Ford
is nearing the point when it will launch production of F-650 and F-750 medium
commercial vehicles at its Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake.
In December 2011, Ford
Motor Company announced plans to save 1,400 jobs by investing $128 million at
its plant in Avon Lake, west of Cleveland and close to Lake Erie, to convert
production of its E-Series van line to commercial trucks then made in Mexico.
Executives said production would be transferred in 2014.
At the time, Jim Tetreault,
vice president of Ford’s North American manufacturing operations and a former
plant manager in Avon Lake, said the plan would provide steady work for a plant
that previously had faced many downturns.
Executives pointed out that
provision of the investment would prevent shutting down OAP in 2014 when the
facility phased out production of Econoline vans.
In approving the plan
executives also signed up to a 15-year, 50 per cent job retention package that
would start 1 January 2014.
Back in May 2012, plant
manager Alex Maciag described the OAP as one of the highest performing
facilities producing commercial vehicles. She is expected to guide the Avon
Lake facility through its transition phase from being a van plant to a
commercial vehicle facility. Planning for the transition is being handled by
engineers in Dearborn.
Maciag has been with Ford
for most of her career. Avon Lake is expected to build Econoline vans at least until
the introduction of the F-650 and F-750 trucks.
But when production does begin
this later year, the action will sever an important strand that has bound
together two important companies: Ford Motor Company and Navistar International
Corporation.
Joint venture
For turn back the clock 12 years to August 2001 and it
was then that Ford and Navistar International Corporation finalised their plans
to form a joint venture (JV) to build medium commercial trucks. Plans also
called for the JV also to furnish truck and diesel engine service parts to Ford
and International and explore ‘other advanced diesel engine opportunities’.
Their joint venture was
named Blue Diamond Truck Company LLC. It was set up to produce Class 6 and Class
7 medium commercials to be marketed independently under the Ford Division brand
and International’s brand. The trucks were to be produced at Navistar’s plant
in Escobedo, Mexico.
Plans at the time called
for both companies to expand their ranges of commercials as both companies would
contribute intellectual property to the JV. Navistar inputted a major portion
of its Escobedo truck facility while Ford made a cash contribution to the then
50-50 joint venture. No other financial details were released at the time.
Since then, the two companies
have been uneasy bedfellows as they pass through stormy waters together, most notably involving the infamous occasion
of the 6.7-liter PowerStroke engine that Navistar supplied to Ford from 2008
through to 2011. Ford terminated that supply contract following dissatisfaction
with the performance/quality of the PowerStroke engines.
Since inception, not much
has been heard about Blue Diamond. But now the Ford rumour mill is beginning to
ask when the plug will be pulled and when will production of F-650 and F-750
trucks actually move to Avon Lake. Further, what will then happen to Blue
Diamond?
The F-650 and F-750 trucks
are powered either by the Cummins 6.7-litre diesels or the Ford V10 gasoline engine
that is fitted to F-650s. Transmission choice includes ‘boxes from Allison,
Eaton and Spicer with the Ford Torqueshift offered only on the F-650.
Will Ford’s 6.7-litre Scorpion
diesel, with its compact graphite iron (CGI) cylinder block, built at the
Chihuahua Engine Plant (CEP), Mexico find its way into F-650s and F-750 built
in Avon Lake?
Insiders reckon Scorpion is
not an ideal engine for Class 6 and Class 7 trucks; it is principally a
high-output pick-up truck diesel designed specifically for the duty cycles seen
in the F-250 and F-350 trucks. The Cummins 6.7-litre diesel on the other hand has
versions designed for Class 6 and 7 duties, but is still a ‘little light’ for
the upper end applications in Class 6 and Class 7, according to some sources.
Competition in the Class 6
and Class 7 sectors is tough in the US with Freightliner and International
being the main contenders. Freightliner has a sound product, while
International’s emissions problems appear not to have affected its medium truck
sales as much as its heavyweights. Ford will not find it easy.
Optimism
Meanwhile, at the time of the JV’s formation, optimism
flowed freely between the two parties as they began their new relationship.
For example, Jack Allen,
the then newly named general manager of the JV said a new common chassis, based
on International’s then recently introduced high performance chassis, would be
used for commercial trucks rated at 18,000 to 33,000lb gross vehicle weight (gvw).
Allen emphasised that Ford
and International would separately determine their customers’ needs for cabs,
interiors, vocational focus, nomenclature and other brand characteristics.
Also, International-branded
trucks would use International I-6 or V-8 engines while Ford branded trucks
would offer International diesel engines as standard and other ‘industry engines’
as options. The statement then claimed that International ‘is the world leader
in the production of mid-range engines in the 160bhp to 300bhp range’.
Prototype production of the
Ford truck was due to begin late 2001 with full production scheduled to begin
‘late 2002’. International’s medium truck was already by that time in production.
Initially, the JV would
produce Class 6 and Class 7 medium trucks, but plans called for the expansion
later to include lighter weight Class 3 to Class 5 commercial trucks of
10,001lb to 19,500lb gvw. The first of these was due in 2003.
“In addition to expanding a
strong business relationship between Ford and Navistar, the JV will increase
the speed of new product development and improve economies of scale in
manufacturing and parts procurement,” added Allen at the time.
Equally optimistically,
David Tarrant, Ford’s manager of commercial truck strategy (and business and
strategy director for the Blue Diamond JV) at the time noted: “The new
partnership creates many new opportunities for both parent companies to compete
more effectively in the worldwide commercial truck business.”
Exciting new ideas
“We are looking at a number of exciting new ideas which
will be developed in the next several years,” he added.
It was agreed each company
would have equal representation on the JV’s eight-person executive board, and
neither company would have an equity stake in the other’s parent company.
Chairman of the executive board was Dan Ustian, then president of International
Truck and Engine Corporation’s engine group. Ustian has since left Navistar.
The OAP has had its ups and
downs. It hit the headlines in October 1994 when Deborah Kent, 41, became the
first black woman to manage a plant in the Ford’s entire worldwide
manufacturing system.
Kent joined Ford in 1987 as
area manager at the company’s Wixom, Michigan plant; she later held managerial
posts at the Dearborn Assembly Plant (DAP).
When Kent joined in 1994 payroll
numbers at the Avon Lake facility totalled 3,805 – a far cry from the 1,900 or
so when the investment plans were announced in 2011. In 1994, Kent’s annual
budget was $300 million while the plant’s daily output of Mercury Villager and
Nissan Quest minivans amounted to 89 units. Prior to becoming manager of the
Wixom plant in February 1994 Kent had been manufacturing manager at the Chicago
Assembly Plant (CAP).
Following closure of the
Lorain Assembly Plant, the Ohio Truck Plant, subsequently renamed the Ohio
assembly Plant, became the assembly point for Econoline E-150/250/350/450 vans
as well as chassis for box trucks.
Now, when Econoline
production ends later this year, the plant is factored to build the F-650 and
F-750 medium weight trucks and frames currently made in Mexico.
Ford also plans to shift
production of a new motorhome chassis to Avon Lake, according to a recent
contract summary between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Ford.
Commitment
At the time of announcement in 2011 of the $128 million
investment, Tetreault declared that in shifting production from Mexico, Ford
had made a commitment to manufacturing in the United States that would add
12,000 jobs and require a spend of $16 billion in the nation over the next four
years. It was stated too that the commitment would add at least 5,750 new UAW
jobs.
He said: “You have to
compliment Ford. They had a chance to move to Mexico and they didn’t do it. They
invested right here in Avon Lake, and it’s fantastic.”
The Econoline van is sure
to be missed by many when it goes away this year, but Ford hopes its place will
be taken by Transit which is made at Ford’s renovated Kansas City Plant in
Missouri.
On 5 March 2013, Ford in
Dearborn announced Transit chassis cab and cutaway models will join ‘the industry’s
broadest range of commercial vehicles which include E-Series cutaway and
stripped chassis, F-series Super Duty chassis cab, F-650 and F-750 medium-duty
chassis cabs and F59 stripped chassis’.
As well as the standard
3.7-litre V6 engine, Ford offers the 3.5-litre EcoBoost engine proven in the
F-150 and an ‘all new’ 3.2-litre PowerStroke diesel option.
Another move triggered by
the recent Ford/UAW contract impacts production of the Transit commercial van
which will be ‘insourced’ from Turkey to Ford’s Kansas City plant, while Ford’s
assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky, is scheduled to build a ‘new, unnamed
vehicle’, in addition to the next generation Ford Escape.
