Will Ford ever Ramp Production ? . . When ? . . [11/19 Update]

[sgraing1]

Ford should have at least one plant dedicated to Bronco production.If part supplies weren't an issue demand could support more than what they produce alongside the Ranger.
It is costing them huge amounts of $$$$$$$.

BTW, they won't talk about that though.
The complaints used to be about overcapacity, lean production, flexible assembly lines, and just in time production.

It's all "too damn late" now and Ford is missing out on sales, profits, and customer demand/satisfaction as a result.

But hey, as a former production employee..... wtfdik?

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[Herbie]

Ford should have at least one plant dedicated to Bronco production.If part supplies weren't an issue demand could support more than what they produce alongside the Ranger.
It is costing them huge amounts of $$$$$$$.

BTW, they won't talk about that though.
The complaints used to be about overcapacity, lean production, flexible assembly lines, and just in time production.

It's all "too damn late" now and Ford is missing out on sales, profits, and customer demand/satisfaction as a result.

But hey, as a former production employee..... wtfdik?

Do you think they want to be having supply chain issues?

 

[sgraing1]

Do you think they want to be having supply chain issues?

Yes.

 

[Rocketeer Rick]

As someone that works in the supply chain - albeit on a niche volume level - I can say that this is cascading through everything.

Part of the problem is that when they have to idle production plants, even suppliers that have available production capacity for their widget get shut down. They, in turn, have to cut back orders to their tier-2, 3, etc vendors and suppliers. If it goes on long enough, they have to lay people off and as a consequence, now that branch of the supply change is also impaired. When the order finally comes to turn it back on again, it can take months to get things back running and pipeline refilled. Sometimes employees have moved on, and we have to hire others.

Case in point, many of our components come from a sister company in Europe. Those parts are sent over by boat, and the transit can take 2 or 3 months when you factor in customs and the like. We've been lucky in that 50% of my facility's volume finds its way into F-150 models. Ford has worked hard to keep their trucks in production, even at a reduced rate, given the cash cow they are. But other programs were just gutted. In our case, we took the downtime to completely dismantle and reorganize our warehouse, and replaced 100% of the racking. It needed to be done and it gave our shop floor guys something to do, which If we had tried that while in full-swing, would've been a nightmare. But that's still just making lemonade from lemons.

My take is that as we move through 2022, things will improve. But the progress will be slow. As eluded to before, it'll be a few years before the industry is truly back on its feet - presuming something else doesn't derail the progress.

 

[Heffe66413]

Unless your deadest on a Bronco, when the dealer says they are taking orders for late 2023 or 2024, you just laugh and select a different vehicle.

 

[Bronc-O]

Ford should have at least one plant dedicated to Bronco production.If part supplies weren't an issue demand could support more than what they produce alongside the Ranger.
It is costing them huge amounts of $$$$$$$.

BTW, they won't talk about that though.
The complaints used to be about overcapacity, lean production, flexible assembly lines, and just in time production.

It's all "too damn late" now and Ford is missing out on sales, profits, and customer demand/satisfaction as a result.

But hey, as a former production employee..... wtfdik?

Building another plant may fix one issue that could be short lived and create another. It isn't cheap to build a new facility and staff it and it doesn't happen overnight. They are building 2 new plants for the new F-150 Lightning which seems to be Ford's most favored vehicle right now.

 

[Heffe66413]

I , like everyone else want my Bronco. But I also want it well made even if that requires waiting longer.

 

[sgraing1]

Building another plant may fix one issue that could be short lived and create another. It isn't cheap to build a new facility and staff it and it doesn't happen overnight. They are building 2 new plants for the new F-150 Lightning which seems to be Ford's most favored vehicle right now.

Who said anything about building another plant?

 

[Bronc-O]

Who said anything about building another plant?

sgraing1 said:
Ford should have at least one plant dedicated to Bronco production.If part supplies weren't an issue demand could support more than what they produce alongside the Ranger.
It is costing them huge amounts of $$$$$$$.

 

[sgraing1]

sgraing1 said:
Ford should have at least one plant dedicated to Bronco production.If part supplies weren't an issue demand could support more than what they produce alongside the Ranger.
It is costing them huge amounts of $$$$$$$.

Reading is comprehension.

 

[Impatient]

We are scheduled through December 6th, there isn't supposed to be anymore scheduling for 21 other than clean up. Scheduling for 2022 is supposed to start in the first half of November (can't remember the date I saw last week). Everything seems as they said it would be to me as well.

We're now pushing into the week of December 13th - I got bumped last night

 

[Bronc-O]

Reading is comprehension.

Feel free to explain then. I don't see that Ford has extra capacity to move Bronco someplace. Besides that, they can't just put it anywhere even if there were capacity. From what I understand, vehicles have to share things in common to be able to be built along side each other, Edge/Nautilus, Explorer/Aviator, Expedition/Navigator, Bronco/Ranger.

 

[Impatient]

Your '21 VIN got bumped into 12/13 Build Week ?!?

Here we go . . looks like '22 prod'n start gets delayed . . . . .

Yup, I was surprised. If anything I thought builds that week might be pulled in

 

[indio22]

Feel free to explain then. I don't see that Ford has extra capacity to move Bronco someplace. Besides that, they can't just put it anywhere even if there were capacity. From what I understand, vehicles have to share things in common to be able to be built along side each other, Edge/Nautilus, Explorer/Aviator, Expedition/Navigator, Bronco/Ranger.

The only thing I had read about, was a possible second hardtop manufacturing plant at some future date. Not sure if that's still in the cards.

 

[AZ_Liberty]

With a bunch of MY21 Vin's out there, I can see the start of MY22 production being pushed into next year if the final 8 weeks don't goes as planned.

They can't. Under federal regulations, if you build across 1 Jan, then that is the model year. So, Ford could extend all the way to the end of December instead of the 10th, but they can't push past January.

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