Report: Parts Shortage Forces Production Pause at Ford F-150 Plant

From: Mike Levine

Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 10:53 AM

Subject: Report: Parts Shortage Forces Production Pause at Ford F-150 Plant

Ford is halting production of the F-150 light-duty pickup for a week due to a shortage of parts for its new 3.7-liter and 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engines, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

"Suppliers took a lot of capacity out to get through the downturn," said Ford spokesman Todd Nissen. "As volumes have increased for our new, high-volume products, suppliers have had some issues keeping up."

Nissen did not identify the suppliers or parts that caused the shortage.

3,000 workers at the plant will also go on hiatus for seven days.

F-Series pickup sales grew 27.7 percent in 2010 over 2009, as the U.S. economy continued to slowly recover from its slump and businesses and core truck buyers replaced their aging pickups with new trucks. Ford has also been successful gaining market share at the expense of its competitors in the last year with a steady cadence of product improvements.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]