There are few names that symbolize American ingenuity and innovation quite like Ford. For more than 100 years, Ford has provided America (and indeed, the entire world) with dependable and forward-thinking vehicles.
The reality is that there’s probably no one in the country that hasn’t heard of Ford, but there are far fewer people who understand the entire process of putting one of these vehicles together and delivering it to the public.
As it turns out, the amount of work that goes into creating and delivering a single vehicle is far more involved than many people realize; driving a car off the dealership lot is simply the final link in a long supply chain.
Assembling Ford Vehicles
Ford sells cars across the entire globe; from a logistics standpoint, it stands to reason that these traditionally American made vehicles are sometimes assembled in other parts of the world now. That said, it’s worth noting that about 65% of Fords are still made in the U.S. and Canada, a testament to the company’s distinctly American roots.
The company itself is still headquartered in Michigan, but Ford has 65 different plants worldwide, many of which are located in North America. What goes on inside these plants is a subject steeped in history in and of itself, and one that continues to evolve in this modern era.
In the 20th century, Ford helped to pioneer a now famous concept called the assembly line. Because the company adopted this method of assembling their vehicles piece by piece very early, they were able to start creating the first Ford vehicle (the Model T) in just over 90 minutes—a span of time so short it didn’t previously seem possible.
It was around this same time that Ford became one of the first companies to ensure its employees were paid a livable wage, and that they didn’t work so many hours that they were causing themselves lasting physical damage. Ford understood that employees who receive adequate pay and rest will be more efficient in the long run than ones who are overworked and underpaid.
Of course, back in those early days, there wasn’t much of the assembly process that could be automated; that has changed materially in the last 100+ years. Today, Ford vehicles are assembled from nine core platforms, and each plant only produces a handful of models as opposed to assembling the entire Ford lineup in every factory.
This is obviously a move to increase efficiency. By limiting the models produced in a single plant, Ford is able to limit the different parts and procedures that must be utilized there. This allows machines and their engineers to become extremely adept at assembling vehicles, churning out more completed vehicles with fewer issues in less time.
As things like 3D printing and digital twins have become more common in the manufacturing space, Ford has maintained its spirit of innovation, diving headfirst into technological advancements. These advancements have made it easier for Ford to reach new levels of efficiency that Henry Ford and his contemporaries never dreamed possible.
That said, the landscape of Ford assembly has changed significantly in the last century. While workers used to assemble Fords by hand at the line, they now monitor machines that do the heavy lifting for them. There are certain processes that are still completed by humans directly, though, as some things simply require a personal touch and inspection.
Completing Quality Control Once a Vehicle in Assembled
Every driver on the road should take comfort knowing that cars, Fords included, aren’t simply assembled then carted off to dealerships. After the individual components are assembled, the body is constructed, the vehicle is painted, and the interior is created, the car then moves off of the assembly line for a quality control inspection.
Because there are various checkpoints for quality throughout the assembly process, the final quality control inspection is generally quite simple; it usually ensures that everything is fitting together properly, and that there are no unusual noises or alerts. This is also the point at which the VIN (vehicle identification number) is assigned to the car.
In days of old, the entire quality control process was left to this final stage, but manufacturers eventually realized that they could more thoroughly vet vehicles if they inspected them throughout the assembly process. This protects drivers and manufacturers from unnecessary dangers and the burden of recalls.
Once a Ford has been properly assembled and the quality has been checked, it is ready to complete the next step in its journey to the dealership: the actual journey from the plant to the lot.
Making Sure The Right Vehicles Reach The Right Dealerships
There’s nothing random about which Fords end up on local dealerships’ lots—Ford doesn’t simply send a set number of cars to each dealership. Instead, each dealership (there are about 4,000 of them in the U.S.) orders a specific number of specific models; following the assembly process, Ford has to assess which cars they need to send to which regions.
The result is a complicated web of logistics that requires a great deal of manpower to manage. Put simply, though, Fords are first loaded up on the most convenient transportation method and transported to their regional destinations. Usually, this means that the new vehicles are placed on a train, and taken by rail to a distribution facility, but boats and airplanes can be used for this first step as well.
It might seem odd that vehicles are loaded on to other vehicles to reach dealerships, but new cars can’t be considered new if they come with wear and tear right from the start; plus, it’s far cheaper to transport vehicles in bulk than to hire drivers to get each car to its destination.
After a crop of Fords reaches a regional distribution facility, individual orders are loaded onto car haulers. Most anyone who has spent time on a highway has seen one of these unusual vehicles—most hauler trucks can hold about ten vehicles when fully loaded, and they usually only need to drive a couple hundred miles at most to get those vehicles to their dealerships.
This system of transporting vehicles by rail to the region of their destination, then transferring them to trucks for the remainder of their trip is one that has been perfected over many years. The cost of getting the cars from the factory to the dealership is passed on, in part, to the consumers, so it’s in everyone’s best interest that these shipping costs are kept low.
The excitement of purchasing a new car sometimes outweighs the gravity of just how much work has gone into producing it, assembling it, and transporting it. Ford has relentlessly worked for more than 100 years to provide drivers with the best possible experience, and their vehicles’ trek from plant to dealership is only likely to get more streamlined as time marches forward.
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