DEARBORN, Mich., June 12, 2003 - When the new Dearborn Truck Plant begins production in 2004, it will be more than the new home to the new Ford F-150. It will signal an expansion of the company's manufacturing vision, as the legendary Ford Rouge Center becomes a manufacturing model for the 21st century.

The plant will be the flagship of Ford's next-generation lean and flexible manufacturing facilities. For example:

• It will be capable of producing up to nine different models from three vehicle platforms, making it Ford's most flexible plant worldwide.
• The 16 standardized work cells that make up the flexible manufacturing body shop are made of fewer than 300 parts. This standardization cuts costs and means quicker product changeovers.
• The number of workstations in final assembly will be reduced by nearly 40 percent.
• Component inventory requirements will be reduced by 40 percent.

The Dearborn Truck Plant is another example of Ford's commitment to establish its new, next-generation flexible manufacturing system in its North American assembly operations. By mid-decade, about half of Ford's body shops, trim and final assembly operations will be flexible. That number will rise to 75 percent by the end of the decade. The system is expected to save the company $1.5 to 2 billion in the coming decade.

Dearborn Truck's flexible features include the ability to: quickly change the plant's production according to customer demand; easily retool and reprogram robots and computers with improved changeover time; reduce initial investment and changeover costs with standardized components and processes.

"With increasing market segmentation, Ford's new flexible assembly system means the company can react more quickly to meet changing customer demand," said Roman Krygier, group vice president, Global Manufacturing and Quality. "We will be able to produce a wider variety of vehicles, change the mix of products and options, and change volumes - faster and with minimal added cost. Those are benefits we can pass along to our customers."

Dearborn Truck is implementing world-class lean manufacturing standards that include synchronous material flow (SMF), In-Line Vehicle Sequencing, waste reduction and team-based processes for problem solving and strict quality control.

Dearborn Truck's SMF is based on a weekly predictive scheduling system, which coordinates with suppliers to provide just-in-time component inventory for vehicle production, minimizing on-site inventories. Using the same schedule, In-Line Vehicle Sequencing produces vehicles in a particular order, so that vehicle bodies match the proper components and arrive at the operator at precisely the right time and place. Both processes help Ford reduce waste, and vehicle and parts storage space, as well as optimize production efficiency.