summary The world's first moving automobile assembly line began model t production in 1913 at ford's highland park Michi

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summary
The world's first moving automobile assembly line began model t
production in 1913 at ford's highland park Michigan plant in 1914
ford began model t production in Chicago today ford's Chicago
assembly plant features the newest flexible machine tooling and
lean manufacturing strategies they combine to deliver the most
sophisticated automobile assembly plant in the world, Chicago
assembly produces three new vehicles off one platform and the total
plant is capable of building eight models on two platforms a new
supplier manufacturing campus was built adjacent to the plant which
is the industry's largest and most comprehensive it houses key
suppliers providing optimal conditions for lean manufacturing and
just in time inventory the innovative new 155 acre Chicago
manufacturing campus is home to tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers that
provide 60 of the plants inventory with just-in-time deliveries as
a result the average distance for a given part to the assembly line
has been reduced from 425 miles to 125 miles ford saves because its
component inventories are reduced as are its freight costs Chicago
assembly plant opened in 1924 the massive new plant on the city's
south side first produced model T since then the plant has produced
millions of vehicles the ford 500 its mechanical twin the mercury
Montego and the ford freestyle were the first three vehicles
produced at Chicago using the new flexible system the project also
resulted insignificant environmental improvements with the
restoration of six acres of wetlands polluted with the slag that
had been dumped by nearby steel plants the Chicago manufacturing
campus was developed with the help of state government
infrastructure improvements and city government employee training
upgrades and new installations within Chicago assembly plant allow
the plant to quickly change over and build different models off two
architectures this flexibility enables the plant to better meet
changing customer demands it also promises long-term savings
improves quality through increased standardization and minimizes
product change over time model changeovers that once took months
can be accomplished in days resulting in substantial cost savings
in our assembly plants when we start building a model a new model a
totally different model we would require in the past up to eight
months to introduce that model and build it through all the
pre-production stages up until job one up until full production of
that model depending on how big the changeover was it was a
completely new platform we would essentially have to shut the
assembly plant down for eight months as we go through all those
pre-production builds stop assembly of the old model down for eight
months as we go through the different build phases of the new model
going to what we call job one what the flexible assembly plan
allows us to do is put the tooling in on the new model at the same
time we're building the old model essentially we use pallet systems
we could shift the pallet in or out or we could do offline we could
build that pallet modify that pallet while we're continuing to run
the current one so essentially the tooling the robot sees a pallet
coming down for the old model the next model in line could be the
new model and so change over time in theory is reduced to zero in
reality you have to bring all the material in the material flow and
it'll take two to three weeks but even that significant reduction
from the time it used to take us eight months flexibility in the
body shop is the most important component of flexible Manufacturing
because of the operation's complexity, ford's new flexible body
shop system costs less than both traditional body shops and other
flexible systems. The body shop employs an industry-first system of
standardized cells or modules built from fewer than 300 components.
More than 80 percent of the tools and facilities are reused, which
has a tremendous impact on cutting costs and reducing downtime
during product change. Over robots can be quickly reprogrammed for
model changeovers with programmable logic controllers or PLCs, new
geometric workstations, or this welding station. The turntable can
produce parts for multiple vehicles simultaneously; they can be
easily retooled for model changeovers stations accurately position
parts enabling tight tolerances. The other big advantages are that
when in the future, when we go to relaunch we won't be relaunching
all the robots, all the plc's all we everything that we'll
basically be relaunching is uh new tooling okay primarily in the
what we call the geostations or the geometric stations we'll just,
for the most part, be launching uh tooling, and there would be some
technical upgrades to the rest of the lines, but that would be
minor the key enabler for flexible manufacturing has common vehicle
architectures vehicles go together with the same way with shared
program engineering and shared components, so ford is returning to
its successful philosophy of standardization to streamline the
product and the manufacturing processes in the renovation of this
historic plant; this plant's been around since 1924, and it's an
ancient plant it doesn't look so old now as we've spent quite a bit
of money not only with facilities and touring but creating an
environment that we'd be proud to have our family working as it
were this is more than just automation this is a new material flow
the biggest supplier park in North America the first 7:26one for
ford to go into certain of this size and this complexity our whole
material flow system the fact that we no longer have any rail
delivery everything's truck there are a lot of uh business
philosophies if you like that have all come together lean
manufacturing if you like has all come together to deliver all in
one hit here at Chicago, and it's let's say it's fast-paced
exhilarating time there was a huge commitment of capital planning
manpower and execution so top management needed a strategy to
maximize their chances for success i think it's incredibly
important in fact i'd say the most important thing to launching a
motor car is the investment up front um everyone needs to put their
best people on the advanced part of the program and i say best
people i mean experienced people who are good at what they do it's
not just a matter of being smart it's a matter of having the
experience to understand what's happened in the past and what's the
best way to make it work in the future those people need to be
heard by their management including in the plants so the plant
managers got to be involved three years before job one that you
can't wait until six months before job one and suddenly get
passionate about the product it's too late the closer you get to
job one the first full production line run the harder it is to make
changes the product the facility the tooling the entire launch is
at least ninety percent cast in stone six months before job one at
least what you're really doing is you're tuning what you've got to
begin the renovation and changeover Chicago assembly ceased
production of the ford taurus and mercury sable which it had been
building since 1985 to install its new flexible system basically in
our shop what we did was we stripped out small sections of the shop
uh relocated some facilities and tooling to create space for some
of the facilities to start with and then when we finally ran out of
tourists there was a major demolition project took about four days
to completely demolish everything there and then make good the hard
stand and then they started relocating the facilities and tooling
into here all the facilities and tooling was first built and tried
out proven out completely as a full cells at the supplies before
they came here and my people were there with them as they did that
the plant's body shop underwent a 100000 square foot expansion and
introduced important technological advances in-line coordinate
measuring machines were added for real-time data collection these
machines inspect and record quality data on all critical body
dimensions as the units move through the assembly process these
machines examine bodies at a rate of one per hour versus three
units per day with the traditional inspection method here is the
rough layout of the new body shop at the first station partial body
sides are loaded on the geostation turntable meanwhile at an
adjacent station corresponding inner quarter panels are being
loaded a barcode numbering system keeps them in sequence for the
side marriage at the next station those body sides are
approximately 120 to 140 jobs away from the next step the sealer
station it goes from there to the pre-clamp area also known as
clamp up where the body side is married with the floor pan from
there it goes to two framers to be welded after that it goes on to
a roofing station laser weld and re-spot area you see the way this
is done is each of the core lines has got a geometric station which
determines it apart from another platform for example if i was
running two platforms I’d have two geometric stations next to each
other if I’m running one platform as I am now and I’m and I’m
putting in a replacement model I would put the new platform into
that empty station so that I can be putting that in place while I’m
running my old model and therefore not only minimize the cost of
putting in a whole new body shop but also minimize the time here is
a closer look at the body shop in the body shop the vehicle body
and parts stop at each station later in the assembly process the
motion is more continuous body parts from the nearby Chicago
stamping plant arrives on racks for assembly stations the rear
quarter panel follows a typical sequence of steps operators first
fit the pieces in place then the carriers and robots move it to
welding stations in the body side building body sides go through
sub assembly using a versa weld system which is a sophisticated
lift and overhead transfer system the operator uses an ergonomic
assist hoist to move the inner quarter panels into place geometric
turntable stations are used to set up parts and then spin them into
position for the robotic welders at this station the process
differs for the freestyle and two sedan models this geostation sets
the taillight area for both the sedan and the freestyle station
wagon the turntable can be set up to handle a different model part
on each of the four sides at this station the body side receives
more welds before a robot hang them vertically on a rack previously
the plant had used horizontal carriers vertical hanging saves
precious space and makes room for other parts next is the manual
sealer station again the parts are set in place and the turn table
spins the part into position for welding part inventories are
replenished before the container is empty most cells generally have
a two hour supply of parts in the pre-clamp area body sides are
applied by operators to both freestyles and sedans using ergonomic
assists they enable one operator to apply each body side instead of
two the major components are held together with metal tabs the
headers or roof mates are then tabbed in place before the vehicle
moves down the line to the framing station in framing vehicles
receive general tact welds or initial welds now the vehicle is
framed final inspections focus on fits and finishes such as door to
fender and hood gaps and all of the vehicle systems inside the car
the vehicles are even put on rollers for tests of the engine brakes
and acceleration flexible manufacturing introduced at ford Chicago
assembly plant resulted in substantial new efficiencies and huge
cost savings but is the ability to react quickly to market changes
is the most important innovation ford's first auto assembly
line was revolutionary today a combination of standardization
Flexibility and lean manufacturing is enabling Ford Chicago
assembly plant to make another major step forward in the evolution
of automotive manufacturing.