Ford News Blog

The Wall Street Journal reports that ..."Ford Motor Co. will invest $75 million to convert a Michigan sport-utility-vehicle plant to small-car production as part of its strategic shift to sell more of the fuel-efficient vehicles in North America starting in 2010."

At the heart of this manufacturing transformation is a flexible operation, which uses reprogrammable tooling in the body shop, standardized equipment in the paint shop and common-build sequence in final assembly, enabling production of multiple models in the same plant.

Aiding the implementation of flexible manufacturing is Ford’s industry-leading virtual manufacturing technology. In the virtual world, engineers and plant operators evaluate tooling and product interfaces before costly installations are made on the plant floor. This method of collaboration improves launch quality and enables speed of execution.

In a flexible body shop, at least 80 percent of the robotic equipment can be reprogrammed to weld various sized vehicles. This “non-product specific” equipment gives the body shop its flexibility and provides more efficient use of the facility.