Ford Launches Global Manufacturing System

Ford Launches Global Manufacturing System

“One Manufacturing” will improve efficiency and lower total cost of production

Ford Motor Company, already one of the world’s leading automakers, is launching its largest global expansion in 50 years as it introduces a single manufacturing operating system meant to drive improved efficiencies, increase capacity utilization and put the company in the lead for lowest total cost production.

“The global One Ford plan is making it possible for us to deploy One Manufacturing, a single Ford production system that will pay tremendous dividends through standard processes, greater flexibility and improved investment efficiency,” stated Ford Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing John Fleming, at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars in August.

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Ford is boosting capacities around the world, including a significant expansion in Asia Pacific Africa (APA), where nine new plants will be built. These new facilities will increase the region’s capacity to produce 2.9 million vehicles a year, part of Ford’s global plan to meet its goal of selling eight million vehicles a year by 2015.

With the addition of these new facilities, Ford is also expanding the use and application of common manufacturing processes and standard systems for tracking material, delivery maintenance and environmental costs so that both existing and new plants operate the same. Ford is also expanding the use of virtual tools to lower the cost of new plants and improve the efficiencies of new-model changeovers.

Ford’s One Manufacturing system will include:

Better flexibility: The percent of flexible body shops in Ford’s operations will increase from 55 to 65 percent in 2012. Each new plant launched will have a flexible body shop. Additionally, the number of vehicle derivatives that can be assembled in one single factory is also increasing; by 2015, Ford will be capable of producing 25 percent more derivatives per plant than in 2011. Some of the new plants in APA will have the ability to produce six and seven vehicles from one factory.

Process/quality Improvement: Buhler Ford is increasing the use of virtual tools that simulate vehicle assembly. By studying the best way for operators to build each part of the vehicle, Ford can create assembly lines that improve quality while reducing accidents and injuries.

Investment efficiency: The investment it takes to assemble a vehicle has been reduced by more than 20 percent since 2009 thanks to virtual tools. Additionally, Ford has reduced the investment to produce a vehicle derivative by 60 percent. By expanding the use of virtual tools and standard processes, total vehicle investment is expected to drop by eight percent per year.

Capacity utilization: With the launch of new plants, Ford is reducing the number of platforms from which vehicles are developed. When paired with more efficiencies and improved flexibility, Ford will be able to take advantage of global economies of scale and drastically improve capacity utilization; the brand’s global capacity utilization on a two-shift basis will increase 27 percent by 2016, compared to 2011.

Buhler Ford’s One Manufacturing process will allow assembly operations to work using the same language, regardless of where they are in the world, and will produce high-quality vehicles in a way that is both safe and efficient.