Ford Motor Company’s Michigan Truck Plant Body Shop Now
Features Flexible Manufacturing
Ford Motor Company is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan. It is
one of the world's largest automakers, with approximately
318,000 employees in 200 markets on six continents. Its
automotive brands include Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Land
Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo. Its automotive-related
services include Ford Credit, Quality Care and Hertz. Ford Motor
Company observed its 100th anniversary on June 16, 2003.
Ford Motor Company has announced that they shall be investing
$300,000 in a 240,000-square-foot, flexible body shop expansion
at the Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, Michigan.
"This has been a tough, but gratifying year in manufacturing for
Ford. We've transformed our plants to bring more products,
faster to our customers," said Matt DeMars, Ford vice president,
Vehicle Operations. "Our goal is to build stability and
standardization into our North American assembly and stamping
plants, which is what flexible and lean manufacturing is all
about."
Ford has had a wonderful year in terms of sales and productions.
Plus, they have launched a record number of vehicles the
previous year and would like to sustain the rhythm for 2005.
They are now doing well in trying to meet their previously
stated commitment of infusing flexible manufacturing into 75% of
its body manufacturing shops, trim and final assembly operations
by the end of this decade. Flexibility in the body shops is the
most crucial component of flexible manufacturing due to the
complexity and the cost of the operation involved. Ford’s
innovative flexible body shop system requires less expenditure
than both time-honored methods of traditional body shops and
other devised flexible manufacturing systems.
With lasts year’s successful sales and production, Ford is hard
pressed to surpass the impressive numbers they have previously
posted. At the start of 2004 Ford launched an onslaught with
production of the F-150 at the Dearborn Truck Plant; the Ford GT
at the Wixom Assembly Plant; the Escape Hybrid at the Kansas
City Assembly Plant; the Ford Five Hundred, Freestyle and
Mercury Montego in Chicago; the Mercury Mariner at the Ohio
Assembly Plant; and the Ford Mustang at AutoAlliance
International. Ford plans to be just as aggressive to maintain
if not surpass the same numbers as the preceding sales year.
DeMars credits their highly successful launches to the Ford
Company’s focus on quality; their well planned processes and to
their manpower. The people behind the manufacturing of their
vehicles are the heart of the whole operation. "We are committed
to getting our launches right. We know that a strong launch is
critical to a vehicle's success," he said. "The Ford Production
System, our Launch Quality Operating Systems and our Safety
Leadership Initiative are important tools in our manufacturing
system."
The aforementioned Michigan Truck Plant produces the Ford
Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. This particular plant employs
more than 3,000 hourly employees. The addition of the flexible
body plant will certainly expand the production capabilities of
the plant. Details on future products that maybe produced on the
truck plant will be announced at a future date.
"This is an extremely exciting time for this plant and for the
employees here," said Gary Johnson, plant manager. "It
reinforces to everyone our future, the long-term viability of
the Michigan Truck Plant and our workforce. The new body shop
expansion and flexible tooling give us a strong future with the
capability of producing exciting new products."
This will also enable the Ford Motor Company to adjust with the
ever changing market and do so at record speed. Plus, aside from
being able to react more quickly they could also do this with
significant cost savings. This is also in accordance to the
company’s dedication to its commitment in producing more
products at a faster rate.
With today’s ever changing needs and demands every company needs
to be on its toes at all times. Any dilly dallying may cost
dearly. Many auto manufacturers have been in hard work devising
plans and methods on how to cope up and yet cut costs. These way
customers are happy and manufacturers may still churn out
profit.
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