It was a drama “worthy of a James Bond script,” the Detroit Free Press‘ sensational headline announced. Ford spokesman Mike Levine provided a hashtag-heavy rundown of the operation’s timeline via Twitter. The automaker even felt it worthy of a lengthy media release.
Never has a supply chain disruption provided a car company so much positive PR.
The hastily planned effort to restart Ford F-150 and Super Duty production stemmed from a massive May 2nd fire at Meridian Magnesium Products in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. In the blaze’s wake, several automakers found themselves lacking the various parts needed to produce a wide number of vehicles. Shutdowns and temporary layoffs followed.
Facing the loss of approximately 15,000 F-150s a week, Ford mobilized employees on both sides of the Atlantic to reach a workaround. Then it hired a Russian cargo plane. Moonraker it ain’t, but the automaker can now announce that production of the world’s best-selling vehicle resumes on Friday.
According to the company, Meridian is once again producing truck parts, having refurbished and moved tooling at Eaton Rapids. To jump-start parts production, Ford removed 19 dies from the facility on May 6th, then flew them to its facility in Nottingham, England on May 8th via an Antonov An-124 cargo plane. Ford enthusiastically states that one of the dies weighed 87,000 pounds. (The An-124 has an onboard crane capable of winching 120 tons into the belly of the Russian bird. Canada used it extensively to move military materials in the early years of the Afghanistan campaign.)
On May 14th, parts production began in Nottingham, Levine tweeted.
Bam!
“While the situation remains extremely dynamic, our teams are focused on returning our plants to full production as fast as possible,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, in a statement. “The ramp-up time to full production is improving every day.”
F-150 production begins Friday at the company’s Dearborn Truck Plant. The remainder of F-150 production, as well as that of the Super Duty line, starts up at the Kansas City Assembly Plant and Kentucky Truck Plant on Monday.
The company’s release describes a heroic, and perhaps even dangerous effort to restart production of a beloved (and wildly profitable) vehicle that bleeds red, white, and blue. Raise your hand if you feel a cringe coming on. Anyway, as someone once said, never let a good crisis go to waste. Perhaps the less cynical among us will take a different view of what amounts to a fairly impressive effort, albeit one without a humanitarian bent.
Meanwhile, because Meridian isn’t yet up to speed and the supply of certain parts remain depleted, production interruptions continue for some Fiat Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, and General Motors vehicles.
[Image: Ford Motor Company]
The bigger question is what Ford has learned going forward. If they are still reliant on this one company alone for critical parts, a replay of this “heroism” will look more like stupidity. Well designed production systems avoid these kinds of heroics.
Mark Musk?
Seems Ford is trying to catch Tesla in how much useless BS it can spew to try and make itself look good.
I’m glad that they figured out how to resume production on their cash cow F150 in order to subsidize their car lineup for another year or so.
I fail to see how this is a PR boost for Ford – it involves the Russians – and since they are now the demons with horns instead of the chinese, I’d say this hurts Ford. The average person reading ten words or less will not know what this means. They’ll be lucky to know what those ten words mean.
Well.. as a supply chain professional, I have to say hats off to them for figuring this out (and yes, they are the ones I’m sure hatched this plan) but then hats back on for not having a back-up supply chain for critical parts for the most profitable vehicle the company makes.
I’m sure there is nuance here, i.e. they may be the only supplier that can make this part (sole source) .. BUT, it would behoove Ford to now push that supplier to open another plant as a back-up in return for a heftier contract perhaps. With provisions / assurances of up-time / production guarantees.. just sayin’..
Perhaps it is harder than you think.
I read that Apple wants to jettison Samsung (can’t imagine why) as the primary producer of its iPhone displays, but apparently no one else can match Samsung’s quality/quantity, so they be stuck. Ford may be in the same boat.
True, but we’re not talking proprietary high tech here.
Magnesium castings were used in WW2 on US radial engine crankcases, as load bearers for engine cradles on German planes, etc. Common tech.
Having only a single supplier for a vital component shows how unaware accountants are, in my opinion. “What could possibly go wrong?” Purchasing geniuses brainstormed over coffee one day, as they offered to pay a buck less per unit to a supplier for an exclusive contract.
Well, now they know.
It sounds like they took the initiative to get their dies moved before other carmakers, moving themselves to the head of the line where it comes to getting their parts produced. Pretty savvy.
Very few non generic parts are multiply sourced as you’d have to develop them and qualify them twice over, track them in production. You’d also have to pay two suppliers to run at sub optimal speeds. So, sorry, your experience as a supply chain professional is not helpful in this context. Some parts are multiply sourced if the primary is volume constrained.
This paranoia of Ford goes inline with Obama taking away gas and electric from white people.
If Ford people are so smart how they cannot make cars profitably instead of finding ways to collude with Putin. I am pretty sure that Putin personally set fire on plant to hurt Hillary and Democrats and help Trump in midterm elections.
Your attempt to put down the non-trump believer did not come out very well. Next time try and use grammar check before posting.
“…a beloved (and wildly profitable) vehicle that bleeds red, white, and blue”. Hmm, so what colors do Russian vehicles bleed? Think hard before you answer this one.