I just got word from my dealer that my truck would be built in Michigan the week of June 14. I ordered it April 26. Is this possible? I didn't know F150's were made in Michigan. Can anyone confirm this? VIN is 1FTRX12524FA06936. Thanks.

 

I seem to remember someone saying that they were starting manufacturing at the MI plant in June... looks like yours might be one of the first to roll out of there.

RP

 

I would have thought that Rouge production would start with 2005...

guess not.

 

Production of SuperCrews and SuperCabs has been in full effect in dearborn at the "Dearborn Truck Plant" (DTP) for a few weeks now.

The "FA" in your VIN signifies it will be built at Dearborn Truck Plant. Consider yourself lucky, this plant is state of the art and is the most beautiful vehicle assembly plant I've ever set foot in.



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but do they know how to make trucks there? The guys/gals in the other plants have been making this truck for a year and trucks in general for many years.

 

My understanding is all of the people working in dearborn truck are from other plants. About 80% are from old Dearborn Assembly Plant (DAP) which built the mustang until a few weeks ago. Another 10% are from Edison New Jersey Plant, where a small volume of the ranger and electric rangers were built, and another 10% are from other various Ford plants. I worked side by side with the people from DAP and they are good people. They will build the trucks right.

-ii

 

My truck has a sticker in the front window stating it was made in Norfolk, Virginia. Those guys and girls sure can build one hell of a truck, no major problems.
https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?gnum=2626

 

I am not being sarcastic, but what does state of the art and a beautiful plant have to do with building a truck?? Quality on this truck has been excellent from a build standpoint from both Kansas City and Norfolk. Bill Ford is moving almost ALL production of the supercrews to Michigan so the moneymaker of the company is in his backyard. When it was announced that this new plant was being built, we were told it will be to backup Kansas City with supercrew production. Now 95% of the supercrews are going to be built there. Not to offend my union brothers and sisters, but we have been building trucks for many many years and our quality is very good.

Oh well, just venting a little. I have heard that they layed off a shift at Norfolk already, but I cannot verify it.

ON top of that, they could have used this plant to build other new platforms, but instead they are spending over $500 million on a new plant in Mexico.

 

I live in Ann Arbor, MI and production has already started for the F-150s at the Rouge plant. They have announced tours of the facility through The Henry Ford Museum and are booked solid as of this writing. This is supposed to be one helluva plant with a "living roof" of grass that is supposed to hold heat out in the summer and keep warmth in during the winter. I think I'll go on the tour and let you all know what it's like.

Greg

 

Yup... plenty of trucks already rolled off the MI line. Been about a month since the switch happened.

Want me to pick up your truck and drive it down to ya? I'll take real good care of it, I swear!!

 

Sorry about that Screwbuilder. Let me be a little more clear. The plant does have all the latest technologies. Each vehicle moves on a "skillet" which is a floor that is about 15'x20' and each operator walks on to and moves with the vehicle instead of a traditional chain line. On top of that skillet the vehicle body sits on an elevator and adjusts to the height of the operator and task. In the body shop there is a similar skid method to ensure that the bodies are welded more accurately instead of the traditional welding station clamps. The plant is very flexible to accommodate many different vehicle architectures.

That being said let me say that the bottom line of a fine vehicle being built comes down to the people. I worked on the line at DAP. DAP was built in 1919 and by 2003 you can just imagine what the place was like. No matter how outdated and falling apart that plant was, those people worked their hides off and kept that mustang as being one awesome vehicle.

As far as dividing up the work goes, commonizing the work per plant makes sense as far as quality goes. For these last few months of 2004 Norfolk only makes Reg cabs and Screws, KC makes all build combinations, DTP is only making Screws and Scabs, no regular cabs, and no 8ft bed Scabs. I don't know what the future holds, but having less variation in a plant is just good news for assembly, quality and logistics. I really feel the rumor you heard was bogus information. If you look at this PDF that someone posted a few days ago....

2005 volume mix

You can clearly see that there is a huge amount of Screws set in the volume. There will be around 1million F150s produced next year..according to those numbers about 36% will be Screws. That means DTP would have to crank out 360,000 units....and don't get me wrong, that is possible. But that would be running pretty hard, I think that would require 3 shifts. I don't think the company would put all it's eggs in one basket like that when it already has a facility that knows how to build screws. Plus, DTP is flexible to run other platforms, I'm almost sure they are going to stick a different architecture in there with in the next few years, if not only to show that off.

I would also be very surprised if a shift got layed off at norfolk considering we've conquested 5% truck sales from the other OEM's.

KC is a fine plant that puts out awesome quality. I didn't mean to offend at all when I said it would be lucky to have your truck built at DTP. Sorry dude.




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