Ford Phased Restart of Production

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Folks,

From my Retiree Newsletter

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Ford to Begin Phased Production and Operations Restart in North America May 18 with Enhanced Safety Protocols





May-07-2020

Dearborn – Ford is targeting a phased restart for its North America operations beginning May 18, including restarting vehicle production in North America and bringing back the first wave of employees that are not able to do their jobs remotely.
“We’ve been working intently with state and federal governments, our union partners and a cross-section of our workforce to reopen our North American facilities,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s chief operating officer. “We have reopened our facilities in China, successfully begun our phased restart in Europe and have been producing medical equipment in Michigan for more than six weeks and are using the lessons from all of that to ensure we are taking the right precautions to help keep our workforce here safe.”
In this phased restart, Ford’s North American parts depots will resume full operations on Monday, May 11. On May 18, Ford’s North American assembly plants previously operating on three-shift patterns will return with two-shifts, most two-shift plants will return on one shift and most one-shift plants will operate on one shift. Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Flat Rock, Mich. and Oakville Assembly Complex in Oakville, Ont., are expected to resume production the week of May 25 on one shift. Components plants will restart production as needed to support this plan.
The ramp-up process will be gradual as workers adjust to the new health and safety protocols and the entire supply chain comes up to speed.
“We’ve developed these safety protocols in coordination with our union partners, especially the UAW, and we all know it will take time to adjust to them,” said Gary Johnson, Ford’s Chief Manufacturing and Labor Officer. “We are in this together and plan to return to our normal operating patterns as soon as we are confident the system is ready to support.”
Ford is implementing a staggered approach to bring back approximately 12,000 “location-dependent” employees who are not able to do their jobs remotely, encompassing functions including product development, IT, facilities management and more. The staggered approach allows Ford to effectively implement new safety protocols and provide proper personal protective equipment (PPE) for all employees as they return to work.
To guide the workforce with the new health and safety protocols, Ford has compiled a comprehensive Manufacturing Return to Work Playbook to help protect its workforce, assembled using best practices and input from experts around the world. Some of the safety protocols include:

• Daily online employee and visitor health self-certifications completed before work every day. Employees or visitors who indicate they may have symptoms or may have been exposed to the virus will be told not to come to Ford facilities.

• No-touch temperature scans upon arrival – anyone with a raised temperature will not be permitted to enter and will need to be cleared of symptoms before returning to work.

• Required face masks for everyone entering a Ford facility. Every Ford team member will be provided a care kit including face masks and other items to help keep them healthy and comfortable at work.

• Safety glasses with side shields or face shields will be required when jobs don’t allow for social distancing.
• There will be more time between production shifts to limit interaction between employees and allow for additional cleaning.

Ford is producing face masks at Van Dyke Transmission Plant for use at its facilities across North America and face shields at its Troy Design & Manufacturing facility in Plymouth, Mich. Company-provided face masks will be required for anyone working at a Ford site, in line with the company’s global protocols, while safety glasses or face shields will be required in some instances. By producing face masks and face shields, Ford is helping reduce demand on stretched supply chains for personal protection equipment also needed by medical services and other industries.
Employees able to do their jobs remotely will continue to do so until advised otherwise.

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[quangdog]

Crossing all my fingers and toes this means we'll actually see the rumored official Sync 3.4 update sometime before the sun burns out.

I'm *really* tempted to just manually install it....

 

[rang19ca]

Thanks, Phil. It is great to see Ford ramp up production again.

 

[TylerV76]

Hi Folks,

From my Retiree Newsletter

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Did you get the 64 page return to work guideline packet? I havent read through it all but wow, I feel for all the managers and employees who have to keep up on all this. Going to be a drastic change from when they last worked.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Did you get the 64 page return to work guideline packet? I havent read through it all but wow, I feel for all the managers and employees who have to keep up on all this. Going to be a drastic change from when they last worked.

Hi Tyler,

No...since I am retired, I am not on such a mailing distribution. 64 pages! Yikes! Sounds like OGC (Office of General Council...ie the lawyers) had a field day....Sheesh... Is there a Cliff's Notes for this?

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[TylerV76]

Hi Tyler,

No...since I am retired, I am not on such a mailing distribution. 64 pages! Yikes! Sounds like OGC (Office of General Council...ie the lawyers) had a field day....Sheesh... Is there a Cliff's Notes for this?

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Ill have to read it all but it looks like lots of temperature taking, hand sanitizing, rearranging work stations and break room seating, face shields and masks, tons of cleaning and daily surveys.

Managers are expected to document all of these new guidelines.

 

[DannyL]

Excellent news!
Wonder when I will be issued a new build date?
Before this all went down I was 1 month out from my truck being built.
I would hazard a guess it will be longer than a month after reopening. Probably early July.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Ill have to read it all but it looks like lots of temperature taking, hand sanitizing, rearranging work stations and break room seating, face shields and masks, tons of cleaning and daily surveys.

Managers are expected to document all of these new guidelines.

Hi Tyler,

Hopefully this will be short lived...I cannot imagine the increased workload...we were already overloaded some 18 years ago and today the burden is increased.

Good luck!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[outdoorphotog]

This is great news!

 

[RedlandRanger]

Hi Tyler,

Hopefully this will be short lived...I cannot imagine the increased workload...we were already overloaded some 18 years ago and today the burden is increased.

Good luck!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Sounds like they are going to start slow - the lines will be slower as they get used to all the new procedures and slowly speed up over weeks. Given that demand is going to be lower for a while, that probably isn't a bad thing either. It will be depressing to see Q2 sales numbers I'm sure.

I'm just glad we are starting to see things open back up, even if it will be weird for a while (masks, etc). Some days it feels like the twilight zone....

 

[gfitzge2]

Ford factories are reopening. It will cost a ton to meet Covid 19 safety measures. Here is just one of those. A portable hand wash station for the factory. It has a prox sensor faucet, for no touch use.

 

[gfitzge2]

Sounds like they are going to start slow - the lines will be slower as they get used to all the new procedures and slowly speed up over weeks. Given that demand is going to be lower for a while, that probably isn't a bad thing either. It will be depressing to see Q2 sales numbers I'm sure.

I'm just glad we are starting to see things open back up, even if it will be weird for a while (masks, etc). Some days it feels like the twilight zone....

Copy that. "the Twilight Zone"

Some days I expect Rod to Start my day with one of his openings.


"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension—a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone. "

 

[zhuskers1]

My order is currently scheduled to be built the week of 5/28.

 

[DannyL]

My order is currently scheduled to be built the week of 5/28.

You just got your new build date?
I'm expecting to get one sometime next week.

 

[Deleted member 1634]

Ill have to read it all but it looks like lots of temperature taking, hand sanitizing, rearranging work stations and break room seating, face shields and masks, tons of cleaning and daily surveys.

Managers are expected to document all of these new guidelines.

As someone who is back to work at a manufacturing plant that just came back online after 4 weeks of full shutdown (not Ford but rather airplanes). I can tell you that we are doing all the same things. Only every other cubical is available for use, we have to wear masks all the time, temperature screenings before you enter the building, those actually building the assemblies have to be 6 feet apart or they have to wear full PPE masks (not just fabric masks) and even then can only be together for less than 10mins, the breakrooms now only have single seat tables, the line for the timeclocks is very long since they have to maintain 6ft separation, etc.

It definitely sucks being here. The masks make it hard to breathe, fog up my glasses, and I end up with a massive headache at the end of the day from the head irritation and lack of oxygen from breathing in my own CO2 discharge. The temp screenings haven't been that bad for me since I get to work after the hoard of technicians, so I don't have to wait for that. The 6ft separation is good practice, but impractical to maintain at all times.

We are at a very slow rate of production right now, hoping to ramp up to full pre-Covid rate by end of June, but who knows. I'd imagine most of these safety measure will remain in place for the rest of the summer, if not until a vaccine or heard immunity is achieved (so next year at some point probably)...

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