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Ford has set up integrated organisations to handle product development and purchasing for the group on a worldwide basis. The move extends the reorganisation of product development functions that took effect from December 2006 to bring in the purchasing function too.

Ford says it is also forming a global network of engineering centres that will work on the "core attributes" of Ford vehicles globally. The reorganisation is intended to create "global product development leads" for different vehicle segments.

In the new arrangement, North American product development and purchasing teams will be responsible for electrical and body (interior and exterior) engineering for vehicles worldwide, and for some powertrains such as V-6, V-8 engines, hybrids and automatic transmissions.

European engineers will be in charge of chassis engineering and other powertrains, including four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines and manual transmissions.

Ford group vice president for global product development Derrick Kuzak said the move would enable the group to accelerate new product development and share technologies.

Asia Pacific and Africa engineering and purchasing resources will also be part of the new arrangement, but remain responsible for their own regional programmes. Where a particular region has a strength in a product segment, it will retain control over the engineering and purchasing, so North America will continue to do chassis engineering for F-series trucks and small pickups will continue to be based in Asia Pacific and Africa.

Tony Brown, group vice-president for global purchasing, said: "Better alignment of our resources not only helps Ford – it will also improve the way we do business with our global supply base by simplifying our sourcing process."