Ford Motor Company will produce nearly 40,000 additional vehicles this summer by idling 13 plants, including six assembly plants, for just one week instead of the traditional two. The flexibility provided by the UAW-Ford national contract agreement allows the company to take this step to better match capacity with market demand.
"We are working most of our North American plants at maximum capacity, and we are adding production shifts in three of our assembly plants this month alone," said Jim Tetreault, vice president of North America Manufacturing. "Requiring more capacity from our plants is a good problem to have, and having the flexibility to add a week of production in our plants goes a long way toward solving it."
The Ford assembly plants taking just one week of summer shutdown in 2012 include Chicago Assembly, Dearborn Truck, Kentucky Truck, Louisville Assembly, Michigan Assembly and Kansas City Assembly. Other plants taking just one week of shutdown include Dearborn Engine, Chicago Stamping, Cleveland Engine No. 1, Lima Engine, Essex Engine, Sterling and Rawsonville.
Ford's production boost due to its altered summer shutdown schedule is consistent with the company's plan to increase its annual vehicle production capacity by 400,000 units. For more information, visit http://corporate.ford.com.