Ford plans to boost global production capacity by about 30% as it increases its global flexible manufacturing to produce an average of four different models at each plant around the world by 2017.
Its largest manufacturing expansion in 50 years – announced as it marked 100 years since founder Henry Ford pioneered the moving assembly line – will see eight new assembly plants and six new powertrain plants establshed worldwide.
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New engineering and manufacturing techniques will include 3D printing, advanced prototyping, robotics and virtual simulation.
Ford also projected 90% of its plants would on a three shift model by 2017 which would help increase production time more than 30%.
B7 2017, virtually all Ford vehicles will be built on nine core platforms, boosting manufacturing efficiency. There are currently 15.
Though it is closing its plant in Belgium, Ford nonetheless plans to produce 6m vehicles in 2013.
In 2014, it will open an engine plant in Brazil, a third assembly plant and a transmission plant in Chongqing, China, plus an additional assembly plant and engine plant in Sanand, India.
The following year, it will open another Chinese assembly plant in Hangzhou and add an engine plant at its vehicle assembly joint venture Ford Sollers in Elabuga, Russia.
New technologies
Meanwhile, the automaker is working on new manufacturing technologies such as a patented technology to rapidly form sheet metal parts for low volume production. The technology, known as Ford Freeform Fabrication Technology, or F3T, will lower costs and speed delivery times for prototype stamping moulds – within three business days versus two to six months for prototypes made using conventional methods.
The automaker is also expanding 3D printing which creates production-representative 3D parts layer by layer for testable prototypes. 3D printing can create multiple versions of one part at a time and deliver prototype parts to engineers for testing in days rather than months.
Robotic innovations improve vehicle quality and production efficiencies. For example, the company’s new dirt detection system uses robotic vision to create a digital model of each vehicle in final assembly to analyse paint and surface imperfections in comparison with a perfect model. The result has been significantly improved surface quality and more time for operators on the assembly line to address complex issues.
Using a ‘virtual factory’, the company can improve quality and cut costs in manufacturing facilities by creating and analysing computer simulations of the complete vehicle production process. This includes simulations of how assembly line workers have to reach and stretch when building a vehicle to ensure the work conditions meet ergonomic standards. Since the implementation of this virtual process in 2001, the number of ergonomic issues during physical builds has been reduced by nearly 20%.
