New flexible manufacturing techniques will help Ford switch from big trucks to compact cars at several North American plants, an analyst said on Wednesday.
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The automaker earlier this week said it would spend US$75m on its Michigan Truck assembly plant body shop to convert it to handle smaller, C-platform vehicles. The tooling for the big SUVs currently produced there will be removed in November and installed at the Kentucky Truck assembly plant, Global Insight’s Aaron Bragman said.
“Flexible manufacturing techniques will help the company convert all of its plants to the ability to manufacture multiple models on the same line. This will enable Ford to make several C-platform vehicles at multiple plants, part of its retooling of its North American line-up,” he said in a research note.
Ford plans to switch three of its US truck plants to new compact car production.
The $75m for the Michigan Truck body shop comes on top of the 2005 $300m spend that first converted the shop to flexible manufacturing.
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By GlobalDataFord said the initial investment would “streamline” the conversion to smaller vehicles. In November, when the SUV equipment departs for Kentucky, nearly 1,000 Michigan Truck employees will move next door to Wayne Assembly, which will then boost production of the compact Focus [based on the first-generation European model; not the current G2 car] in order to meet increasing demand.
Bragman said that, according to Ford, flexible production systems are the key to its future. Reprogrammable tooling in body shops, standardised paint shop equipment, and common-build sequencing in final assembly will all allow production of several models in one plant.
“Ford says that 80% of its robotic equipment can be reprogrammed in its flexible body shop to weld vehicles of various sizes, allowing for ‘non-product-specific’ equipment and dramatically increasing flexibility,” he noted.
“The company also intends to heavily use virtual manufacturing techniques as well, in which engineers map out the entire production line in a computer model in order to avoid costly mistakes after installing equipment on the shop floor. Nearly 87% of Ford’s assembly plants globally have flexible body shops, but the company says that 100% will feature such facilities by 2012.”
The plans for Michigan Truck plant (which Global Insight will soon referto as Michigan Assembly) are a part of the company’s recently announced larger plans to convert three of its North American truck plants to small car manufacture by 2012.
Michigan Truck is one; it will begin producing a version of the company’s C-platform in 2010, a Focus-based vehicle currently not sold in the United States.
The company’s pick-up truck plant in Cuautitlan (Mexico) is also slated to switch over to car production; Ford is preparing to retool the plant to make the North American version of the company’s B-segment Fiesta subcompact, also in 2010.
The final plant is the company’s Louisville (Kentucky) plant, which currently builds the body-on-frame Explorer and Mountaineer SUVs. Those vehicles will be replaced with a unibody Explorer, likely to be built at the company’s Chicago assembly plant; Louisville will then also convert to C-platform production, making yet another variant of the Focus compact car.
Bragman said Ford has several options when it comes to vehicles built on the platform for US introduction.
“Small MPVs like the C-Max are likely to show up in the United States, as well as the obvious European Focus,” he suggested.
“Whether or not the Euro Focus will actually be built at Wayne in Michigan has not been announced; that plant currently builds the current US-style Focus, but Ford’s announced plans would mean that it would have three plants producing vehicles in this segment, massive capacity for a segment that is expected to grow.
“While this sounds like a lot, the company’s plans to dramatically increase its focus on passenger cars as opposed to new trucks means that variations of the vehicle are set to proliferate.”
He added that a Mercury version of the Focus-platform vehicle (not necessarily a sedan) is slated, and, given Ford’s new idea of making Mercury a small-vehicle complement to Lincoln, there is definitely room for the brand to grow (with the appropriate marketing).
