Ford said on Thursday its Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan would resume three-shift operation in September, to meet demand for F-150 pickup trucks. It is also resuming “three-crew operations” at Kansas City Assembly Plant to meet demand for Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner compact SUVs.
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“The move will result in full-time employment for 2,800 employees [in Dearborn] who had been working on a two-weeks-on and one-week-off rotating basis since April,” the automaker said.
“Even with ‘cash for clunkers’ behind us, we expect that demand for our fuel-efficient, high quality new vehicles will remain strong,” said the automaker’s sales and marketing chief Ken Czubay. “We had a solid July sales month, and we are headed toward an even stronger August. We’re being as creative as we can in pushing the system to meet the demand for our products.”
The changes at Dearborn Truck from late next month will boost production by about 10,000 F-150 pickups this year.
The addition of the third shift on the SUV line at Kansas City, combined with previously announced incremental overtime at the plant that began earlier this month, will deliver approximately 2,400 additional Escapes and Mariners by the end of October though employment levels will remain unchanged, as the plant is also moving from two to one shift on its pickup truck line from mid-October.
