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AD&P; > June 2013 > FEATURE > Advancing Manufacturing Technology at Ford > Gary S. Vasilash > gsv@autofieldguide.com u Ford is working to provide manufacturing fexibility in its assembly plants. A prime example is the Michigan Assembly Plant, where they are building the Focus, Focus ST, Focus Electric, C-MAX Hybrid, and C-MAX Energi— gasoline-powered, electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles—all on the same production line. It is the only plant in the world that is doing so. (Photo: Sam VarnHagen/Ford). equipment. Hettle says that the integration and the processing knowhow (e.g., tip speeds, fow rates, dwell times) are Ford's competitive edge. The resulting metrics are process time savings of 20 to 25%, a reduction of CO2 emissions of from 15 to 25%, and a reduction of VOCs of 10%. "It shrinks the paint shop down," Hettle says, "which saves energy"—Hettle points out that for a given assembly plant, the paint shop accounts for more than 50% of the energy used on the site—"manpower, and capital investment. When you put all that together, we've been successful in demonstrating the business case." The approach that 3-Wet exemplifes is Ford's focus on both standardization and global growth. "When we develop a best practice," Hettle says, "and it is good for the environment and saves money, we can replicate it around the world, really quickly." "What you see in paint, is consistent in all departments," he points out. Hettle explains that the manufacturing strategy in place at Ford is based on 42 a bill of design and a bill of process. "There is harmony between product design and the manufacturing sites. And we are developing standards around what we believe is best." Those standards—such as how cars are built— are adhered to world-wide" If you go to Michigan Assembly and see the Focus body line and then go to the Chongqing 2 body line, you'll see it is the same sequence of assembly, the same type of material handling robotics, the same touch points. The vehicles are built to the same Ford bill of design and bill of process for unitized cars." But what of the danger of standard practices leading to inertia, of continuing to do something one way because it is deemed to be the "standard"? How, say, would something like 3-Wet get deployed when a standard might have called for the tried-and-true method? "We don't want to be stagnant," Hettle says. "Standardization can lead to that if you're not careful So we have really active innovation work streams, with global chief engineers responsible for that. We are constantly, with our suppliers, looking for new technologies and new best practices." To craft those documents, there is close working collaboration between the product personnel and the manufacturing personnel so that there is agreement on things like locators and touch points. With the new approach they'd perform a pilot at a particular site, then assuming it provides sufcient benefts, move it to the new standard for worldwide deployment. Not only does this common practice allow the fast replication of systems around the world, but the bills of design and process also mean that it is not only possible but practical to launch new vehicles into a system while the existing products are being phased out without any downtime. One of the keen areas of focus at Ford in its assembly operations is fexibility. Hettle says that historically, the approach in both North America and Europe was to build plants that were capable of producing high volumes of a single model. Now, worldwide, they are looking to develop the capacity