Ford Says Powertrain Quality Improving, Announces New Engine Manufacturing System

DEARBORN, Mich. AP reported that Ford Motor Co. unveiled a new diesel powertrain Tuesday and detailed a new flexible engine manufacturing system it says is helping cut costs while improving efficiency and quality.

The 6.0-liter Power Stroke V-8 diesel engine will be introduced in the middle of the 2003 model year for the F-Series Super Duty pickup and Excursion sport utility vehicle.

The engine, to be built by the International Engine Group of Navistar International, will offer up to 10 percent better fuel economy and 20 percent lower emissions than current diesel engines, said Dave Szczupak, vice president of powertrain operations.

The engine, to be built at Navistar plants in Huntsville, Ala., and Indianapolis, will be "substantially quieter," Szczupak said during a briefing with reporters at the automaker's Advanced Engineering Center in Dearborn.

Ford also announced it will build a new five-speed automatic transmission that will be part of the diesel engine's powertrain. The transmission, called TorqShift, will be standard on vehicles equipped with the Power Stroke engine, Szczupak said.

Ford will build the TorqShift at its Sharonville, Ohio, transmission plant outside Cincinnati.

The new powertrain will produce 325 horsepower at 3,300 revolutions per minute and 550 foot-pounds of torque at 2,000 rpm for increased load and towing capacity.

Selling diesel to the North American market will be a challenge because there are negative preconceptions about the fuel, and gasoline is still relatively cheap, Szczupak said in an interview.

"When drivers in North America think of diesel, they still think of loud trucks belching black smoke, but today's diesels are leaner, cleaner and quieter," he said.

Internal studies have shown a 3 percent improvement in customer satisfaction with Ford engines and a 4 percent improvement for transmissions since last year, Szczupak said.

The improvements were mainly accomplished through the use of a system called 6 Sigma. It involves addressing the top 25 customer concerns for each vehicle while at the same time eliminating hidden costs.

In the second year of its implementation, 6 Sigma has save Ford about $375 million, Szczupak said.

Ford's numbers were released just two days before the results of the annual J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study are published.

In the May 2001 study, Ford had an average of 162 problems per 100 vehicles, the highest among the domestic automakers. General Motors Corp. was the best with 146; German-American automaker DaimlerChrysler AG had an average of 154 problems per 100.

Ford also is looking to increase quality through its flexible powertrain manufacturing system.

The centerpiece is its new I-4 engine. Designed in conjunction with Mazda Motor Corp. (Other OTC:MZDAF.PK - News), the inline, four-cylinder engines eventually will replace up to eight different Ford and Mazda architectures, Szczupak said.

The engines can be built in configurations from 1.8 to 2.3 liters and can be designed in up to 100 different derivatives.

As testimony to the I-4's flexibility, the company said it is being used in various configurations on the Ford Ranger pickup, Mazda MPV minivan and Ford Mondeo in Europe. It also will be the engine on the Ford Escape hybrid-electric vehicle, which debuts next year.

About 350,000 I-4 engines are produced at almost identically designed plants in Dearborn; Chihuahua, Mexico; and Hiroshima, Japan. A plant in Valencia, Spain, launches later this year.

The company hopes to eventually ramp up annual production to 1.5 million engines representing 20 percent of Ford's global production of 7 million, according to Dan Kapp, chief engineer for powertrain operations.

The I-4 global manufacturing system also features brightly lit work stations, easily reprogrammed machine tools to minimize production interruptions and "birth certificates" for each engine documenting every step of its production.

A radio frequency tag is attached to each engine during production to track its progress and warn operators if it fails any of the intermediary inspections.