Ford says five-part plan will create more efficient manufacturing plants, get products to market faster

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Eugene, Ore., Aug. 8 - Ford Motor Co. is using a five-component plan to create leaner and more flexible manufacturing plants that will get its products to the market faster, according to Dave Szczupak, Ford's vice president of manufacturing for the Americas.

Szczupak discussed the plan Tuesday at the JP Morgan Harbour Automotive Conference.

Ford's plan involves using common architectures, standard sequences of assembly, common design standards, virtual manufacturing tools and flexible manufacturing techniques, he said.

"Lean manufacturing really is the combination of making sure that we have the right vehicle with the right common architecture, so we can employ standard sequence of assembly with common design standards, so we can really employ the virtual tools to accelerate the business forward, Szczupak said.

Ford believes that building various vehicles from one architecture and using common design standards for all of its vehicles will lead to improved quality, reduced engineering, quicker time to market and an increased availability of resources, Szczupak said.

"One common architecture, four distinct vehicles, that's getting a real bang for our buck," he said of the Ford Fusion family of vehicles, which use a common base.

Between 2003 and 2006, Ford has reduced its number of architectures globally by more than 20%, and the company has plans for further reductions, Szczupak said.

Ford has also developed a standard assembly process to be used across its factories, he said.

"It's a key approach we are using to drive investment reduction at all of our plants," Szczupak said.

In addition, Ford is employing virtual manufacturing tools that create digital models to enable the company to consider assembly feasibility and sequencing before bringing in any hardware, Szczupak said.

The virtual manufacturing tools also allow Ford to perform clearance studies, cycle time studies and ergonomic analysis.

"This isn't just some kind of fancy animation. It's a very important and powerful tool for us to use for every one of our new models in the product pipeline, Szczupak said.

As a final step in its manufacturing plan, Ford is working to install flexible body shops and assembly systems in all of its North American plants, Szczupak said.

"To prosper, or even survive, today in this ultra-competitive market, we have to be able to respond quickly to changes, and manufacturing flexibility is an absolute must for us," he said.

Reduced capacity planned

Szczupak also said Tuesday that Ford's planned capacity reductions, downsizing and restructuring of its footprint will be keys to improving the company's hours per vehicle (HPV) moving forward.

"Although we still have a lot more to do, we have made progress in improving our efficiency effectiveness, he said.

Ford has plans to cease production at 14 of its facilities, including seven assembly plants, by 2012.

The company will have reduced capacity by 26% by the end of 2008, Szczupak said.

"Our assembly capacity utilization will improve significantly in that time and this is one of the major impacts on really truly improving our manufacturing efficiency," he said.

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