Ford will pour nearly a billion dollars into SE Michigan plants and add thousands of jobs

Automakers are experiencing record sales right now, and Ford is well positioned to take advantage of that. However, the truth is that Ford’s existing manufacturing capacity is not what it once was in terms of volume and the automaker needs to upgrade existing plants to handle the volume it expects to have in the near future, and even now. Jim Tetreault, Ford vice president of North America Manufacturing sums up the situation this way; “Even as we wrap up an incredibly busy year of capacity expansions and product launches, we are continuing to look to the future. These investments, many of which are already under way, will ensure our southeast Michigan manufacturing facilities can support our aggressive growth plans.”

Ford has made a commitment to invest $6.2 billion in infrastructure improvements to its current plants. These dollars will outfit existing lines to handle new models and will also expand capacity. Ford claims that its next steps will involve $773 million in investments in Southeast Michigan. So far Ford has already made improvements in it plants to meet demand for fuel efficient vehicles, as well as the F-15o line of trucks.

Coming improvements to Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant, Van Dyke and Livonia transmission plants, and Sterling Axle plant will total approximately a quarter billion dollars. Changes to the Flat Rock plant will cost Ford $161 million, and huge modernization efforts at the Dearborn Stamping Plant will total a whopping $305 million alone.

The most important news is that Ford will add 2,350 new jobs as a result of these massive investments in plants in Michigan.