Ford Econoline Van Assembly Operations to Consolidate

In an effort to consolidate Ford Econoline Van production, Ford recently announced the logistics of the move from the Lorain Assembly Plant to total consolidation at the Ohio Econoline assembly plant in Avon Lake. According to an anonymous bidder on the project, the move could cost Ford $100 million.

Ford has set the date at Dec. 23, 2005 and has notified the UAW for the Lorrain plant's formal closing. Ford has asked the union locals at both plants to start negotiating with each other on how their memberships will fare in the consolidation process. All 1,700 jobs in Lorain will eventually be lost, beginning next summer, however many of the workers will be able to move to Avon Lake with the Econoline.

Ford stated that "After the consolidation is complete, 1,200 jobs in all will have been eliminated from the two plants' combined work force of 3,800. Both plants currently contribute to the Econoline's production, and although the 4.1 million-square-foot Lorain plant is already more than half empty, the task of moving its remaining manufacturing equipment and related operations to Avon Lake will be enormous."

The Ohio Assembly Plant contains 3.7 million square-feet, and Ford said it doesn't plan an addition to accommodate the rest of the Econoline Van production, according to Eric Mitchell, spokesman for Ford. ''We hope to get it all under one roof,'' said Tom Laudick, a project manager for the Washington International Group, which provides construction, design and management for industry and auto plants and has been hired by Ford to help on the consolidation project.

The Ohio Assembly Plant produces the Mercury Mariner as well, but that will be reallocated by August 2005, according to Ford officials. Work on the Mercury Mariner is being moved to a plant in Kansas City.

''This is going to be a chore for everyone involved,'' said Tim Donovan, president of UAW Local 2000 which represents 1,900 workers at the Ohio Assembly Plant. ''There are no parts of the Ohio Assembly Plant that are being unused. As big as our plant is, there's not much floor space.'' Currently, the Ohio Plant assembles the Econoline Van bodies, paints and weather strips them before sending them to Lorain for final assembly, including putting the bodies on chassis's containing engines and drive trains.

''This is a unique situation, and will not be the norm for redesigning auto plants,'' said Jim Davis, a business development representative for Ghafari Associates, an architectural engineering and manufacturing consulting firm in Dearborn, Mich. ''This is one of the first times Ford has gone to an outside engineering firm to design the manufacturing of one of its plants,'' Davis noted. ''Ford is leaning toward updating its plants by making them more flexible to manufacture different products. They usually don't consolidate them. There's a lot of engineering to determine where the equipment and new line is going in the plant,'' Davis said. ''In this case, Ford is transferring a lot of equipment. The plant will have to be defined and refined, and then you take a look at the total engineering you've done for final assembly.''