I have a questions for the men and women working on the assembly lines. As the trucks roll down the line, do you know if the truck you are building is a truck that is specially ordered for a customer or if the truck is for a dealers inventory? I was talking to a few guys at work and I think you do know. They disagree.

Who's right?

Thanks

 

I will be curious to hear the reply to this. Not an assembly worker here but am in the business. I do know that sold order trucks have a different 2 digit code at the bottom of the window sticker than a stock unit. I'm bettin that the assembly build sheet that follows the truck does too.

 

Im betting they do, but thats just a guess. Im sure they can tell if theyre building a truck specific to a customers needs/wants, or if theyre building just another truck to throw out on the Ford lots

 

I'm willing to bet that they don't even check to see which one they are as they're coming down the line...I mean, I bet they know or could find out really easy, but I'd say it's a non-issue for most people there...

 

If they get a load of basic Xl and then a fully loaded King Ranch they will prolly notice it.

 

They know if they bother to look at the #'s on the truck.

 

In Kansas City, where I work we have fleet jobs, dealer orders, and of course employee units. I am also have my well known Show Units which always get that extra hand in quality, both in plant and out the door to you our customer.

 

My truck was built in K.C. and is very very nice, The gang on the line must have been in a good mood that day..... Thanks all, for
one excellent truck ...

 

The actual window sticker does not get put on until the end of the line so most people never see it. However as Showya stated we do know if it is an A,X,Z plan truck, show truck etc.

 

Ok I'm dense.

Can someone explain show unit for me?

 

I truck that will be on the auto show circuit. Also, for road tests for magazines, newspapers, revuers, etc.

 

Thanks!

 

Hope I can shed a little light on this subject.

I work at the Louisville Assembly Plant, (LAP), we make Explorers, Mountaineers, and Sport-Trac's . We used to have the Ranger as well.
I've worked in the bobyshop there for about 16yrs.
One job I had was doing some metal finish work (thats when the unit was basically a completed metal body shell before going off to the paint department. When it was an employee unit, it would be written on it on both sides and would get extra care, looked over a little better for dings and such, we would actually put some extra welds on some of the critical areas, spot welds and make some manual mig welds longer on the shotgun brackets inside the fender area doghouse area and such.
The show jobs now thats a different story and can ruffle some feathers as some of the employees dont agree with how its done. In our area, almost always these units get pulled OFF the line and really get worked over with a fine tooth comb (keep in mind this is still just the bare body). Makeing sure there are no defects or quality concerns. I sure this is done in all the departments at our plant, frame line, chasis, trim, paint , final area. One of the reasons they do this is because the "convientently use most of these vehicles as "audit vehicles" before the go out to where ever they are going to, show, mag, or however.
By using these vehicles in our quality audits instead of just any ole vehicle coming off the end of the chasis line, how do you think our quality looks for the vehicles coming out of our plant. Bogus #'s ? inflated #'s ? thats why some of the employees dont like this. They want a true measure for what we build everyday, so we can improve a little more.
We do get actually quality #'s but thats another whole story.
As far as a "special order" for a customer. We dont really do anything different. It may show up on the monitor to the assembly line worker when it comes by him/her as a DSO - dealer special order. But they probly dont give it much thought. Every vehicle has a certain build code from the time it starts in the plant to the time it leaves. As it is going down the line it has a transponder attached to it that has a chip in it and has all the vehicle info on it. As it goes down the line these readers in the floor read them and displays on a monitor to the workers so they can get the right parts to put on. There are also build sheets all over the vehicle as well.
Now, all this being said, only represents our plant. I do not claim to know EXACTLY how its done at our plant but thats the basic way. Some other plants that I have seen on TV actually we let the customer come in and walk the vehicle down the assembly line and watch it being built (think the Mustang plant does that, not sure).

Hope that helps a little, but as far as just a regular customer walking into a dealer and ordering a special vehicle or special order I dont think that will get any special attention or care at the plant.

Later.............saleen97