Production Testing Starts for 2012 Focus
Ford, which vowed five years ago to remake itself into a company that builds cars as well as it does trucks, is close to turning that objective into a reality.
This week, Ford took the Free Press on a tour of the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, a factory in which Ford has invested $550 million to convert from a big SUV factory to one that is beginning to build small, fuel-efficient Focus compact cars.
“This truck plant made money for Ford,” said Cornelius Meads, a UAW team leader who has worked for Ford for 15 years. “We are hoping the car can do the same.”
Ford’s successful transition back to popular carmaker — its car lineup includes the Fiesta subcompact, Focus compact, Fusion midsize and Taurus large sedan — is one of the factors that is contributing to Ford’s increasing financial success.
Today, Ford is expected to report a second-quarter profit of about $1.6 billion before special charges, marking its sixth straight profitable quarter.
“In the U.S., we were known as a Mustang, SUV and truck company,” Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally told the Free Press last week. “Because of our agreements with the UAW and our cost structure, we couldn’t build cars in the U.S. profitably.”
Now, Mulally said, that has changed.
A new global Focus on the way
The first batch of pre-production Focus compact cars are coming off the assembly line at the Michigan Assembly Plant, which has been under construction to build the new Focus for months.
Workers at the factory are assembling about a half-dozen cars per day that are drivable, but won’t be sold to the public. Those cars will help Ford smooth out the production process and ensure the quality of the new car.
“We’re building finally,” Plant Manager Rob Webber said. “We are done talking about it so much and now we are actually building.”
Meads of Ypsilanti said the new Focus has all different parts than the outgoing Focus, which is still being built at the neighboring Wayne Assembly Plant, as well as a more exciting design.
Complete Ulbum (Building the Focus)
http://www.freep.com/article/20100723/BUSINESS01/307230002/1320/Fords-reinvention-is-taking-shape