Ford To Hire Thousands, Build New Factories, and Launch 23 New Products

* Ford in 2014 will launch the most vehicles globally in a single year than in more than a century

* To support its aggressive growth strategy, Ford is set to open two manufacturing facilities in Asia Pacific and one in South America

* Ford to add more than 5,000 new U.S. jobs — including 3,300 salaried positions — in 2014 on top of more than 14,000 new hires in the past two years to support its growth momentum

This is the kind of news that could change the “bad track record” that George Erickcek, a senior economist at the W. E. Upjohn Institute in Kalamazoo pointed out during The Right Place Inc.’s Economic Outlook event, December 12,2013 in Grand Rapids.

He said manufacturers are having trouble getting young people to work in Michigan’s factories because so any jobs have been lost since 2000.

Now comes the news that Ford Motor Company is hiring thousands of people worldwide.

Of course this is happening because Ford believes it has A Better Idea, or maybe I should write, 23 Better Ideas.

Ford next year will launch 23 new vehicles to customers around the world, open three more manufacturing facilities and add more than 5,000 new jobs in the United States to meet growing demand for its products.

“We are embarking on our most ambitious global launch year ever to meet customer demand for our products around the world,” said Raj Nair, group vice president, Ford global product development. 

Ford expects its global launches next year to more than double those of 2013.

Ford Motor Company expects its product momentum to intensify in 2014 with 16 new vehicle launches in North America, including Lincoln. These new vehicles include Ford Mustang, Ford Transit Connect, Ford Transit and Lincoln MKC. In all, Ford expects to have about three times the number of product launches next year in North America than in 2013.

“We saw unprecedented growth in the United States this year, especially in the midsize and utility segments,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of The Americas. “With the addition of 16 new products to our showroom, including Ford Mustang, our momentum continues.”

Production of the all-new Transit will begin in second-quarter 2014 at Ford’s newly retooled Kansas City Assembly Plant. Ford is investing $1.1 billion to retool and expand the facility.

Kansas City Assembly Plant will add more than 2,000 jobs – more than 1,000 of which are new hires – to support high demand for Ford F-150 plus production of the all-new Transit family of commercial vehicles starting next summer.

To support the new products, Ford will open three new manufacturing facilities – two of them in Asia Pacific and one in South America.

Next year, Ford is on track to open its Changan Ford Assembly Plant No. 3 and Changan Transmission Plant in Chongqing, China, as well as Camaçari Engine Plant in Brazil. The new Chongqing Assembly Plant will increase the company’s production capacity in China by 300,000 units next year.

“This is the fastest and most aggressive manufacturing expansion the company has undergone in 50 years,” said John Fleming, executive vice president, Ford global manufacturing. “The last time Ford was growing like this, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the U.S. president.”

To fuel this growth, Ford plans to hire more than 6,000 employees in Asia next year, the vast majority of them hourly employees. Similarly, in the United States, Ford expects to create more than 5,000 new jobs, including 3,300 salaried positions, the largest hiring initiative since 2000. 

In the past two years, the company has created more than 14,000 jobs in North America alone.

More than 80 percent of the new salaried jobs will be technical professionals who work in product development, manufacturing, quality and IT.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is a five-part ebook series that explores the collapse and rebirth of manufacturing in Michigan. The series is available wherever ebooks are sold including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the stories of the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan and how they used scientists, physicians, artists and zombies — along with two of the richest families in the world — to chance the way the global community sees this American community.

Last Chance Mile is available wherever books are sold, including Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street, and West Coast Coffee-Monroe Center, Grand Rapids, as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes.

For free reads of the Restore The Roar series and Last Chance Mile, please go to www.rodkackley.com or download Rod Kackley’s free app through Google Play or the App Store.

Michigan Poised To Become Global Center of Mobility

DETROIT, Mich., December 11, 2013 — Michigan has the potential to grow up to 100,000 new jobs in the state’s important automotive sector by becoming a center of excellence in advanced powertrain, lightweight and smart/connected transportation technologies. 

That’s according to a strategy advanced today by Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM), the state’s business roundtable dedicated to making Michigan a Top Ten State for jobs, personal income and a healthy economy.

The BLM plan was developed with a coalition of top industry experts, the Center for Automotive Research and McKinsey & Company. The plan positions Michigan for long-term growth in the auto sector as it continues to transition to an increasingly advanced technology-based sector.  It is one of six strategies BLM is developing as part of its Michigan Turnaround Plan.

“The automotive industry is fast becoming a mobility industry,” said Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company and chair of BLM’s mobility initiative.  “While Michigan already is the automotive leader, we need to take actions now to ensure that we are the leader of the emerging mobility industry.”

Mobility refers to products associated with transporting people and goods, as well as sophisticated connectivity technology in vehicles to assist drivers with navigation, parking, road conditions and safety.  

Mobility also refers to multi-modal and intermodal solutions that integrate personal vehicles with public transit and reduce congestion and emissions. Michigan’s advantage in the mobility arena is rooted in the state’s leadership on R&D, production and supply companies that operate here. The automotive industry has the highest jobs multipliers of any sector of the Michigan economy.

Jay Baron, President & CEO of the Center for Automotive Research said, “Michigan iswell positioned to compete in powertrain and light-weighting technologies, but faces strong challenges from other competitive hubs in the emerging area of smart and connected transportation.  No place has a greater concentration of the auto industry, but Michigan must have a sharper focus and build greater public-private collaboration to ensure continued leadership as the industry evolves.”

"Michigan must build on its strengths,  while seeing and acting on emerging needs and shaping industry, technology, regulation and consumer trends,” said Hans-Werner Kaas, Senior Partner, Leader Automotive & Assembly Practice for McKinsey & Company and BLM board member.  

“Michigan has strong capital availability and an unsurpassed concentration of Original Equipment Manufacturers/suppliers and their respective know-how.  As the industry is transforming, Michigan must be aggressive in growing the talent pipeline, base of innovation and industry collaboration across the industry value chain.”

The BLM mobility strategy outlines six categories of action:

• Leadership: Support the creation of a state-level position/function to facilitate government’s role in growing the automotive and mobility industries. Other key leadership elements include an inter-agency partnership and the establishment of a private-sector mobility leadership group focused on implementing BLM’s recommendations
• Marketing & branding: Launch a marketing and branding campaign to support Michigan's strengths and aspirations in the automotive and mobility industries
• Strategic convening: Attract and create high-stature advanced mobility conferences and events in Michigan, anchored by economic development and B2B opportunities for attendees
• Talent development: Support the pipeline of new employees into Michigan’s mobility industry and design/offer education programs for universities and trade schools that deliver skill sets for future roles; support strong programs with adequate financial/tax incentives
• Collaboration network:  Develop a focused collaboration, research, and testing initiative, and work to attract mobility research centers; the state should explore competitive financial support models to attract critical future R&D investments in light of a global competitive context
• Capital attraction: Support the development of additional sources of financial capital, including venture capital, private investment, and innovative business arrangements to attract new funds

“This strategy provides an exciting, fact-based roadmap to grow one of our state’s most important industries,” said Doug Rothwell, BLM President & CEO.   “Currently, Michigan is home to 70 percent of all U.S. automotive R&D expenditures, and 13 percent of global R&D spending. Coupled with the state’s top ranking as home to engineers, and high concentration of smart and connected test beds and pilot deployments, Michigan is well-positioned to soar as a leader of automotive innovation.”

The full strategy to grow a Global Center of Mobility can be found at: http://www.businessleadersformichigan.com/research-and-reports/new-michigan-global-center-of-mobility.html.  BLM will report annually on progress being made to implement this and the other five strategies identified to make Michigan a Top Ten state.

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Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids changed the way the world sees their community and the way they see the world by creating a cluster of prosperity, turning the city into an art gallery, and welcoming zombies who wanted to roam the streets one night a year.

Last Chance Mile is available wherever books are sold online, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes, and in brick-and-mortar stores like Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center, Grand Rapids.

For more of Rod Kackley's books, articles and essays, go to www.rodkackley.com or download his free app for iOS and Android devices.

U.S. Manufacturing Looks Strong for 2014

Economic growth in the United States will continue in 2014, say the nation's purchasing and supply management executives in their December 2013 Semiannual Economic Forecast. 

Expectations are for a continuation of the economic recovery that began in mid-2009, as indicated in the monthly ISM Report On Business ^®. The manufacturing sector is optimistic about growth in 2014, with revenues expected to increase in 16 manufacturing industries.

These projections are part of the forecast issued by the Business Survey Committee of the Institute for Supply Management™ (ISM). The forecast was released today by Bradley J. Holcomb, CPSM, CPSD, chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee; and by Anthony S. Nieves, CPSM, C.P.M., CFPM, chair of the ISM Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee.  

Manufacturing Summary

Expectations for 2014 are positive as 69 percent of survey respondents expect revenues to be greater in 2014 than in 2013. The panel of purchasing and supply executives expects a 4.4 percent net increase in overall revenues for 2014, compared to a 4.6 percent increase reported for 2013 over 2012 revenues. The 16 manufacturing industries expecting revenue improvement over 2014 — listed in order — are: Textile Mills; Plastics & Rubber Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Furniture & Related Products; Wood Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Primary Metals; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Chemical Products; Transportation Equipment; Paper Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; and Fabricated Metal Products.

"Manufacturing purchasing and supply executives expect to see continued growth in 2014. They are optimistic about their overall business prospects for the first half of 2014, and are even more optimistic about the second half of 2014," said Holcomb. "Manufacturing experienced six consecutive months of growth from June through November 2013, while experiencing only one month of contraction during the entire first 11 months of 2013, which occurred in May 2013 when the PMI^™ registered 49 percent (as measured by and reported in the monthly Manufacturing ISM Report On Business ^®). Our forecast calls for a continuation of growth in 2014, building on the momentum from the second half of 2013. Respondents expect raw materials pricing pressures in 2014 to be low, similar to levels experienced in 2013, and expect their margins will improve."

In the manufacturing sector, respondents report operating at 80.3 percent of their normal capacity, up very slightly from 80.2 percent reported in April 2013. Purchasing and supply executives predict that capital expenditures will increase by 8 percent in 2014 over 2013, compared to a 12.3 percent increase reported for 2013 over 2012. Survey respondents also forecast that they will increase inventories by 0.9 percent to support their planned level of sales in 2014. 

Manufacturers have an expectation that employment in the sector will increase by 2.4 percent in 2014, while labor and benefit costs are expected to increase an average of 2.3 percent. Manufacturing purchasers are predicting growth in exports and imports in 2014. Respondents also expect the U.S. dollar to strengthen on average against the currencies of major trading partners.

The panel also predicts the prices they pay for raw materials will increase 1.2 percent during the first four months of 2014, and will increase an additional 0.4 percent during the balance of the year, with an overall increase of 1.6 percent for 2014. This compares to a reported 0.9 percent increase in raw materials prices for 2013 compared with 2012.

Survey respondents report that the most challenging problems facing their businesses as they plan for 2013 are: domestic sales growth (32 percent); international sales growth (18 percent); healthcare reform uncertainty (14.6 percent); ongoing government shutdown and debt ceiling concerns (13.5 percent); government regulations (9.6 percent); healthcare costs (8.4 percent); inflation (3.4 percent); and taxes (0.6 percent).

The panel also indicated that supply chain management practices will be improved in 2014 using the following strategies, listed in order: strategic sourcing/supply base rationalization; process and information systems improvements; supplier relationship management; inventory management and control; and improved cross-functional planning and scheduling.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance by Rod Kackley, a five-part ebook series beginning with The Great Collapse, is available wherever ebooks are sold including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community by Rod Kackley, tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan changed the way the world viewed their community by creating a cluster of prosperity, turning the city into an art gallery, and inviting zombies to roam their streets one night a year.

Last Chance Mile is available wherever books are sold, including Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street, and West Coast Coffee-Monroe Center, Grand Rapids. 

Last Chance Mile can also be ordered through your favorite bookseller, as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes. 

For autographed hardcover and softcover editions, please go to www.rodkackley.com

More of Rod Kackley's books, articles and essays are available through a free download of his app for Android and iOS devices.

Light Vehicle Assembly Numbers Forecast To Grow, But It's OK To Keep Your Fingers Crossed

Global light vehicle assembly is expected to reach 81 million units in 2013, an increase of 2.3 percent compared to 2012, according to Autofacts, PwC's automotive analyst group. While the global market is expected to see positive growth overall, there are a number of mixed signals at the regional level. North America and Developing Asia-Pacific markets are driving most of the growth, while Developed Asia-Pacific is expected to see continued declines as assembly is localised abroad. The European Union, meanwhile, is not expected to see volume recovery until 2014.

Auto isn't the only manufacturing sector driving Michigan's economy. Take a look at what the new entrepreneurs in craft brewing are doing with beer.

Quenching The Thirst is part of the Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance ebook essay series. For a preview, please click here.

"Economic performance is anticipated to remain mixed through the remainder of 2013," said Rick Hanna, PwC's global automotive leader.  "However, we do see light at the end of the tunnel and are forecasting a global compound annual growth rate of approximately 5 percent, double the 2013 rate, through 2017."

Strong growth in Developing Asia-Pacific, improving stability in the EU and investment in new technologies will drive the industry forward.  

Autofacts forecasts annual global light vehicle assembly to reach 101 million by 2017.

Megatrends driving the global automotive industry:

• European Union - While assembly was expected to recover in 2013, Autofacts is forecasting a year-over-year drop of 4 percent to approximately 15.3 million units in EU assembly. The long awaited rebound is now not expected until early 2014 at the earliest, as we see decrease in light vehicle assembly drop (-500k) in the first half of 2013. New vehicle demand fell by 4.7 percent in June, and 8.1 percent year-to-date, while the light commercial vehicle sector continues to decline, with registrations down 7.3 percent in May and 6.2 percent for the first five months of the year.
• North America - While the world is waiting for the recovery of the EU, North American sales and assembly increased through the first half of 2013, contributing 13.4 percent to global growth. The region is forecasted to contribute approximately 770 thousand units to the global topline growth in 2013. One regional manufacturing trend sparking interest is the "3-crew" or "3-2-120" shift pattern (wherein three crews work two shifts at 10 hours for six days a week) being implemented at selectDetroit 3 plants to help meet the excess demand, which allows for increased assembly utilisation.
• Developing Asia-Pacific - Light vehicle sales showed strong growth in 2013 compared to 2012, with Developing Asia-Pacific delivering an increase of 2.24 million units. Particularly notable are SUVs and MPVs, up 45.1 percent and 26.8 percent, respectively, compared to last year. Although 2013 has started off well for vehicle assembly, Autofacts is forecasting a modest 9.7 percent growth in assembly for the full-year, and jumping to 13.2 percent in 2014, despite global economic climate constraints.
• Research and Development Growth - R&D continues to grow as the industry approaches a new era of innovation and collaboration. Autofacts forecasts a steady release of new technologies into vehicles over the coming years, while others are not expected to reach mass production for some time. Hybrid, electric and fuel cell vehicle production accounted for roughly 2.8 percent of global light vehicle assembly in 2012.  This is expected to increase to approximately 5 percent by 2017, as industry collaboration drives costs down and performance metrics are simultaneously improved. The development and integration of new technology into vehicles to improve safety, fuel efficiency, communications and infotainment continues to accelerate and proves to be an increasing trend in the auto industry.

For more details about PwC's quarterly forecast update, download the July issue of PwC's Analyst Note at: www.autofacts.com or download the Autofacts iPad application.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan have changed the way the world sees their community and the way they see the world.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever books are sold online including Abbott Press and www.rodkackley.com, as well as on the shelves of Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

For a free preview, please click here.

The Great Collapse, The Years When Everything Went Wrong

The Great Collapse

Chapter One

By Rod Kackley

Author’s note: This is an excerpt from the Great Collapse, the first in  the ebook essay series, Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance.
(Photo: Ford Motor Company's River Rouge Plant, from Andrew Moore's Detroit Disassembled exhibition)


Life was good. We were living the American Dream. Manufacturing is what made it all happen. Manufacturing is what made it all possible. Manufacturing was the industry that drove possibilities. It meant we Boomers could go to college. It meant our parents could look forward to a retirement with grandchildren, Social Security, a pension and health care.

Even if you never set foot in a factory, you reaped the benefits. Companies that didn’t have unions still had to compete with union pay and benefits or they would never get anyone decent. Manufacturing made all of that happen for all of us.

Don’t think for a minute that it was the corporations alone that made it happen.  It was the people on the lines, assembly and picket lines. It was the people who had made it to the Middle Class in their blue collars who reached down and pulled more people up to stand with them. They were the people who pumped money back into the economy. They were the people who were the job creators. They just didn’t know it at the time.

The auto industry brought my family to Michigan from Missouri. It is the typical story of a family facing hard times in the Depression, moving with what little they could carry in their trucks, a Grapes of Wrath movement north. My father and his brother would be sent back to the farms for the summer so that their mother could get more hours in at the GM plant in Flint.  Back home, they used BB guns to shoot cockroaches off the walls of the apartment they would have to leave as soon as the rent came due.

It was the auto industry that put bread on my father’s table in those days and it was that GM plant in Flint that helped my grandmother move them into the Middle Class. It was the auto industry that employed my father’s mother, a single parent widowed at an early age. It was the auto industry where anyone in Flint with the last name of “Kackley” could find a job in the plants because of my grandmother’s tenure with General Motors.

And it was the auto industry that my father ran from, joking that he escaped from the auto factory assembly line, entering World War Two, so he could finally get some “peace and quiet.”

It was the unions that won, for single parents like my grandmother from the South a chance at a new life, a more than livable wage, a fairly decent work environment, and most importantly a sense of justice.

It was the unions that battled for the workers. Union leaders stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their “rank-and-file” walking picket lines in the snow and bitterly cold winds of Michigan, fighting toe-to-toe in mortal hand-to-hand combat with the thugs hired by the Big Three to keep union organizers out of Detroit and Flint.

It was the unions and the Big Three, finally reaching a mutually profitable, spit-in-your-face, don’t tread on me, partnership after years of bloody struggle that promised my father’s generation a middle class lifestyle that included health care, retirement, and a better life for their children.

It all changed. Not quickly. Not fast. We were more like those frogs in boiling water who don’t know they are cooked until they are cooked.

It only got worse after my friends and I in the Class of ‘73 started our adult lives. Manufacturing started seizing up like our parents’ lungs after too many years of Pall Mall, Lucky Strike and other fine tobacco. And just like our parents whose lungs and hearts could take no more, manufacturing collapsed. It died. The auto industry went down and dragged everything else with it.

The Great Collapse, the first ebook essay in the Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance series is available wherever ebooks are sold. For immediate download, and previews of the other essays in the series, please click here.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, the story of how the people of one community have changed the way the world sees their hometown, and the way it sees the world,  is available wherever books are sold including Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center in Grand Rapids.

Last Chance Mile: the Reinvention of an American Community is also available wherever books are sold online, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Abbott Press.
For a personally autographed hardcover or softcover edition, please click the Add To Cart Button on the Welcome Page of www.rodkackley.com.

Here's Why Manufacturing Matters

Harris Private Bank Report: Housing and Manufacturing Adding Momentum to U.S. Recovery

- Housing and manufacturing sectors showing signs of life

- Americans focusing on increasing household savings and paying down debt

- Foreign markets continue to face a number of fiscal challenges

- Growth in profits will pick up following lower energy and commodity input costs in third quarter

While the U.S. economy continues to face an uphill recovery, a variety of sectors are witnessing significant growth, according to the Fall Outlook for Financial Markets report by Harris Private Bank, a part of BMO Financial Group.

 The report revealed that in the second quarter of 2012, the U.S. economy slowed to an annualized 1.5 per cent growth rate – down from a 2.0 per cent pace in the previous quarter. However, there were some positive indicators:

 The housing sector continued to stabilize as a result of low interest rates and early recognition of troubled loans.

The manufacturing sector made gains through inventory building, rather than user demand, focusing on stock as current inventory levels are below historic norms.

Overall, incomes in the U.S. rose 0.5 per cent, pushing the nation's savings rate to 4.4 per cent as consumer spending stagnated.

"This trend we're seeing toward saving and debt reduction, while good on an individual level, can have a disastrous effect on the larger economy if everyone does it," said Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer, Harris Private Bank. "Consumption accounts for more than two-thirds of domestic economic activity and, as such, is a major driver to this economic recovery."

*  *  *

Author's Note: I am also convinced that innovation is driving this recovery and not just the innovation of new products. Real innovation involves changing the consumer's purchasing habits. Of course that is linked back again to product innovation.

Thisi s happening both on a B2C and B2B level. Those stories are being posted at www.rodkackley.com and will be compiled in Manufacturing Renaissance, which will be published in September.  --Rod