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Old 26th March 2015, 16:44   #1
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Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Existing Car Factory Reports - For those interested in the science of car manufacturing:

- Ford's Chennai Factory

- Jaguar's Castle Bromwich (UK) Factory

- Apollo Tyres Chennai Factory

- Tata Motors' Factory

- Hyundai's Chennai Factory

- Eicher

- Mercedes

- Piaggio

Ford has just inaugurated their latest factory in India, located in Sanand, Gujarat. The inauguration was attended by dignitaries like Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, Ford Motor Company CEO - Mark Fields, Ford Asia Pacific President - David L. Schoch and Ford India President - Nigel Harris. Team-BHP was invited to attend the official launch of the plant and take a quick look at the facility before scale production begins. Ford also surprised attendees by unveiling the Ford Figo Aspire compact sedan. Here's a look at the plant that will supply cars to India and the world, along with a glance at the car that Ford hopes, will replicate the success of the EcoSport.

Here are some high points of Ford's Sanand plant:
  • Ford has invested INR 6200 Crore (US$ 1 Billion) for the facility that consists of the vehicle assembly and engine plants.
  • The facility spreads out over an area of 460 acres.
  • Talks for facilitating the land acquisition and construction of the plant began in September 2011.
  • Annually, the vehicle manufacturing plant in Sanand will have an initial installed capacity of 2.4 Lakh units, while the engine plant will have an initial capacity of 2.7 Lakh units.
  • Ford's installed capacity in India (Sanand + Chennai) now stands at 6,10,000 engines and 4,40,000 cars per annum.
  • The new plant will launch with single shift operations supported by around 2,500 employees.
  • The factory can support manufacturing functions such as stamping, body-work, paint, engine machining and assembly for both vehicles & engines.
  • The plant's paint facility uses Ford's "three-wet" paint process that allows three coats of paint to be applied and dried simultaneously. Ford claims this technique makes the process more efficient and drops the paint shop's CO2 emissions by up to 25%.
  • Ford's factory is located merely 2-3 kms away from Tata's Nano plant in Sanand.
  • The North American car maker has introduced its Happy Schools program in 10 schools close to the plant as part of its ongoing CSR work - more about happy schools.
  • Multiple component suppliers are said to have moved to Gujarat within close proximity of the plant to ease up the production pace and bring further employment and investment to the region.
  • Ford currently exports the Figo and EcoSport to more than 37 markets globally.

An aerial view of the 460 acre plant:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-3ford.jpg

Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-ford-sanand-vehicle-assembly-engine-plant.png

The main entrance to the facility:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-50ford.jpg

Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-49ford.jpg

The Figo Aspire is the very first car that will be produced here for domestic as well as export markets:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-51ford.jpg

Ford's flag between the Indian & USA flags:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-53ford.jpg

Walk into the plant and you are transported to a different world:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-4ford.jpg

The factory is nothing short of a mini city:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-11ford.jpg

New plant, new car, new journey:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-7ford.jpg

The employee canteen:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-5ford.jpg

This medical centre looks better than most hospitals in Tier-I metros:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-10ford.jpg

2nd-gen Figo hatchback will also be coming up soon:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-9ford.jpg

Safety is usually top priority in MNC facilities:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-16ford.jpg

Safety pledge board with employee signatures:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-14ford.jpg

Wise words by the man himself, Henry Ford:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-15ford.jpg

See the two yellow lines to the right? Those demarcate the walkway for people. The wide path serves as the track for machinery & golf carts used to get around the plant:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-27ford.jpg

One of the many battery-powered karts that get people around :
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-47ford.jpg

The first glimpse of the body shop:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-17ford.jpg

A closer look at the underbody-backbone line:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-18ford.jpg

A large display on the daily targets:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-24ford.jpg

The inspection / repair station:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-19ford.jpg

The Figo Aspire's roof:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-20ford.jpg

The roof loading station:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-23ford.jpg

Kawasaki heavy-duty machines in the manufacturing process, including these "assembly-bots":
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-26ford.jpg

The Ford Figo Aspire's chassis:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-22ford.jpg

These bodies are part of the trial production phase:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-29ford.jpg

Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-56ford.jpg

~2,500 employees will be manufacturing vehicles for India and the world. A majority of them are locals:
Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat-28ford.jpg

Last edited by GTO : 31st March 2015 at 12:30.
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Old 26th March 2015, 16:59   #2
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Definitely a winner and bound to repeat the success of Ecosport or Figo for few months if priced rightly.
The Chennai plant should be dedicated for exports and the benefits of Gujarat (uninterrupted power and cheap loans) should make the new products more competitive.
Hope sense prevails while pricing and allocating supply to Indian customers unlike Ecosport fiasco
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Old 26th March 2015, 20:11   #3
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Quote:
Originally Posted by turbospooler View Post
The Chennai plant should be dedicated for exports and the benefits of Gujarat (uninterrupted power and cheap loans)
Interesting, Apparently the converse would be better as the volumes for exports for Ford is higher than domestic sales(Ford would like this to change
).
Both plants in my view will cater to both markets export and domestic.
I would like to see the chennai plant exclusive for domestic demands though.

The Sanand plant will definitely do exports due to its increased capacity,higher Jobs per hour and the profit ford enjoys in exports coupled with cheaper manufacturing cost compared with other plants.
Definitely with two plants, It would be easier for Ford to meet supply and demand for India

Cheers,
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Old 27th March 2015, 10:54   #4
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Very nice!

I am really glad to see more manufacturing hubs being setup here. I am essentially a Keralite but moved to Surat since 2008 after I landed my first job immediately after my graduation and after all these years I have spent in this part of the country, I can safely say, this place is gradually on its path to become the manufacturing hub of India.

I recall I was in the high school, when the good folks at BMW, Germany landed at Kerala to meet the then CM to talk about establishing BMW’s first plant in the country, it was a hartal that day! Imagine their plight when they came all the way here seeking business and good relations, and the political parties turned it down for them! This happened twice IIRC and they promptly headed to the neighboring state TN, establishing the plant in Chennai which rolls out the CKD BMWs and Mini Coopers today. These sort of things do not happen with Gujarat. If some foreign industry is looking to invest here, the CM rolls out a red carpet for them!

There are several manufacturers and ancillary industries who have setup base here over the last decade or so. Rightly so, the state is strategically located such that it has access to a large coast line and ports with RoRo (roll-on, roll-off) terminals for exports, excellent infrastructure such as uninterrupted power (there are still those occasional power outages but not on a daily basis) and is a lot cheaper compared to other states (Industrial Electricity Tariff Slabs.xlsx), gas supply through pipelines, connectivity to the GQ via NH-8 and, there are several recognized ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) spread across the state churning out diploma graduates every year - they get enrolled into these industries and their families secure a livelihood. Win-win for all.

Manufacturers currently operational in Gujarat - GM, Tata, Ford, AMW, MGTL (Mahindra Gujarat Tractors Ltd.), Apollo Tyres.

W.I.P. - HCIL (Honda Cars India Ltd), HMSI (Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India), Suzuki, Hero MotorCorp.

Shelved - Peugeot Citroen (facing losses over the last few years)

Toyota and Hyundai, please establish a plant here!
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Old 27th March 2015, 12:22   #5
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

The car looks good and definitely looks like the best looking sub 4m sedan. It is decently proportioned, except that the boot projection is a little too less (like the Dzire). Coming from Ford, I expect the build quality to be really good. We can also expect a good feature set like that of the Ecosport and new Fiesta. If Ford can price this competitively they sure have a winner here. With the new plant becoming operational, the wait times should also be manageable from now on. Wish they utilize this plant's capacity for India and not for their Exports alone.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gannu_1 View Post
I recall I was in the high school, when the good folks at BMW, Germany landed at Kerala to meet the then CM to talk about establishing BMW’s first plant in the country, it was a hartal that day!
Gannu sir, not only BMW, there are a lot other industries that went to to Tamil Nadu which were initially proposed for Kerala. BHEL for instance was initially supposed to come to Kerala. With not much interest from the Kerala Govt and with Tamil Nadu showing keen interest it was moved to Trichy.

Educational institutions like IIT, Nuclear power station and many many other industries also went out of Kerala Govt's hands due to various factors.
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Old 27th March 2015, 13:21   #6
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Well BMW went to every southern state before establishing their plant. Regarding Kerala, they are doing good so it shouldn't matter to them.
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Old 27th March 2015, 13:38   #7
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gannu_1 View Post
I recall I was in the high school, when the good folks at BMW, Germany landed at Kerala to meet the then CM to talk about establishing BMW’s first plant in the country, it was a hartal that day!
Gannu_1, I doubt that. Any businessman, leave alone BMW would never think about setting shop in kerala. Kerala, first of all does not have sufficient land resources and most of the areas are not flat and are mountainous. And, Kerala as such does not have any existing manufacturing base conduicive for these capital intensive industries (Your require Tier-I, Tier-II suppliers etc). Then the problem with labor, the lesser said about hartals, strikes, unions and wage rates the better. The road network in kerala is quite poor and the non availability of a port to handle a high volume could pose disadvantages. And, I doubt whether Kerala would have the capacity to supply the required power to these power hungry industries.

Last edited by petroguzzler : 27th March 2015 at 13:42.
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Old 27th March 2015, 13:43   #8
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

/OT

Quote:
Originally Posted by petroguzzler View Post
Gannu_1, I doubt that.
Doubt what exactly? BMW did come to Kerala for talks. Refer this link - Business Line

It's a different thing if it would have worked out or not.

Related TBHP link - BMW to set up plant in India (BMW to set up plant in India.)

Last edited by Gannu_1 : 27th March 2015 at 13:58.
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Old 27th March 2015, 13:56   #9
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gannu_1 View Post
/OT

Doubt what exactly? BMW did come to Kerala for talks.

It's a different thing if it would have worked out or not.
I doubted whether BMW actually thought of setting shop in Kerala given the reasons I stated.
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Old 27th March 2015, 17:32   #10
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re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Thanks for the lovely areal view of the plant. Direct employment for 2500 and indirectly for another 7500. Hope and wish Ford India to do well with this new product, though most of the produce might be exported.
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Old 31st March 2015, 12:53   #11
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Re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Tushar's report has been added as the opening post. Moved posts discussing the Aspire to the thread dedicated to it. Let's keep this report focussed on the factory!
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Old 2nd April 2015, 18:30   #12
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Re: Ford's new Car & Engine plant at Sanand, Gujarat

Nice!!!

What would be interesting is if Ford pulls the Rabbit out of the hat, and decides to do a CKD assembly of the 2015 Mustang at the plant.

We hope the massive demand for Pete'd cars in Kerala might at least provide some bottom up feedback.

I know so many of us, would make a beeline for the mustang, if by any chance (I am guessing 2%) that ford decides to assemble the Mustang in India.

I guess Team BHP itself could guarantee 5,000 units?

Cheers, and heres to good times soon!



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