A Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Michigan was named Assembly Plant of the Year by Assembly Magazine on Friday. The Michigan Assembly Plant, also known as MAP, is the first an auto manufacturing plant has won the award.
"We chose MAP as our 2012 winner because the plant is a showcase for flexible, green, lean manufacturing," said Austin Weber, editor for Assembly Magazine to The Sacramento Bee. "We were also impressed that Ford took a plant that produced large SUVs and turned it into a state-of-the-art facility that makes fuel-efficient small cars. That's not something that we often see in manufacturing."
Following a $550-million makeover, Ford re-opened the plant in early 2010 and started producing the 2012 Focus right away. Ford has started producing the Focus Electric zero-emission battery electric vehicle and the Focus ST performance model since then.
The Detroit auto manufacturer is now preparing production of the C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrids. This spring the plant added 1,200 new jobs and has over almost 5,200 employees overall.
Not only is this the first time an automaker has won the award, it's the first time a plant in Michigan has won the award. The Assembly Plant of the Year award if given to the
"MAP is an example of Ford manufacturing at its best , a flexible facility that is using a highly trained work force to build fuel efficient vehicles in an environmentally friendly manner," said Jim Tetreault, Ford vice president of North America Manufacturing said to The Sacramento Bee. "We are proud that our hard work has been recognized by experts who know manufacturing."
The Assembly Magazine Plant of the Year award started in 2004 and identifies state-of-the-art facilities that reduce production costs, increases productivity, and shortens time to market and improves product quality, according to the magazine according The Detroit News.
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