Ford Plant in Brazil

[Stock03]

I don't know if this has been posted before, but it's pretty interesting.
If you watch, listen to the very last couple of sentences.

This is a short video of a new Ford plant in Brazil . One look at this and you will be able to understand why there will probably never be another assembly plant built in the USA.
It will also point out why more assembly plants will go offshore.

Ford, GM, and Chrysler will likely survive, but their assembly operations in the U.S. likely won't, whether we have provided a bailout or not (listen closely at the end for the reason why).


http://apps.detnews.com/apps/multimedia/player/index.php?id=1189 (http://apps.detnews.com/apps/multimedia/player/index.php?id=1189)

[vkirkend]

:(Not good for the american worker......:shake:

[Cheeseheadbob]

It looks like Ford has almost perfected the Vertical Integration model of manufacturing here, started way back in the early steel producing days.

One of the earliest, largest and most famous examples of vertical integration was the Carnegie Steel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Steel) company. The company controlled not only the mills where the steel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel) was made, but also the mines where the iron ore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_ore) was extracted, the coal mines that supplied the coal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal), the ships that transported the iron ore and the railroads that transported the coal to the factory, the coke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_%28fuel%29) ovens where the coal was cooked, etc. The company also focused heavily on developing talent internally from the bottom up, rather than importing it from other companies. Later on, Carnegie even established an institute of higher learning to teach the steel processes to the next generation.

–noun the integration within one company of individual businesses working separately in related phases of the production and sale of a product.

This system works very well in an environment of trust and cooperation. There seems to be little of either in today's environment of UAW vs. Management and/or the other way around, depending on how one looks at things. Either way, until a track record of trust is established by BOTH sides, this kind of efficiency will not be realized, and the jobs will go where it is.

[SpartaPerformance]

Unfortunately a plant like this wont be built here because it won't have as many workers as a current style plant (not good for UAW), and assembly is rather streamlined and the UAW can't demand it ludicrous wages/benefits packages.