Dearborn Car Company Welcomes Nine Suppliers to First U.S. Supplier Manufacturing Campus

CHICAGO, May 16 - Nine suppliers have joined Ford Motor Company to be part of the first U.S. supplier manufacturing campus here. It will be located near the company's Chicago Assembly Plant and will employ up to 1,000 people.

Suppliers include Sanderson, stampings; Tower Automotive, stampings; ZF- Lemforder, suspension; Visteon, instrument panels, fuel tanks, engine coolant components (bolsters); S-Y Systems, wiring; Summit Polymers Inc., console (injected plastics); Plastech, injected and blow molded plastics; Brose, door components; and Pico, manufacturing equipment.

The 155-acre park is a collaboration between Ford, Chicago-based CenterPoint and local and state officials. The group is investing more than $250 million in the campus and related infrastructure improvements during the next four years, bringing life back to a brownfield site that has been vacant for 40 years. The park will open in 2003 and be fully operational in 2004.

"This supplier manufacturing campus is our first manufacturing supplier campus in the United States, and it is the first one anywhere that started with a mature assembly plant," said Roman Krygier, group vice president, Manufacturing and Quality. "It will increase flexibility, allow for quicker response to customer preferences, lower inventory costs and help control shipping and capital costs."

"Ford's decision to locate its first U.S. supplier park in Chicago and today's announcement that nine suppliers are investing in this site, speaks volumes about the advantages of doing business in Illinois," said Illinois Gov. George H. Ryan. "It's one more example of the strong partnership between the city and the state -- a partnership that is dedicated to creating jobs for the people of Illinois."

"I join the entire Chicago business community in welcoming these new companies to our city," said Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. "Like all the other employers who have moved to Chicago in recent years, they'll be pleased with the quality of our workforce and with the overall business climate. This supplier campus will create jobs for the hard-working people of the city of Chicago and strengthen Chicago's reputation as the manufacturing center of North America."

In order to accommodate the two new models -- the Ford CrossTrainer and the Ford Five Hundred -- the plant's body shop will become more flexible to allow for a quicker changeover.

"We are bringing in new production concepts and tooling that greatly enhance the plant's flexibility and quality efforts," Krygier said. "For example, an electrified monorail system and flexible tooling will allow rapid changeovers -- even if we switch from a small car to a SUV."

He added that the plant will use laser welding to attach the roof to the body to provide structural integrity to the vehicle -- another industry first in the United States. Dimensional pallets will carry the product through the underbody and framing tools, adding dimensional integrity to the product.

Additionally, the plant's paint processes will be cleaner. While the new vehicle produced at the plant will have a larger painted surface than the Ford Taurus, annual tons of volatile organic compounds produced will drop.

The park also will allow for cross-tier supplier relationships. For example, S-Y Systems will ship main-body wire harnesses for cars directly into the plant. At the same time, they will deliver wire harnesses to suppliers such as ZF-Lemforder, Visteon and Summit Polymers for use in the new models.

"Cross-tier supplier relationships will add significant value and will create synergistic opportunities between suppliers," Krygier said. More than half of Chicago Assembly's external buy will come the supplier campus.

Market changes can be addressed more quickly with suppliers in close proximity. Further, quality is enhanced with supplier involvements on the integration of the design of the parts with the assembly process.

Other benefits include reductions in inventory-carrying costs. Today, materials travel an average of 450 miles to the Chicago Assembly Plant. Bringing key suppliers together will reduce the average trip to just 125 miles.

Some of the suppliers will share a building; others will be next door. Six buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet are planned.