The last F-150 has left the creating. According to the Detroit Free of charge Press, the final steel-bodied F-150 rolled off the line at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant around 1:30 a.m. final Saturday. Whilst Ford’s Kansas City facility will continue to manufacture steel-bodied F-150s till the finish of the year, the line in Dearborn is becoming dismantled to make space for the new tooling and equipment required to produce aluminum-bodied trucks for the 2015 model year.
The Dearborn plant will be closed till mid-September, placing about 3000 workers on temporary layoff. Employees will be referred to as back in tiers, with 2 crews returning on September 21 and a third on October 20. Beginning initially with preproduction models, the plant is scheduled to return to full speed prior to January.
As Ford’s F-150 is a veritable profit center on wheels, the company’s selection to switch its venerated pickup truck to aluminum is not with no danger. Ford sold 63,240 F-150s in the U.S. in July, the final complete month of production ahead of the $ 359-million switchover began. In order to preserve the money flowing, Ford demands to expedite the switch but with out sacrificing top quality.
Despite the fact that Ford’s 3000 or so U.S. dealers are slated to commence receiving 2015 F-150s by the finish of the year, Automotive News is citing a letter to Ford dealers signed by distribution preparing manager Kevin Giacomini as well as allocation and commodity manager John Bradley that indicates fleet customers and special orders may possibly have to wait until February of 2015 to take delivery: “We recognize the desire to get the customer units as rapidly as achievable, but do not want to compromise our commitment to quality for the sake of a handful of extra weeks of delivery.” Clearly, Ford is hedging its bets and erring on the side of caution as far as the delivery timetable is concerned. Tempting the hand of fate, Bruce Hettle, Ford’s head of North American manufacturing, has gone on the record stating, “There is nothing we see on the horizon to preclude us from launching on time.” Words to bear in mind.
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