Ford's $335 million investment to save 780 jobs in Ohio

1,889 words
1 August 2003
Toledo Business Journal
Volume 19; Issue 8;
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.

Ford Motor Company announced it is investing $335 million in its Lima (Ohio) Engine Plant to build an all-new, modem fuel-efficient 3.5-liter V-6 engine. Governor Bob Taft joined representatives of Ford Motor Company and Congressman Michael Oxley to announce the new engine product line. The project will retain 7 80 jobs.

"This is a major victory for Lima and I congratulate the hard-working employees at the Lima Ford plant for landing this important project," Taft said. "I'm thrilled that this project will save 780 jobs in Ohio and enhance our state's reputation as an automotive leader."

The investment at Lima was made possible due in part to state and local tax incentive commitments. State and local assimance packages will provide $42 million to help support Ford in bringing the project to the Lima facility, which was in competition with other Ford engine plants for the V-6 project.

The Ohio Department of Development has offered Ford the following assistance that is contingent upon approval of the Ohio Tax Credit Authority and the State Controlling Board: up to $1 million for a Business Development (412) grant; up to $750,000 for an Ohio Investment in Training Program grant; a 75 percent Job Retention Tax Credit for a 10-year term; and a Manufacturing Machinery and Equipment Investment Tax Credit valued at $17.5 million.

The sophisticated, all-aluminum dualoverhead-cam (DOHC) 24-valve Duratec 35 V-6 engine will power a variety of future Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles, including passenger cars and crossover vehicles. Annual production capacity is projected to be up to 325,000 engines a year.

Production of the new engine will begin at the Lima plant by the end of 2005.

"This new V-6 will be cutting edge, truly world-class," said Dave Szczupak, vice president, powertrain operations, Ford Motor Company. "Our engineers started with a clean sheet of paper to develop this new engine. It will power a variety of vehicles and includes advanced technologies such as variable-valve timing, a feature we are adding to a significant number of all our engines."

A feature favored by many environmentalists, variable-valve timing helps to reduce emissions, improve fuel efficiency as well as idle smoothness, while at the same time maximizing performance, according to Ford. The variable-valve mechanism works by precisely controlling the engine's camshaft position at any given millisecond based on engine speed and load. According to the company, the investment at the Lima Engine Plant continues Ford's move to a new costeffective and quality enhancing global flexible manufacturing system to build powertrains. At Lima, Ford will install a new engine assembly line, a new cylinder-block machining line, a new cylinder-head machining line, as well as a new crankshaft line.

As part of the new cylinder-head machining area, Ford will install a series of "flexible" computer-numerically controlled (CNC) machines to manufacture the engine's cylinder head. Ford also will convert its existing flexible manufacturing equipment at Lima to build crankshafts for the new V-6 engine.

"We are building a network of lean and flexible powertrain plants around the world that can respond quickly to changing market needs, while improving quality and manufacturing efficiency," explained Roman Krygier, group vice president, global manufacturing and quality, Ford Motor Company. "The launch of this new V-6 will further our push into flexible manufacturing, helps us reduce costs and ensures a bright future for the Lima Engine Plant."

Krygier said that the Lima, Ohio plant was chosen to produce the new V-6 engine because of its strong workforce and reputation for building high-quality engines. The plant has received numerous quality awards from Ford management.

"We truly have a world-class workforce here in Lima, dedicated to building highquality engines," stated Jan Allman, plant manager of Lima Engine. "This new V-6, engine ensures we have a strong future here and a strong future for our workforce. We are also proud that later this year we will build our 36-millionth engine, our 10-millionth 3.0-liter V-6 and our 200,000th 3.9-liter V-8."

Brett Fox, chairman, UAW Local 1219 added: "We are extremely proud to be chosen to build this all-new V-6. This is a big day for Lima, UAW Local 1219, and our employees. This program is not only important to Ford Motor Company, but it is

important to the families of our workers. We took forward to a bright future of providing our customers with this great new V-6 engine."

Ford's flexible manufacturing system

Ford currently is in the middle of a comprehensive global rollout of its new flexible manufacturing system to build cars and trucks as well as engines and transmissions.

The Lima Engine Plant was Ford's first engine plant in North America to receive its new flexible manufacturing equipment with the installation of a flexible crankshaft machining line in 2001. The line builds castiron and steel crankshafts for Ford's Duratec V-6 built in Cleveland and will be converted to also build crankshafts for Ford's all-new 3.5-liter V-6.

Three main elements are at the core of Ford's flexible manufacturing strategy for powertrains: common engine architectures; commonized manufacturing facilities; and modern, flexible, numerically controlled machine tools (CNC machines) that can be easily retooled and reprogrammed to perform new tasks with minimal disruption to production.

The new flexible CNC machines help Ford to react quickly to changing production needs and have a total cost less than Ford's outgoing transfer-line system.

The new CNC machines were installed last year at Ford's Windsor (Ontario) Engine Plant to manufacture its new 3-valve cylinder head for the all-new 2004 Ford F-150 pickup. The same type of flexible CNC machines are being installed at the Lima Plant to manufacture the new V-6 as well as at Ford's Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 (2004) and Ford's Romeo Engine Plant (2005). The new flexible system also is being installed at Ford's Dagenham and Bridgend engine plants in the UK later this year.

Rather than requiring a complicated process of removing old-style dedicated milling or boring machines and installing new ones - which can interrupt production for months - the new machines can be retooled and reprogrammed internally, with little or no interruption in production, according to Ford. In many cases, this reprogramming can be accomplished over a weekend.

New database improves engine quality

During production, each engine built at Lima, Romeo, Cleveland, Dagenham, and Bridgend will develop a sophisticated engine "birth history" that allows plant engineers to track every stage of production - starting even before major components such as cylinder heads arrive at the engine plant.

Ford's engine birth history technology is currently used at Ford plants building its new global I-4 engine - Dearborn, Michigan; Chihuahua, Mexico; Valencia, Spain; and Mazda's plant in Hiroshima, Japan - as well as at Ford's Windsor and Essex (Canada) engine plants.

Each engine's birth history is recorded on a microchip that travels with the engine, or data is maintained in a database related to a bar code. Such data include hundreds of metrics, including torque levels for specific bolts; crank journal clearances; pressure test results; and the amount of torque it takes to turn the crankshaft after all parts are bolted together.

The birth history allows engineers to trace the precise path taken by any part, so any quality control issue can be traced back to its source, and affected parts taken out of production. "This has potential to save thousands of unnecessary replacements, and spare customers considerable inconvenience," stated Allman.

The new V-6 engine, Ford's global rollout of its new flexible manufacturing

the new building along with ISP's expanded welding operations and new press break machine. The 350 ton press break arrived at the facility in July, further expanding the manufacturing abilities.

This project was designed to give ISP more flexibility for further expansion by marketing the new fabrication capabilities to new and existing customers. Terri Freudenberger, part-owner and vice president of ISP, explained: "We can actually respond to our customers' specific needs on a more just-in-time basis and modify any prototypes that they might want to initiate in their system, and then go into production at a much quicker pace."

The investment in the new machinery and equipment was approximately $900,000. The company may also add one more piece of equipment within the next 6 months.

ISP worked with First Federal Bank to finance the project. A 10 year tax abatement was arranged through Williams County Economic Development Corporation (WEDCO). An enterprise zone agreement was approved for personal property at a rate of 75 percent for 10 years.

As sales have grown, the number of employees has also grown. ISP currently employs 18 machinists, welders, engineers, and business managers up from 14 employees a year ago. Justin Freudenberger, general manager of ISP, stated: "Industrial Steering Products is an exciting place to be employed with all the new technology here, not only have we expanded our capabilities and hired new employees, but we are also doing more for our employees as far as rewards and retirement benefits."

With ISP's prior CNC machining capabilities and now with its new laser cutting, forming, and welding operations, it has become a technologically advanced production center, according to the company. Tricia Baughman, a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Toledo, is ISP's production engineer. She stated: "With Industrial Steering Product's new direction we are not only capable of high production, but also have the precision machinery and know-how for detailed and precise low volume work." ISP expects continued growth over the next several years and will further expand its employment opportunities and community support as sales increase, according to the company.

ISP is a machine shop specializing in precision machining of critical steering components. ISP offers such machining services as CNC turning, CNC milling,

laser cutting, pressbreak capabilities, drilling, reaming, broaching, swaging, milling, and riveting.

ISP has Cincinnati Milacron Lancer vertical machining centers with 3-axis capability. The machining centers, have a number 50 taper spindle which increases rigidity for heavy, deeper passes.

ISP's Cincinnati Milacron Avenger Turning Center is designed to automatically index tools to carry out turning, drilling, tapping, boring, and reaming operations. It is designed with two sliding axes and tool turret indexing capability - all of which are under numerical control.

Industrial Steering specializes in manufacturing steering components for the following industries: automotive, bus, material handling, Motor coach, construction, farm equipment, and specialized equipment.

The company first formed in 1980. Terri Freudenberger explained: "My husband John and I purchased the Pitman Arm Business from Saginaw Steering Gear, who wanted to divest itself from manufacturing low-volume orders, which is basically what the business was. They're in the automotive business, which is very high volume." John Freudenberger is partowner and president of ISP. The business opened in Napoleon, Ohio in a relatively confined area. A year later the current facility was purchased and the company moved to Bryan.