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Ford Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1, Brook Park, Ohio

Location: Brook Park, Ohio
Number of Tours: 1
TOUR IS FULL

Date: Monday, April 19, 2010
Gather in plant tour departure room: 8:15am
Departure time from convention center: 8:30am
Tour: 9:00am-11:00am
Approximate arrival time back Cleveland Renaissance Hotel: 11:30am

About The Plant

Cleveland Engine Plant 1 is the home of the new 3.5L EcoBoost Engine which powers the MKT, Flex, MKS and Taurus SHO. The plant will also be producing the 3.5L RWD that will power the 2011 Mustang. The plant currently has 291 Hourly employees and approximately 36 salaried employees. The plant is 1.3 million square feet.

What You Will See on the Tour

Participants will tour the Head Assembly Line, Crankshaft Machining area and the Engine Assembly Area. The focus of the tour will be on Flexible Manufacturing, Quality Systems and employee training and development.

Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 is the first Ford manufacturing site to produce advanced fuel efficient EcoBoost engines. Ford invested $55 million to retool and reopen Cleveland Engine No. 1; 250 jobs have been added to the plant to produce the new engines. EcoBoost uses gasoline turbocharged direct-injection technology for up to 20 percent better fuel economy, 15 percent fewer CO2 emissions and superior driving performance versus larger displacement engines. EcoBoost is available on the 2010 Lincoln MKS, Lincoln MKT, Ford Taurus SHO and Ford Flex, expanding to 90 percent of Ford's lineup by 2013

New Life for Historic Plant

Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 opened in 1951 as Ford's first engine plant in Ohio. Since then it has produced more than 35 million engines, including 24.3 million engines in the famous 302 and 5.0-liter V-8 family. In 2004, Ford invested $350 million into the plant for redesign and installation of an all-new assembly line as well as block, crankshaft and cylinder head machining lines. Flexible Manufacturing

Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 has been outfitted with a flexible powertrain manufacturing system that can be easily reprogrammed to perform new tasks with minimal disruption to production.

"The ability to reprogram on the fly is a key feature of this new manufacturing system," said Charles Binger, Plant Manager. "We don't have to shut down an entire plant in order to make major changes to the line, helping to speed up modifications and keep downtime to a minimum."

Quality

To ensure quality is built into the engine from the outset, Ford developed a new, internal database for its operations. Each engine will be built with a sophisticated, embedded engine "birth history" that allows plant engineers to track every stage of production.

The engine history, maintained in a microchip database, includes hundreds of metrics and allows engineers to trace the precise path taken by any part so any quality control issue can be traced back to its source.

Extensive Employee Training

To prepare for production of the EcoBoost engine, Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 work force participated in intensive quality training. Along with learning basic manufacturing operations, employees also learned to manage their own equipment and work area through "manufacturing work teams" at the facility.


Please Note:
  • Dress is business casual.
  • Shoes must have leather uppers. No high heels
  • Safety glasses are required and will be provided
  • Cameras and all recording devices strictly prohibited
  • Plant tour dates and times are subject to change
  • PRECLUSION STATEMENT: IW may be required to preclude attendees from taking part in certain plant tours. This step will be taken solely by IW at the request of our host plant based upon the proprietary nature of information that is to be presented. The host plants' decisions are final and will be communicated to attendees in advance. Some participants on the tour may be asked to complete a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

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