately three weeks. As well as taking in some sightseeing the group attended a five day school at the Company’s training centre, Boreham House located in Essex.

Judging by the response on our return to Australia, the trip was well received. Soon we had received a number of requests to set up a tour of dealerships in U.S.A. for dealers and their wives and/or staff. Some preliminary work was done on the U.S.A. plan, but due to a downturn in the Australian financial situation, the tour had to be cancelled.


As many dealers and personnel will recall the Ford Australia Tractor and Equipment Company did not have a tractor to compete in the 6 cylinder100 HP market. In fact there was nothing in the range from the main plant in Basildon UK either.

Noel Howard devised a plan to produce a new model in the Broadmeadows assembly plant. Two tractors an 8600 and a 7700 were split at the front gearbox housing. The 8600 engine was then mated to the 7700 rear end and the engine detuned to produce less horsepower and thus fit into the 100 HP market segment.



And the   FORD 8401.. was born.

 This proved to be a great product move that certainly assisted dealers to gain a much better market share and also improved profitability.



 Noel  Howard with the FORD 8401s.

* 8401 photos courtesy Les Gason's family collection.* 




Looking back this was a great achievement and I feel privileged to have been involved in the early development stages.





  And later she gets a new party dress..
 
My first wife and I divorced early in the eighties and to help me deal with my personal problems the company allowed me some breathing space. I worked in the North Queensland Zone for quite a few months.

   Ian and Gwennie 1984...
Later I relocated to a zone radiating west and south of Brisbane. During this time I remarried and settled on the Gold Coast after resisting a number of calls to return to Melbourne.

Gwen and I have now been together for almost thirty years and it has been a great marriage.
One of the many tasks facing a tractor and machinery rep is the Field Day Circuit. I attended all kinds of events throughout Australia, from the small dealer days to the more elaborate National Field Days. These occasions could be a little painful at times. For State and National days it would sometimes take a month of setting up, testing, and cleaning, to be practiced and ready. This often meant that up to six personnel would be virtually living in one another’s pockets.

One of our displays many visitors would remember seeing was Polly. We had built a full sized FORD 5000 tractor totally constructed from polystyrene foam. From the ground, Polly looked to be the real thing. We used to lift it up about ten metres from ground level, it sat on top of a steel pole and it could be seen all over the field day site. To hold Polly steady, it would be attached to a second steel pole. The second short pole was welded to a one metre square flat plate which was placed into a large hole in the ground and then covered with soil. At the end of the field days, Polly would be gently taken down and the short pole uncovered although some of the dirt would stay on the plate.

An individual, who shall remain nameless, jumped into the hole with visions of impressing us, placing both arms around the pole saying. “I’ll get this out for you blokes.”  With eyes bulging, sweat appearing on his forehead he finally gave up.  Imagine his surprise when we pointed out that he was standing on the main steel plate.

On another occasion we were at a big field day and part of our plan was to really push the haymaking products. We had the new 532 Pitmanless mower hooked behind a FORD 3000 tractor, and standing ready to cut some heavy grass. Col Knox did a great spiel on this mower then called on our tractor driver, Ron Sommerville, to start the tractor and take it away. A crowd of about a hundred farmers were watching when Ron started the tractor and took off. The crowd were clapping but then all of them walked away. Ron had forgotten to put the PTO into gear and the cutter bar broke away, but Ron had driven on about fifteen metres before he looked back. It was a DISASTER!

Owner Evenings were always a point of conjecture among company personnel but we did them anyway. We conducted a number of owner evenings at various locations around Australia. Some people suggested that by conducting owner nights we would be inviting at least one major customer complaint to be raised by an unhappy owner in an open forum.  I believed this thought to be false. My firm belief was that together with the dealer and owner, the questions could usually be resolved very quickly leaving everyone happy by the end of the evening.

Dealers, without a doubt I believe that the Ford T & E dealers were a good bunch. Like most cross sections of any group, there were many good businessmen among them, and only occasionally would a major concern arise.  Generally it could be settled with face to face discussion.

Probably the hardest group of owners I had to deal with, are to be found in North Qld. If the owners could have kept their emotions out of the equation, then the difficulty could usually be settled very quickly and quite easily.

 
A bizarre story I can tell is from the early 1980’s when one of our North Queensland dealers sold a TW tractor to a new customer. This was not unusual and the finance went through a prominent Australian finance provider. From day one the customer complained bitterly about the tractor; he criticised almost all of the major components. However after checking the tractor over, the dealer maintained that all of the owner’s concerns were baseless. Not content with the dealer’s assessment. the owner sent countless faxes to Ford Australia and many more to Ford U.S.A.

In an effort to finalise this unique situation, we agreed to replace the tractor. This was extraordinary for us, as the tractor had done less than 150 hours of work. Our only condition was that the owner agreed to pay freight on the replacement, and swap the tyre equipment between the two units.

The new unit was freighted out to the owner’s property on an agreed afternoon and the two tractors were placed side by side in a paddock to make the tyre change as easy as possible. After everyone involved checked the two units over, all agreed that a local tyre company would change the tyres early next day.

Next morning the tyre changers arrived on site to find both tractors were missing. The owner stated he knew nothing about the missing TW’s. Police were called and were left with an unsolved crime for 12 months. The finance company even engaged a private investigator but they could not resolve the matter.

About 15 months after the ”disappearance,” two bushwalkers going through rainforest in North Queensland came across a big cover made of green mesh hiding some large objects. They lifted up the mesh and lo and behold they discovered the two TW’s. Their condition was very poor due as a result of being exposed to the tropics. After reporting their find to the police, Ford was notified.

I went to the site to inspect the tractors confirming it was the same ones that disappeared. Both TW’s were in very poor condition. All of the tyres were totally flat, and the covering on all of the electrical cabling had perished. When I touched the radiator grille it disintegrated immediately.

The twist to this situation was that the owner involved in the matter had died as the result of a bad accident two or three months prior to the discovery of the tractors, and despite many theories, there has never been a plausible explanation for this costly exercise
 
In my time as Australian Service Manager the company only faced court action on two occasions. In one case the company’s liability insurers settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, but in the opinion of Noel Woodford, Ford’s in house legal counsel, and me, we believed we should have pursued the case as we believed it was winnable for Ford. In case 2, the company was totally absolved from legal action

Anyone in today’s farming industry would be aware of the dramatic changes that have occurred in Australia, and have some impressions on the challenges we face as a farming nation. In my time with the company I have witnessed the following changes.

  • The number of farms between the 60’s and 90’s dropped from approx. 225,000 to 170,000.
  • Case took over International Harvester and became Case IH.
  • Ford purchased Versatile and New Holland and was renamed Ford New Holland.
  • Fiat purchased Case IH and also Ford New Holland
  • In this time Australian machinery manufacturers’ declined, losing ground to imports and we saw a depletion of our engineering skill across the country.
Ian celebrating his 80th birthday with
    his son Anthony earlier this year....
I took early retirement from Ford New Holland early in 1992.

Since leaving the tractor industry I have been working with my son Anthony in the swimming pool business, and I spend most of my time in the retail shop. We have a good group of customers for whom we test the pool water quality, and supply chemicals. We also offer a repair / replacement service for pool equipment.

The work is both interesting and enjoyable.

Looking back, my time with Ford Tractor Operations was very fulfilling and if I had my time over I would do it all again. For me Ford was an excellent company to work with. I also found it was a place to learn many new ideas from the talented staff located in the various divisions of such a large company. I still enjoy contact with some of the dealers or their staff and keep in touch with my Ford counterparts who I’d met and worked from across the Globe.

I hope I’ve made a contribution somewhere during my travels that has made a difference somewhere in this troubled world we share today.

 
Ian

Tuesday 10 September 2013

Graham Clark's Incredible Journey


A couple of weeks back I received news from Graham Clark in Europe about his battle with cancer and subsequent treatment to regain his health. Some of you will remember him from his days as a trainer with Ford Tractors and later New Holland. He visited us Down Under on a number of occasions and made many friends both here in Australia and New Zealand.

Graham let me know early this year that he wasn’t well and had a battle on his hands. He has approached this as he has with any task in his life . Below is the story of his journey so far.
He has produced a poster to use showing his treatment and if you would like a copy please let me know.

For anyone wanting to contact Graham just e-mail me and I will send your message on.

Terry
#####
For the last eight months, Cancer, specifically Head and Neck Cancer has ruled my life however thanks to a huge team of experts, their professionalism and knowledge it did not take my life.

I am one of the lucky ones!

After being released from Hospital despite being warned nothing will happen for weeks, you actually get worse for a period before you very very slowly improve. Improvement accelerates once you start to eat real food again. The liquids they pump into you during the darkest period, basically keep you alive!

Today, I am in remission, still not out of the woods yet but certainly going the right way. The tumour is reported as dormant, now down to a circumference of 1cm, down from 3,5 x 2cms, and we are waiting on a future MRI in November to determine if they will operate to take out the residual mass.

I am in for a lot of Hospital visits over the coming years, but all worthwhile.  The Cancer, Radiation Treatment and Chemotherapy are a walk in the park, however, it’s the associated side effects that are frankly horrendous. After the treatments, I'm currently left with a reduction in hearing, ear ache, tinnitus, 22% body weight reduction and Hand and Foot Syndrome and numerous other treatment associated issues.

Small prices to pay for life!

My Cancer was caused by the HPV Virus, which is the common cause of Cervical Cancer in women.

Today in many countries girls are vaccinated against this through a National Vaccination Programme. Boys are not included in any country that I know of, however they too can be vaccinated. William our son will be vaccinated as soon as he is 11 years old. With Head and Neck Cancers increasing in males, the pain and tremendous stress this creates can be avoided seeing vaccination well worth it.

This illness is now behind us and I look forward to many more years of life with renewed vigour, strength and enthusiasm.

Keep Healthy,

Graham