Ford To Reduce Summer Shutdowns At North American Plants

Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group are scaling back annual summer production shutdowns this year in hopes of boosting output of key models in North America. General Motors declined to disclose specific summer plans.

Ford said on May 22 that it is reducing annual summer shutdowns to one week from two weeks at twenty North America plants. The automaker said the shortened hiatus will boost car and light-truck output in North America by 40,000 units. Combined with other recent production changes, the latest moves will add 240,000 units of annual straight-time capacity in North America this year.

The added output will help meet demand that has lifted the automaker's U.S. market share to 16.3 percent through April, up nearly a full point from a year earlier. The automaker's U.S. sales have increased thirteen percent in an overall U.S. market that has advanced seven percent. It will be the second year in a row the automaker has scaled back its summer shutdown schedule.

The automaker will continue to operate its North American facilities at "full manned capacity" to meet consumer demand, Jim Tetreault, Ford's Vice President In Charge of North America Manufacturing, said in a statement. Ford said 200,000 units of additional capacity will come from assembly plants in Chicago, Flat Rock, MI, and Kansas City, MO, where the company has added crews, adjusted line speeds, and taken other steps to increase production.

Ford's Tetreault: "Approximately 75 percent of our plants are running at a three-crew, three-shift, or four-crew pattern." Ford said the plants that will be shut down for one week this summer are in Chicago; Louisville, KY; Wayne, MI; Oakville, Ontario; and Cuautitlán and Hermosillo, Mexico.

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