soupy Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 http://www.detnews.com/article/20110401/AUTO01/104010438/1361/Ford-to-idle-first-plants-over-parts-shortage-due-to-Japan-quake I wonder if Ford, and other manufacturers might consider bringing more work back on-shore? Maybe even in-house. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F250 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 http://www.detnews.com/article/20110401/AUTO01/104010438/1361/Ford-to-idle-first-plants-over-parts-shortage-due-to-Japan-quake I wonder if Ford, and other manufacturers might consider bringing more work back on-shore? Maybe even in-house. Naa, then we wouldn't have a supplier to blame if there is a recall. Besides modern business dogma dictates American companies employ as few Americans as possible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANTAUS Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 I agree, we could bring them back to our continent. Mexico can surely handle this... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twintornados Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 (edited) from the article... Ford's Hermosillo, Mexico, plant will be down the week of April 4 to retool for the new 2012 Fusion and Lincoln MKZ. This was previously scheduled and it is not parts related. I wonder what the updates will be? Edited April 2, 2011 by twintornados Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soupy Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 I agree, we could bring them back to our continent. Mexico can surely handle this... Do high unemployment , decreasing home values and budget deficits for local communities and states make you happy? You are a true patriot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aneekr Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 from the article... I wonder what the updates will be? For the 2012 MY Fusion, just a couple new colors (Kona Blue replaces Blue Flame on non-hybrid models; Ginger Ale is a new offering on the hybrid), along with a new wheel design & elimination of manual transmission on the SE. ice-capades kindly posted the 2012 Fusion order guide in the Fusion/Milan/Zephyr/MKZ section of BON Forums. :happy feet: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F250 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Do high unemployment , decreasing home values and budget deficits for local communities and states make you happy? You are a true patriot. Any damage to the American economy and other concerns are secondary...just so long as the company stays within the limits of the law. Ethics and morals do not apply, maximum bottom line profit is the only objective. This is the new Ford Marketing Company: Designed in Europe, built in Mexico and sold to unemployed Americans...but that's ok because we are one big happy global economy. I believe if you could get the truth out of Mulally he would say keep the F-150 at that golden child plant in Dearborn as a token and build everything else in Mexico or China. When Ford has a few years of fat profit again watch where they choose to invest the big bucks...I'll bet you a beer it will not be in America. Greed is good! Strange how foreign car companies are eager to build plants here while American companies are idling plants as fast as possible. I'll probably get baned for that tirade. And now back to our "jobless recovery." 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Explorer and Taurus are responsible for three shifts at Chicago, Focus production is up and running at Michigan AP. Next Fusion is being developed by Ford NA. New Escape has been confirmed for US production. And I wouldn't call 58,000 F Trucks last month tokenage, Ford will really struggle with only one plant operating... The big problem with Hermosillo is that it is running beyond the plant's intended capacity, meaning they have to expand or build an overflow plant, that should be AAI with Mustang. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robot_trainer Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 (edited) http://www.detnews.com/article/20110401/AUTO01/104010438/1361/Ford-to-idle-first-plants-over-parts-shortage-due-to-Japan-quake I wonder if Ford, and other manufacturers might consider bringing more work back on-shore? Maybe even in-house. It seems rather odd to me that theres an overstock of Mustangs. Must be all at the plant because I havent seen one in my area, and I only seen a couple at nearby dealers (and I'm in one of the most populated areas of Canada). Now I'm a simple goon (I'm in my 40's and I still love peanut butter and jam sandwiches) but wouldn't it make sense to build more retail orders since they are sold rather than have stock sitting around getting old. There have been a whole wack of guys (and girls) waiting on retail orders of Mustangs (me included) and if you check around the Mustang forums you'll see a great deal of whaling and gnashing of teeth. Seems like money in the bank to me to expedite retail orders at this point in time, but like I said, I'm just a simple goon. Edited April 2, 2011 by robot_trainer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 (edited) It seems rather odd to me that theres an overstock of Mustangs. Must be all at the plant because I havent seen one in my area, and I only seen a couple at nearby dealers (and I'm in one of the most populated areas of Canada). Now I'm a simple goon (I'm in my 40's and I still love peanut butter and jam sandwiches) but wouldn't it make sense to build more retail orders since they are sold rather than have stock sitting around getting old. There have been a whole wack of guys (and girls) waiting on retail orders of Mustangs (me included) and if you check around the Mustang forums you'll see a great deal of whaling and gnashing of teeth. Seems like money in the bank to me to expedite retail orders at this point in time, but like I said, I'm just a simple goon. Something doesn't gel with that 116 day inventory figure, if it's based on March sales then that means there's around 40,000 Mustangs available.... what are they all V6s that no one wants? I seriously doubt that there are 40,000 Mustangs out there unsold and more likely that 116 day inventory figure is based on February selling rate, meaning about 17,000 Mustangs. I hope someone can confirm that suspicion as I think Ford would have stopped AAI much earlier if they really had 40,000 unsold Mustangs... Edited April 2, 2011 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F250 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Explorer and Taurus are responsible for three shifts at Chicago, Focus production is up and running at Michigan AP. Next Fusion is being developed by Ford NA. New Escape has been confirmed for US production. And I wouldn't call 58,000 F Trucks last month tokenage, Ford will really struggle with only one plant operating... The big problem with Hermosillo is that it is running beyond the plant's intended capacity, meaning they have to expand or build an overflow plant, that should be AAI with Mustang. We are still in "The Way Forward" bloodbath...I'll remind you of what Ford has carved out of America since 2006. Plants closed (and will never come back) Atlanta Assembly (its product was sent directly to Mexico) Taurus to Fusion sedans St Louis Assembly Wixom Assembly Norfolk Assembly one of only 6 Ford plants to run continious through the great depression, they had been building Ford trucks since the Model-T Twin Cities Assembly...coming soon Batavia Transmissions Maumee Stamping And dont forget more closings in Canada the plan was to close 14 North American plants (7 assembly) This eliminated over 28% of Fords NA workforce 30,000 factory jobs and over 4,000 salaried positions. After the recovery will any of these American jobs return? Will Ford re-invest in America? We shall see... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 (edited) We are still in "The Way Forward" bloodbath...I'll remind you of what Ford has carved out of America since 2006. This eliminated over 28% of Fords NA workforce 30,000 factory jobs and over 4,000 salaried positions. It was either that or go broke through years of ignoring a moving market and building the wrong kinds of vehicles. And for the record, nearly all of those people were voluntary separations that were paid fairly good redundancies The answer lies in rising sales, If Ford gets to a point where demand outstrips capacity, I can see Ford having over flow plants but the glory days of GM, Ford and Chrysler owning the US market are well and truly gone. It's sad but when you have an open door policy to production and free trade in the US, domestics will always suffer. Also, The closings in Canada and pull back of F Trucks from Mexico directly benefit US plants. Atlanta was closed because 200,000 vehicles a year were going into empty fleet and daily rental sales, the same cannot be said about Fusions built in Hermosillo which are mostly private sales, well 70%..... Edited April 2, 2011 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mackinaw Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 ........After the recovery will any of these American jobs return? Will Ford re-invest in America?........ Over the past few years, Ford spent $550 million dollars to revamp Michigan Assembly to build the new Focus, $600 million dollars to revamp Louisville Assembly to build new C" segment vehicles, and $400 million to revamp Kansas City to build the new 2013 Escape. $1.55 BILLION dollars ain't exactly chump change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F250 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Over the past few years, Ford spent $550 million dollars to revamp Michigan Assembly to build the new Focus, $600 million dollars to revamp Louisville Assembly to build new C" segment vehicles, and $400 million to revamp Kansas City to build the new 2013 Escape. $1.55 BILLION dollars ain't exactly chump change. Neither was the $3 Billion they spent in the Mexican Cuautitlán plant starting in 2008 or the $1 Billion they spent to get Hermosillo ready to take Fusion from the U.S. And a Billion U.S. dollars goes a lot further in Mexico. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F250 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 (edited) It was either that or go broke through years of ignoring a moving market and building the wrong kinds of vehicles. And for the record, nearly all of those people were voluntary separations that were paid fairly good redundancies The answer lies in rising sales, If Ford gets to a point where demand outstrips capacity, I can see Ford having over flow plants but the glory days of GM, Ford and Chrysler owning the US market are well and truly gone. It's sad but when you have an open door policy to production and free trade in the US, domestics will always suffer. Also, The closings in Canada and pull back of F Trucks from Mexico directly benefit US plants. Atlanta was closed because 200,000 vehicles a year were going into empty fleet and daily rental sales, the same cannot be said about Fusions built in Hermosillo which are mostly private sales, well 70%..... 1. Yea, everyone understands cutbacks had to be made...BUT while they were spending billions to close plants here they were spending billions more building in Mexico, that money could have been used to invest in existing American plants and workers. Ford used the situation to justify deep cuts here then send jobs and future product south. 2. "voluntary separations " you cant be that naive. And yes I'm sure Ford paid acording to contract. 3. You have that backwards it is Mexico that has directly benefited from closings in America 4. Atlanta was closed because the new vehicles they should have produced (Fusion) was sent to Mexico after Ford invested over $1 billion U.S.D. rebuilding Hermosillo. The replacement for the Taurus WAS the Fusion and Ford should have made the investment in Atlanta which was already an award winning plant. 5. "It's sad but when you have an open door policy to production and free trade in the US, domestics will always suffer." America's trade policy isnt sad its stupid...but thats our government...let other countries lock our companies out while we leave our market (and boarders) wide open...yea thats "free trade." Edited April 2, 2011 by F250 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aneekr Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 And a Billion U.S. dollars goes a lot further in Mexico. Which underscores the prudence of Ford's investment in that country. If Ford's capital budgeting analysis in the early and mid 2000s demonstrated the Cuautitlán and Hermosillo facility expansions (the two examples you cited) had a higher IRR than the alternatives, why would the company not pursue those investments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 (edited) 1. Yea, everyone understands cutbacks had to be made...BUT while they were spending billions to close plants here they were spending billions more building in Mexico, that money could have been used to invest in existing American plants and workers. Ford used the situation to justify deep cuts here then send jobs and future product south. As of 2005, the only two vehicles that were really profitable were F150 and Explorer, Ford kept both of them in the USA 2. "voluntary separations " you cant be that naive. And yes I'm sure Ford paid acording to contract. It's a matter of record that Ford offered voluntary separations and workers signed up, I believe a lot were up around the $40,000 mark, none of that would have been possible without UAW cooperation and Ford mortgaging everything, a lot of workers actually thought Ford would go bankrupt and saw separation payments as a way out... 3. You have that backwards it is Mexico that has directly benefited from closings in America We both have that on backwards, Ford benefited by putting products in Mexico and Canada, remember Edge? 4. Atlanta was closed because the new vehicles they should have produced (Fusion) was sent to Mexico after Ford invested over $1 billion U.S.D. rebuilding Hermosillo. Now that is something I agree with, Hermosillo should have been a C1 Focus plant but Ford were still into CAFE offsetting Panthers and barely making money out of Focus to do it. I often wonder about a reconfigured Wayne producing Fusion and how much better that would be especially with Focus in Mexico but, hey Ford is still in the game so things worked out OK. 5. "It's sad but when you have an open door policy to production and free trade in the US, domestics will always suffer." America's trade policy isnt sad its stupid...but thats our government...let other countries lock our companies out while we leave our market (and boarders) wide open...yea thats "free trade." Free trade has to work both ways, when there's a huge imbalance it must be corrected, My country is about to completely eliminate import tariffs, something that allows Korean and Thailand based companies to just walk all over our local car industry here. So yes, I feel your pain and disgust that jobs are getting exported but who is really the blame? the parts manufacturer who gets screwed down on price? the domestic motor company who are pressured by imports but still need to make profits? The customers insisting to domestics that they match prices, quality and compete? Edited April 3, 2011 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ice-capades Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Something doesn't gel with that 116 day inventory figure, if it's based on March sales then that means there's around 40,000 Mustangs available.... what are they all V6s that no one wants? I seriously doubt that there are 40,000 Mustangs out there unsold and more likely that 116 day inventory figure is based on February selling rate, meaning about 17,000 Mustangs. I hope someone can confirm that suspicion as I think Ford would have stopped AAI much earlier if they really had 40,000 unsold Mustangs... Ford bases its inventory plans on "Days Supply" so if Mustang is at 116 days supply that would certainly explain why the Flat Rock plant will be down next week. In additon, since there is no Mustang wholesale or allocation plan for May production I'd expect there to be a lot more down time. No wonder Ford is running all those Mustang TV commercials. I'd just like to know where all this inventory is as our store has only two Mustangs in stock and now won't see any until June at least. For us and many other dealers in the northern part of the USA Mustang sales are traditionally seasonal and we can't get cars! Hopefully Ford will expedite the retail orders so those customers won't have to wait any longer than necessary. In the meantime, I'm getting awfully tired of passing Camaro's on the road every day and not having enough Mustang inventory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David The Bruce Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Wouldn't you imagine labor costs play a role in that. The uaw is a vendor to Ford. They sell ford a product, labor, at a markup. They control the US market for Ford labor, if Ford builds a new plant or increases production at any existing plant in the us they are forced to get labor from one vendor and one vendor only So Ford's only option to pick a different vendor for that product is to put the plant elsewhere. I don't see what the mystery is here, maybe if they had other choices for US labor less plants work would be leaving. quote name='F250' timestamp='1301782507' post='690791'] We are still in "The Way Forward" bloodbath...I'll remind you of what Ford has carved out of America since 2006. Plants closed (and will never come back) Atlanta Assembly (its product was sent directly to Mexico) Taurus to Fusion sedans St Louis Assembly Wixom Assembly Norfolk Assembly one of only 6 Ford plants to run continious through the great depression, they had been building Ford trucks since the Model-T Twin Cities Assembly...coming soon Batavia Transmissions Maumee Stamping And dont forget more closings in Canada the plan was to close 14 North American plants (7 assembly) This eliminated over 28% of Fords NA workforce 30,000 factory jobs and over 4,000 salaried positions. After the recovery will any of these American jobs return? Will Ford re-invest in America? We shall see... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 The uaw is a vendor to Ford. They sell ford a product, labor, at a markup. They control the US market for Ford labor You've said that before, and I keep checking.... Yep, my pay stub says Ford. You have it wrong. I don't work for the UAW. They work for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soupy Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 (edited) Explorer and Taurus are responsible for three shifts at Chicago, Focus production is up and running at Michigan AP. Next Fusion is being developed by Ford NA. New Escape has been confirmed for US production. And I wouldn't call 58,000 F Trucks last month tokenage, Ford will really struggle with only one plant operating... The big problem with Hermosillo is that it is running beyond the plant's intended capacity, meaning they have to expand or build an overflow plant, that should be AAI with Mustang. http://www.at.ford.com/news/cn/Pages/In%20Sourcing%20Jobs%20Good%20Business%20for%20Ford.aspx I believe one of the reasons Ford closed Atlanta and decided to build the Fusion in Mexico was to get the UAW's attention that they needed to become competetive with Asian trans-plants labor costs. Judgeing from the last contract and subsequent concessions made to it , that message was recieved. The UAW's reward was more work being in-sourced. Now you have this mess in Japan and if your supplier is there, you're shutting down assembly plants. Bringing this work back on-shore or in-house may now make more economical sense when looking at the 'Big Picture.' For example, Van Dyke Transmission Plant will be building electric drive transaxles for Ford’s future hybrid vehicles, including the next-generation Fusion Hybrid – work previously done by a supplier in Japan. Could you imagine if we still got those parts from Japan. Even the ones you'd be lucky enough to get might have to be radiation decomtaminated if that's even possible! Edited April 3, 2011 by soupy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker16 Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Naa, then we wouldn't have a supplier to blame if there is a recall. Besides modern business dogma dictates American companies employ as few Americans as possible. please stop your whining. The world does not cater to you. Talk like this gives organized labor a bad name. Labor must adapt to the future for it to remain relevant. Just like business has had to adapt. crying over spilled milk or plant closing doesn't help anyone. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 The uaw is a vendor to Ford. They sell ford a product, labor, at a markup. They control the US market for Ford labor, if Ford builds a new plant or increases production at any existing plant in the us they are forced to get labor from one vendor and one vendor only So Ford's only option to pick a different vendor for that product is to put the plant elsewhere. The UAW is a stakeholder, not a vendor, the difference is that they mediate on behalf of organized labor not supply it, that still remains the prerogative of Ford. Pioneer is right, his pay stub says "Ford" that's his employer not the UAW. Ford can hire non-union labor to work on the condition that they agree to join the UAW when required to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F250 Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 please stop your whining. The world does not cater to you. Talk like this gives organized labor a bad name. Labor must adapt to the future for it to remain relevant. Just like business has had to adapt. crying over spilled milk or plant closing doesn't help anyone. I am not a member of nor do I speak for the UAW so my personal opinion cannot give organized labor a bad name. Your ignorance is excused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker16 Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 I am not a member of nor do I speak for the UAW so my personal opinion cannot give organized labor a bad name. Your ignorance is excused. your stupidity however, is not 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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