DEARBORN, Mich., May 12, 2011 – Ford Motor Company announced today that it exceeded its supplier diversity sourcing goals by purchasing $4.1 billion in goods and services from its tier-one minority- and women-owned business enterprises in 2010.

The increase from $2.7 billion in 2009 reflects higher vehicle production volumes, expanded sourcing to existing suppliers and the addition of several new minority- and women-owned businesses.

In addition, Ford’s tier-one suppliers spent $1.29 billion with tier-two minority- and women-owned businesses in 2010, an increase from $1.02 billion in 2009.

“Ford Motor Company takes very seriously its commitment to developing and growing a diverse supply base,” said Tony Brown, group vice president, Global Purchasing. “These companies offer a wealth of innovation, and if we are to remain competitive, it is imperative that we connect with the best of the best. Not only does this strengthen our supply network, it creates jobs and economic growth for the communities that we serve.”

The $4.1 billion spent…continue

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WAYNE, Mich., March 17, 2011 – Ford Motor Company is celebrating production of its all-new global Ford Focus, built for North American customers in its completely transformed Michigan Assembly Plant (MAP). Following a $550 million transformation, the plant features an environmentally friendly workplace with flexible manufacturing capability and a motivated, specially trained work force ready to deliver a fuel-efficient new car to the marketplace.

“MAP epitomizes the best of what Ford stands for – fuel efficiency, quality, smart technology,” said Mark Fields, president of The Americas. “Focus delivers even more of what customers truly want and value – and this new car could not arrive in the market at a better time.”

The new Focus sets a new standard in the small car segment in North America, offering more technology and features than more expensive European cars, such as SYNC® with Traffic, Directions and Information, MyFord Touch™, active park assist and Wi-Fi access, while delivering up to an unsurpassed 40 mpg with an automatic transmission.

Fuel economy and greener driving will be built into each new vehicle slated for production at MAP. With its flexible manufacturing system, Ford workers can build multiple models on one or more platforms in the same facility. The Focus Electric zero-emission battery electric vehicle is slated to go into production late this year at the plant, followed by production of the new C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid in 2012.

With this product lineup, Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant will be the first facility in the world capable of building a full array of vehicles – gas-powered, electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid – all on the same production line.

The company’s investment in Wayne, Mich., is supported by strong partnerships at the state, county and local level, as well as by Ford’s green partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. Michigan Assembly Plant is one of 11 Ford facilities in the U.S. participating in the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program initiated by Congress and implemented by the Obama administration. This green loan program is helping to develop advanced technology vehicles and strengthen American manufacturing across the country. Ford, Nissan, Tesla, Fisker and Vehicle Production Group (VPG) are all participants in this initiative.

Making Ford vehicles smarter, greener
MAP is Ford’s most flexible plant, thanks to reprogrammable tooling in the body shop, standardized equipment in the paint shop and a common-build sequence in final assembly. This flexibility allows the Ford team to produce multiple models on the same assembly line – and in even more environmentally friendly ways.

In its flexible body shop, at least 80 percent of MAP’s robotic equipment can be programmed to weld various-sized vehicles – a Ford first. And, MAP’s integrated stamping facility allows the stamping and welding of all large sheet-metal parts on-site, ensuring maximum quality and minimum overhead.

The plant also will employ an efficient, synchronous material flow, where parts and other components will move in kits to each operator, providing employees with the tools they need in the sequence they will need them.

Michigan Assembly is the first U.S. plant to commercially use a three-wet paint application that will save about $3 million in production in natural gas and electricity – without compromising Ford’s paint quality or durability.

“In most other automotive plants, we apply a layer of paint called the primer coat and we bake the unit, and then we put on the base coat and the clear coat, and we bake it again,” said John Nowak, environmental engineer. “The three-wet process allows us to put on primer, base and clear, and bake it only once. We save all the electricity from the blowers that run the booths and the ovens, plus all the natural gas from heating the air and the ovens. Ford is leading the way on this greener, cleaner paint process.”

Because of the differences in technique – including robotic processing, elimination of equipment and associated pollutants, and increased line speed – the three-wet paint process produces 6,000 metric tons fewer CO2 emissions per year compared to waterborne systems and 8,000 metric tons fewer CO2 emissions per year compared to conventional high-solvent-borne systems. There also is a Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) emissions savings of 5 percent related to processing.

Driving on sunshine
MAP also boasts one of the largest solar power generation systems in the state as well as several electric vehicle charging stations, allowing the plant to operate on a blend of renewable and conventional electricity.

Renewable energy collected by the solar panels directly feeds the energy-efficient microgrid, helping power the plant. When the plant is inactive, such as holidays, the stored solar energy will provide power during periods of insufficient or inconsistent sunlight. The projected energy cost savings is approximately $160,000 per year.

“We have taken steps great and small to make the plant as green as possible,” Nowak said. “Our goal was to help the 4,000 Ford employees make this several-million-square-foot facility truly environmentally friendly and cost-efficient.”

The plant also has 10 electric vehicle charging stations that recharge electric switcher trucks that transport parts between adjacent facilities – saving an estimated 86,000 gallons of gas a year.

Plus, the 50 percent of the parts arriving for the all-new Focus that come from Europe, packed in cardboard, are carefully collected, sorted and recycled, as is the bubble wrap, the Styrofoam and water bottles used by employees. Even the temporary wooden partitions that were put up as the plant was revamped and remodeled were donated to the local Habitat for Humanity.

Quality focus
But equipment isn’t all it takes for a plant transformation to occur. Work force training is equally important. Doug Mertz, organization development manager at MAP, worked with the team to develop training that would focus on the plant’s operating principles – safety, quality and flexible manufacturing – with high priority placed on respect for people, product and processes.

Group leaders from Wayne Assembly Plant participated in an intense, three-week quality education, which included pre-builds of the new Focus and in-depth training on safety, ergonomics and work-station design. In addition, group leaders were trained on “soft skills,” such as developmental leadership, personality preferences and their impact on behavior, conflict resolution, change management, techniques for teaching others, and other skills to aid in situations specific to their base departments.

“Since the group leaders would be training the base operators when they came to the MAP site, we wanted them to understand not only the implication of performing their job correctly, but also the impact that performing the job incorrectly would have downstream,” said Mertz.

As the full MAP salaried and hourly work force arrived at Michigan Assembly Plant, operating patterns helped to ease the transition. The first week, the normally two-shift operation was combined into one so that group leaders on both day and afternoon shifts could work collectively with their teams and ensure standardization of work practices. Shifts continued to overlap so line employees could work together and minimize variability on job performance.

“The all-new Ford Focus is truly global in the sense that we’ve created it to satisfy the needs and wants of people all around the world,” said Plant Manager Rob Webber. “This has been an exciting challenge but one we’re ready for. We have the people and processes in place to deliver on the promise of the new Ford Focus and the many products to come.”

Inside MAP
Click here for video of the all-new Ford Focus on the assembly line at Michigan Assembly Plant.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 18, 2011 – Ford Motor Company today announced a further commitment to U.S. manufacturing with plans to build a new vehicle at its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri after Ford Escape production moves to Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant and retooling of the Kansas City facility is complete.

Ford will invest $400 million in the Kansas City plant to install a new body shop, new tooling and other upgrades. In addition, the company has committed to retain 3,750 full-time jobs at the plant – consistent with current employment levels. This includes the positions required to assemble the Ford F-150, which will continue to be built at the facility on a separate line.

“This investment and promise of a new vehicle to be built in Kansas City reinforces Ford’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing and American jobs,” said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas. “Investing in our plants, products and people is critical to Ford’s ability to compete with the best in the business. Ford is committed to doing everything it takes to work with its partners, including the United Auto Workers, to remain competitive.”

Kansas City Assembly Plant is the fourth North American facility Ford is retooling for production of new vehicles that are at the heart of an increasingly balanced lineup of cars, trucks and utilities. The new vehicle planned for the plant will be announced at a later date.

In planning to secure Ford’s future manufacturing presence in the state, Ford worked closely with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and the Missouri State Legislature in passage of the 2010 Missouri Manufacturing Jobs Act. This legislation provides tax incentives for certified automotive manufacturers that commit to new investments and job retention in Missouri and suppliers who create new jobs in the state.

“Today’s announcement ensures that next-generation vehicles will be built right here in Missouri, by the best workforce in the country,” said Nixon. “Last year, we came together to pass the Missouri Manufacturing Jobs Act to help our state compete for the production jobs of the future. That hard work paid off. For thousands of employees at Ford’s Claycomo plant, and thousands more at suppliers across Missouri, this news is a big win. We’ll be building the vehicles of the future right here in the Show-Me State.”

Kansas City Assembly Plant opened in 1951 and has approximately 3,750 employees. It currently produces the best-selling Ford F-150 on one shift and the award-winning Ford Escape on three crews.

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DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 2, 2010 – What looks like a harmless speck of sand to one person can be a big nuisance for a new car owner. That is why engineers at Ford Motor Company are working with the same computed tomography (CT) scanners that police and hospitals use to improve vehicle quality.

Much like crime solvers on television, Ford has its own team of “forensic” investigators employing cutting-edge scientific methods to improve the quality of parts such as gears, latches, welds, nuts, bolts, fasteners and sensors before they are assembled into a finished car.

Analysts like Ford’s Vlad Beltran in the past would spend hours, days — and even weeks — sanding an individual part, such as a bolt, one layer at a time until a small scratch or bump was discovered. Now, Beltram uses 3D virtual imaging to target a flaw inside, such as an air pocket or scratch, that may be no bigger than a dust particle.

Beltran’s work keeps Ford quality high by uncovering the air pockets, indentations, and blemishes that mean the difference between acceptable and optimal performance.

The critical tool is a Skyscan Micro-CT scanner that fits on a table-top.

“The CT scanner is an essential tool to help us study why parts aren’t performing at their optimum level,” said Beltran. “It can be used for any number of things – troubleshooting for supplier parts, new parts that engineers are testing or parts from vehicles undergoing durability testing. When a part contains a deficiency, it’s critical to address it right away. We need to find out why. We need to either improve the part or improve the process.”

Ford works closely with its suppliers to understand how parts are made. The CT scanner can help check for internal and structural deficiencies, and verifies that any changes suppliers make do indeed improve the quality and performance of the part.

The remarkably advanced Skyscan works on the same premise as larger CT scanners used in hospitals or crime investigations. Lab analysts take an X-ray of the part being studied and then use the scanner’s software to reconstruct it virtually. The virtual image of the part can be viewed horizontally and vertically in digitized slices. The scanner can detect defects down to 17 microns – smaller than a single particle of sand or one-fifth the diameter of a human hair. That means problems not visible to the naked eye can be seen on the computer screen.

Using the software, analysts also can create a short, three-dimensional video from the data to better explain the situation.

The overall goal is to think and work proactively, said Jeff LaDuke, product development supervisor at Central Laboratory. “There are so many components on so many systems of a vehicle, and if one part is flawed, it can compromise the integrity of the entire vehicle or vehicle system,” LaDuke said. “What we’re doing here is finding problems before they become issues with customers.”

Before the lab obtained the scanner, each component was studied and taken apart by hand. “We’d spend hours sanding it a little, polishing it a little, examining it under a microscope and then take a picture of it, repeating this process several times,” said Beltran. “Even then it was possible that we could go right through a defect and not even know it.”

With the scanner, many issues can be solved within a few hours. Once the mystery is solved, the information is given to a materials engineering group that works with designers and a supplier base to resolve the issue and/or correct the situation.

“Word has spread since we’ve obtained this technology, so we’re increasingly seeing different types of parts from all over the world,” added LaDuke.

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