Ford’s all-time production total crosses 350 million-unit milestone
Last week, Ford Motor Company made history by rolling out the 350 millionth vehicle to bear a blue oval badge. The landmark vehicle was a unit of the Ford Focus that rolled out of the new US$450 million Ford Thailand Manufacturing (FTM) plant in Rayong. The journey, which started with the Model T in 1903, took Ford 109 years to traverse, and along the way came vehicles like the Explorer, F-150, Fiesta, Mondeo, and Mustang.
“It’s equivalent to producing one vehicle every 10 seconds for 109 years; and, if placed end to end, would stretch to the moon and back – twice. It’s an incredible achievement and indicative of why we’re all excited about the future,” said John Fleming, Ford executive vice president of Global Manufacturing.
More recently, the Focus has been officially confirmed as the best selling car worldwide in the first half of 2012, with 489,616 units snapped up, according to global data supplied by IHS automotive. The nearest competitor, which is the Toyota Corolla, sold 462,187 units.
The company has seen a number of ups and downs in its history, and today it has adopted the model of consolidation in a plan labeled as the One Ford strategy in which Ford adopts a unified product line-up worldwide rather than offer tailor-made products for each region. Such an approach has the advantage of boosting the company’s economies of scale and allows cost-cutting to be performed intelligently with minimal sacrifice in quality.
As part of the One Ford vision, the company’s new One Manufacturing plan aims to further that global transformation by standardizing practices, increasing production in growing markets, and accelerating new vehicle introductions on a fewer number of global platforms. The Volkswagen Group has been adopting a similar approach, and its PQ35 platform underpins, among many other models, the VW Golf, VW Tiguan, Audi A3, Audi Q3, Skoda Octavia, VW Jetta, VW Scirocco, Seat Toledo, and VW Touran.
By 2013, Ford’s One Manufacturing plan is planned to generate more than 85 percent of the company’s vehicle volume off nine core platforms, while continuing new product introductions at an unprecedented rate. In the next four years, Ford will have the freshest global vehicle lineup in the world with major changes to the product portfolio with new or major updates through 2016.
Looking forward, Ford is wagering heavily in Asia Pacific and Africa, having invested US$6.7 billion in these two regions since 2006, and with more to come. The company expects these areas to account for 60% of the industry’s future growth through 2020. By the middle of this decade, Ford expects to have launched nine new plants in Asia with a combined capacity of 2.9 million vehicles. At the same time, the company also has plans for the introduction of 50 new vehicles and powertrains, and to have 95% of the region’s volume accounted for by its global platforms.
KON
Further Details:
– Ford vehicle prices and specifications in Malaysia
– List of Ford official dealer and branches
