fuzzymoomoo Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/05/03/employees-meet-following-wednesdays-eaton-rapids-factory-fire/575359002/ What does this have to do with Ford you ask? Well this company is a big supplier for the F-series and Expy/Navi. KCAP has already been shut down and 2 shifts at Dearborn Stamping have been placed on an emergency TLO. Ford is trying their best to keep DTP and Kentucky Truck running as much as possible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twintornados Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 That is the main detractor to "just in time" manufacturing processes....no "back stock" to absorb the loss due to unexpected interruptions for outside suppliers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theoldwizard Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 That is the main detractor to "just in time" manufacturing processes....no "back stock" to absorb the loss due to unexpected interruptions for outside suppliers. Not exactly true. The back stock is a lot smaller, but usually the manufacturer or a shipping company has some stock. Maybe only a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted May 5, 2018 Author Share Posted May 5, 2018 That is the main detractor to "just in time" manufacturing processes....no "back stock" to absorb the loss due to unexpected interruptions for outside suppliers. works great in Japan or Germany where everything is on site, or even The Rouge back in the day before Ford sold the steel business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twintornados Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 Not exactly true. The back stock is a lot smaller, but usually the manufacturer or a shipping company has some stock. Maybe only a few days. https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/05/03/employees-meet-following-wednesdays-eaton-rapids-factory-fire/575359002/ What does this have to do with Ford you ask? Well this company is a big supplier for the F-series and Expy/Navi. KCAP has already been shut down and 2 shifts at Dearborn Stamping have been placed on an emergency TLO. Ford is trying their best to keep DTP and Kentucky Truck running as much as possible. . Sounds like they already blew through the supply in the chain Wiz... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted May 5, 2018 Author Share Posted May 5, 2018 (edited) Sounds like they already blew through the supply in the chain Wiz... Ford keeps a lot of in plant inventory on larger parts very tight, a few hours of supply worth. In most cases it winds up being the more critical parts. Edited May 5, 2018 by fuzzymoomoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 (edited) I'm sure this is another area where Ford thought it saved a lot of money by doing things this way..... The longer the stamping plant is out the quicker any remaining stock will dry up for Dearborn and Kentucky Kansas City is already out so this is going to really start eating into F Series inventory.. Anyone know when Job 1 for MY19 begins as Ford might not need much of a run out clearance? Edited May 5, 2018 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coupe3w Posted May 6, 2018 Share Posted May 6, 2018 Don't they have at least 2 suppliers for parts? If they don't this is one of the reason they should. Place where I use to work if you didn't have at least 2 preferably 3 suppliers for a part, you had to change something so you did. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted May 6, 2018 Share Posted May 6, 2018 (edited) Don't they have at least 2 suppliers for parts? If they don't this is one of the reason they should. Place where I use to work if you didn't have at least 2 preferably 3 suppliers for a part, you had to change something so you did. Unfortunately, I think we're going to see this kind of exposure from time to time, remember the frame shortage issue a few years back? With Hakett ripping the guts out of vehicle costs in materials and supplier costs, this type of exposure could get more common as the suits think that plants can continue on even with a shortage/ outage of critical parts... Edited May 6, 2018 by jpd80 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 (edited) https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2018/05/08/ford-f-150-production-fire-supplier-meridian/592898002/Ford faces halt to F-150 production after fire, could idle 7,600 workers Ford Motor faces a complete production shutdown of its profit-driving F-150 pickups for an unknown period of time. The truck side of the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri shut down this week because of the parts shortage caused by the fire, sending about 3,600 workers home, Felker confirmed.A decision is pending on when or if the Dearborn Truck Plant will shut down, which would affect another 4,000 workers."We will be making that decision shortly," Felker said.The F-150, America's top-selling vehicle, is built only at the two sites. No date has been set for reopening the Kansas City plant, Felker confirmed. "The company has informed us that we have enough parts to build vehicles through Thursday. The company is meeting continuously to find a solution to replace and manufacturer (sic) parts that were lost due to the fire at Meridian. According to the company, at some point we will have an interruption in production. At this time, the company doesn’t know for sure when or for how long we will be down. As a result of the fire, there is a great deal of uncertainty in our production schedule at DTP. Adjustments and changes are being made hour by hour as the company is engaged in getting the parts needed to maintain our normal production schedule." Edited May 9, 2018 by Anthony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coupe3w Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 Unfortunately, I think we're going to see this kind of exposure from time to time, remember the frame shortage issue a few years back? With Hakett ripping the guts out of vehicle costs in materials and supplier costs, this type of exposure could get more common as the suits think that plants can continue on even with a shortage/ outage of critical parts... Save a dime now, spend a dollar later. Got to love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfeg Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 For quite a few years now, the trend to go single source has been going on. It can reduce costs, but there is always the risk of a supplier issue causing interruptions in production. I guess the cost benefit vs risk were such that a manageable risk was acceptable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 For quite a few years now, the trend to go single source has been going on. It can reduce costs, but there is always the risk of a supplier issue causing interruptions in production. I guess the cost benefit vs risk were such that a manageable risk was acceptable. As long as you lay out the risk adequately so that everybody at Ford understands and signs off on the risk then that’s fine. The danger comes when you underestimate the impact or you didn’t get signoff from the executives. If you predict you’ll only lose $5M in profits every 5 years worst case but you can save $2M per year then that’s a good business decision. But if it turns out you actually lose $20M because you miscalculated then you’re in the hole. We used to call that kind of planning “smoking hole” - if all that is left of the building is a smoking hole in the ground, what are you going to do and how long will it take? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coupe3w Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 So if this fire was bad enough that the tooling got destroyed it could be a while before parts are available. So if they had 2 vendors building this part the only additional cost would be the tooling cost. The price per part should be the same. No? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordmantpw Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 So if they had 2 vendors building this part the only additional cost would be the tooling cost. The price per part should be the same. No? No, not necessarily. If you agree to buy 400k widgets from company A, they may give you a price of $1/widget. But, if you only buy 200k widgets, the price may be $1.10/widget due to loss of economies of scale. And company B may charge $1.15/widget if you buy 200. That can work out to a lot of money. However, as we see here, it could cost a lot of money as well. It's all risk/benefit calculations that someone with a lot more knowledge in that area than me figures out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonj80 Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 This has also hit FCA, BMW and Mercedes as their plants are also down because of the fire. This is one of those Money doesn't matter just it back up and running fixes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSchicago Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 Magnesium is such a dangerous metal to work with. I remember a polishing company near Chicago blew up because of the magnesium dust. Several people died, and many businesses in the complex were shut down. Scary stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSchicago Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 http://www.wilx.com/content/news/Working-to-reopen-Meridian-Magnesium-482117061.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerLS Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 This isn't necessarily a "we can save money by sole-sourcing this thing" situation--sometimes there is only one source for something. If it's idling plants at Fiasco, BMW, and Mercedes, it sounds like it's more "only ballgame in town" than "cheapest ballgame in town." And it's not like there's a whole lot of Mg in the F-Series, so this has to be something small, maybe a specialized part, like an airbag sensor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcartwright99 Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 And Ford just confirmed, no more F150 production! Just saw it on the freep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assimilator Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 (edited) The shutdown will likely last several weeks which will be somewhat disasterous for Ford's bottomline. Looks like Expedition and Navigator just can't catch a break in particular. Edited May 9, 2018 by Assimilator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blwnsmoke Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 SD production is stopping tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKX1960 Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 What timing; my truck was scheduled to be built next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKX1960 Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 The shutdown will likely last several weeks which will be somewhat disasterous for Ford's bottomline. Looks like Expedition and Navigator just can't catch a break in particular. This was updated today. "In addition, Ford is working with the supplier to ensure it has enough key components to continue production of the Ford Expedition, Lincoln Navigator and Ford Explorer SUVs. For now, the automaker says final assembly of those SUVs is not changing". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevensecondsuv Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 Yep, the problem with putting all your eggs in one basket. Not only with parts sourcing, but profit centers. We all know f-series is what generates the lion's share of Ford's profits. This is really going to hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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