When it opened 86 years ago, some observers described Ford Motor Co.'s expansive Rouge manufacturing center as a "cathedral for the industrial revolution." The complex, which is located along the banks of Michigan's Rouge River, was awe-inspiring indeed—employing more than 100,000 people in a 2,000-acre site. It also manufactured cars at a feverish pace—turning out a new one every 49 seconds during peak production in the 1930s and 1940s.

Today, the Rouge Center, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, is gaining recognition for far different reasons. A $2 billion renovation has transformed the complex—the company's largest—into an utterly modern site for lean manufacturing. In fact, the refurbished Rouge Center, now a trimmer 600 acres, can lay claim to the most flexible and environmentally friendly assembly line in the auto industry. The manufacturing complex includes a stamping plant, an engine assembly plant, and a tool and die plant. Its most prominent structure is the 2.3-million-square-foot Dearborn Truck Plant, the company's first new assembly facility built in North America since 1987.

The new truck plant features reconfigurable assembly lines, which help speed up time to market and reduce production costs. In fact, the facility can interchange three vehicle platforms, making it capable of manufacturing nine different models. Moreover, it readily accommodates other vehicles into the plant. Its assembly lines can be set up to support front-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive, unitized body and body-on-frame vehicles, allowing Ford to keep the new plant operational all the time. Because of the facility's flexibility, the automaker can easily respond to market demands and increase production as needed without hampering existing operations. When it reaches full production later this year, the Dearborn Truck Plant will produce 250,000 vehicles a year.

The flexible manufacturing system lets Ford adjust its mix of products and manufacture a more varied set of vehicles on the same line. "With increasing market segmentation, the flexible assembly system means we can react more quickly to meet changing customer demand," says Roman Krygier, group vice president, global manufacturing and quality. "We will be able to produce a wider variety of vehicles, change the mix of products and options, and change volumes faster and with minimal added cost." In fact, the company estimates that it will save up to $2 billion over the next decade because its reconfigurable system costs 10-15% less than conventional systems, with an extra 50% savings in changeover costs. Indeed, changeover is simple on the flexible system because robots, conveyors, fixtures and other equipment can be reprogrammed to assemble vehicles with different designs. In fact, at the Dearborn Truck Plant, 280 robotic welders can be retooled and reset to assemble new models within days.

Along with flexible manufacturing, the complex also supports environmentally friendly, sustainable design. According to William McDonough, the Virginia-based architect who redesigned the site, the Rouge Center represents "a vision of sustainable manufacturing for the future." For example, the plant has the world's biggest "living roof," which is planted with sedum. Vegetation not only provides insulation but contains water and lessens storm water runoff. The "living roof" also works with an air tempering system to maintain moderate interior temperatures in the summer and to reduce energy costs in the winter. Additionally, 10 large monitors, measuring 25-by-100 feet, and 36 smaller skylights let in natural light and fresh air throughout the plant.

In short, sustainability and flexibility are working side by side to distinguish Ford's revamped Rouge Center. Says Tim O'Brien, Ford vice president of corporate relations: "We've turned an aging icon into a manufacturing model that honors the past, optimizes the present and creates a positive imprint for the future."

Source:

Behind the Scenes: The Reborn Rouge
Austin Weber
Assembly Magazine, August 1, 2004
www.assemblymag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,6493,130528,00.html