I’ve gone on record saying that there is no way domestic auto producers can deliver 11 Million new cars in 2012 with the workforce they have on hand. It seems, however, that they are going to do their best to try.
Ford Motor Company will produce nearly 40,000 additional vehicles this summer by idling 13 plants, including six assembly plants, for just one week instead of the traditional two.
“We are working most of our North America plants at maximum capacity and we are adding production shifts in three of our assembly plants this month alone,” said Jim Tetreault, vice president of North America Manufacturing. “Requiring more capacity from our plants is a good problem to have and having the flexibility to add a week of production in our plants goes a long way toward solving it.”
The Ford assembly plants taking just one week of summer shutdown in 2012 include Chicago Assembly, Dearborn Truck, Kentucky Truck, Louisville Assembly, Michigan Assembly and Kansas City Assembly.
Other plants taking just one week of shutdown include Dearborn Engine, Chicago Stamping, Cleveland Engine No. 1, Lima Engine, Essex Engine, Sterling and Rawsonville.
Ford’s production boost due to its altered summer shutdown schedule is consistent with the company’s plan to increase its annual vehicle production capacity by 400,000 units.
Kentucky Truck, I believe, produces more value-added than any other auto plant in the US.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
Wednesday ~ May 16th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
curtd59
You’ve been right on this one all along.
But, are you saying that auto production will not run more efficiently in the past, or that despite running more efficiently, they will still need to add workers? And if so, then do we know or can we estimate the delta? (For your purposes it may not matter.)
Business still appears is loathe to hire. Everyone I talk to is acting pretty empirically and cautiously. The economy expands rapidly when we hire speculatively.
Wednesday ~ May 16th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
CJB
I’m interesting in a more detailed discussion of your last line, professor.
Thursday ~ May 17th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Economic Wildcards – Outlook Update
[…] Car sales and production continue to do well as we expected from last year’s post here. US auto makers are running their plants at a very high level as discussed in this story. […]
Saturday ~ March 28th, 2015 at 4:11 am
ask
Great blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of any
discussion boards that cover the same topics discussed here?
I’d really like to be a part of community where I can get
comments from other experienced individuals that share the same interest.
If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Bless you!