Ford to overhaul pick-up truck plants

NEW YORK, Dec 5, 2002; Reuters reported Ford Motor Co. plans to overhaul three of its North American plants that will produce the next generation of its popular Ford F-150 pick-up truck into flexible manufacturing operations, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a company executive.

The three factories will be able to produce up to nine different vehicles off three platforms and switch "with minimal cost and changeover losses" from building one kind of vehicle to another, the newspaper quoted Roman Krygier, Ford vice president for manufacturing and quality, as saying.

Krygier told the Journal in an interview that the plants -- in Norfolk, Virginia, Kansas City, Kansas and Dearborn, Michigan -- will have standardized assembly equipment, the newspaper said in its online edition.

The plants in Norfolk and Kansas City are expected to begin building the redesigned F-150 truck next summer, but the plant in Dearborn will not start producing until the spring of 2004, the Journal said.

Krygier reiterated Ford plans to transform 50 percent of its North American vehicle assembly plants into flexible operations by the middle of the decade, and it aims to boost that ratio to 75 percent by the end of the decade, the newspaper said.