Retooled Ford Wayne assembly plant to be company's most flexible

Sam Abuelsamid — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:29:00 EST

Workers building pre-production 2012 Ford Focus - Click above for high-res image gallery

Ford is crowing that its freshly retooled Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, MI is now the most flexible final assembly factory in its global network. The Wayne plant used to assemble the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator full-size SUVs but is now building pre-production examples of the 2012 Focus. One of the features touted by Ford for its new global C-segment platform is that it is driving down development cost by building 10 different bodystyles on the architecture using many of the same mechanical components.

At launch, the Wayne plant will build both four-door sedan and five-door hatchback variants, but those are expected to be joined by a new Lincoln compact and possibly variants like the Grand C-Max. Ford will also be building versions of these vehicles with conventional, hybrid and full battery electric powertrains. Over 80 percent of the equipment in the body shop is programmable and can run different body styles almost with the flip of a switch. Ford says this new flexibility will also allow it to quickly adjust its product mix to shifting market conditions.

Gallery: Ford Michigan Assembly Plant

[Source: Ford]

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Retooled Ford Wayne assembly plant to be company's most flexible originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next Ford Focus to be built exclusively in Europe?

Chris Paukert — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Coupe, Budget, Sedan, Plants/Manufacturing, Hatchback, Ford

2009 Ford Iosis Max concept - click above for high-res gallery

Since it first came to the market in 2000, Ford's Focus has been consistently lauded for its crisp "European handling," and thanks to a Ford of Europe press release yesterday, that bromide sounded like it was about to become truer than ever. The release in question announced that the next all-new Focus is to be sourced from a single location - the Blue Oval's Saarlouis Plant in Germany. Quite understandably, that proclamation caused a bit of consternation here in the States, with some news outlets reporting that North American Focus models will also originate from the German facility. Not so.

Autoblog spoke with Lincoln, Mercury communications manager Mark Schirmer this morning (despite his title, Schirmer has been tasked with preparing for the U.S. launch of the 2010 car) and he has re-confirmed that all North American Focus models will originate from a freshly renovated Wayne Assembly Plant in Michigan (something that Ford officials initially promised back in May).

The intention of FoE's confusingly worded statement was to note that Saarlouis is to be the single point of origin for all European Focus models. In addition to Saarlouis and Wayne, Ford will also likely produce the next Focus at a plant somewhere in Asia, but a location announcement has not yet been made.

Gallery: Ford iosis MAX Concept

Next Ford Focus to be built exclusively in Europe? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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