Green, Global, Groundbreaking? Ford Says Its New Focus Factory Is All That
Half a billion dollars later, a 53-year-old Ford (F) plant that once could have been the poster child for oversized, gas-guzzling SUVs like the Lincoln Navigator is starting to crank out some of Ford's leanest, greenest models, which next year will include a battery powered electric version of the Ford Focus.
Not only that, the former Michigan Truck Plant, now known as the Michigan Assembly Plant, is reborn as a flexible manufacturing facility. That means it can switch among several different models in response to changing consumer demand, without a prolonged and expensive shutdown.
The plant's bread-and-butter model is now the Ford Focus. The new Focus went on sale in the United States last year. It epitomizes the new global manufacturing philosophy at Ford and at archrival General Motors (GM).
Flexibility, not customizing
Ford used to sell different versions of a model called the Ford Focus all over the world. They had the same name but were exclusive to their respective regions, meaning they didn't share any parts and were developed separately from one another, even though they were about the same size and attracted the same sorts of customers. The Ford Focus that was sold in the United States was exclusive to North America and represented only about 220,000 cars a year.
The new model rides on a global platform that initially represents about 850,000 units worldwide. Ford plans at least 10 different models on that platform, which could ultimately account for up to 2 million units worldwide.
That saves Ford a lot of money per unit in development costs and in buying the parts that all those models share under the skin, ranging from big parts like engines and transmissions to obscure parts like fasteners that hold everything together. Obviously Ford can negotiate a much cheaper unit cost with its suppliers when it buys 2 million of something, as opposed to 220,000.
Catching up with the Japanese
That's an obvious idea, but the lack of flexible manufacturing has been an Achilles heel for the domestic manufacturers, in contrast to their Japanese and Korean competitors. Rivals like Toyota (TM), Honda (HMC), Hyundai (HYMLF.PK) and Kia (KIMTF.PK) have been much more likely in the past to build more models off the same platform, and to build flexibility into their manufacturing plants.
To be fair, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors had a bigger problem in the not-too-distant past simply building enough trucks, let alone worrying about flexible manufacturing. U.S. sales of the Ford Explorer, for instance, averaged more than 400,000 a year from 1995 to 2003. When gas prices rose and consumer tastes changed, Explorer sales fell to only about 52,000 in 2009.
Ford swears it's learned its lesson. "If the last few years have taught us anything, it is that customer wants and needs can change quickly - much more quickly than we have been equipped to efficiently respond to in the past," said Jim Tetreault, Ford vice president of North America manufacturing, in a written statement.
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Photo: Ford