Ford Plans To Change Three Light Truck Plants To Flexible Manufacturing

Autoparts Report, Dec 19, 2002

Ford Motor Co. said it plans to switch three of its North American plants to flexible manufacturing operations. The plants, which are located in Norfolk, Va.; Kansas City, Kan.; and Dearborn, Mich., will produce the next generation of the popular Ford F-150 pickup truck.

Roman Krygier, Ford vice president for manufacturing and quality, told the Wall Street Journal that the three plants will have "standardized" assembly equipment and processes that are flexible enough to produce up to nine different vehicles off three platforms, and switch "with minimal cost and changeover losses" from building one kind of vehicle to another. He declined to identify what other vehicles the plants might be able to build.

With sales of as much as 900,000 annually, the F150 is the best-selling vehicle in the U.S.

The plants in Norfolk and Kansas City are expected to begin building the redesigned F-150 truck in the summer of next year. The plant in Dearborn, which is now under construction, won't start producing until the spring of 2004.

Not only is the new Ford flexible-manufacturing system 10 percent to 15 percent more cost-effective than conventional manufacturing methods, it also allows Ford to cut product- changeover costs by 50 percent, Krygier said.

Most of Ford's North American plants now are capable of making only one or two different vehicles, requiring costly retooling to add other models in response to shifts in demand. "On a comparable basis we are going to be as competitive as" several flexible- manufacturing plants Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are already operating in North America, Krygier said.

The Ford executive reiterated the auto maker is aiming to transform 50 percent of its vehicle-assembly plants in North America into flexible operations by the middle of the decade. It also aims to boost that ratio to 75 percent by the end of the decade, he said.