Ford’s BlueOval City to Operate with a Simplified EV Truck Manufacturing Process
April 13, 2023Comments
Ford Motor Co. reports that its new 4-million-sq.-ft. BlueOval City battery and vehicle-assembly plant, being built in partnership with SK Innovation in Stanton, TN, will utilize carbon-free power, and feature an entirely new approach to manufacturing.
“When you walk in, it will not feel like a plant that you’ve been in before,” says Lisa Drake, Ford’s vice president of EV industrialization. “Our target was to build this truck more efficiently than the best truck we build. It’s more radical than just fasteners and brackets. We’ve done some systems engineering work where, essentially, we’ve taken pieces of the truck and reduced the design content down so it’s a much more reductive design with less tooling and less people needed to install.”
“It’s a marvel of simplification,” adds Ford CEO Jim Farley. “The vehicle is designed in such a way—because it’s second generation—where we radically simplified the subassemblies.”
Technologies: Management
