Ford Breaks Annual Record, It Only Took Five Months

* Ford surpassed its previous full-year hybrid sales record set in 2010 of 35,496 vehicles in just the first five months of 2013

* Ford is projected to sell approximately 37,000 hybrid vehicles through May, for around a 375 percent increase over the same period last year

* Ford Fusion Hybrid is projected to deliver its best May sales ever; Ford Fusion Energi is also projected to achieve its best sales month since its introduction in February

* Ford C-MAX Hybrid and Ford Fusion Hybrid continue to draw new customers to the Ford brand, with conquest rates at 64 percent and 67 percent, respectively; Toyota is the top competitive conquest brand.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) bested its previous full-year hybrid sales record in just the first five months of 2013, driven by the product strength of its new electrified vehicle lineup including Ford C-MAX Hybrid, Ford C-MAX Energi, Ford Fusion Hybrid and Ford Fusion Energi, as well as Lincoln MKZ Hybrid.

Ford beat its previous full-year hybrid sales record of 35,496 vehicles in 2010 with projected sales of 37,000 through May, an increase of more than 375 percent over the same period last year. Ford is now second only to Toyota in the number of hybrid vehicles it sells in the United States with its market share continuing to grow, up from 3 percent last year to an all-time-high 15.5 percent through April 2013.

"We're working tirelessly to get as many hybrids to the market as we can right now to meet this unprecedented customer demand for our electrified vehicles," said Erich Merkle, Ford U.S. sales analyst. "The success we are experiencing with hybrids is energizing the whole company."

Ford C-MAX Hybrid and Ford Fusion Hybrid continue to draw new customers to the Ford brand, with conquest rates remaining highest in the Ford showroom since the launch of both vehicle lines. Fusion Hybrid conquest sales are holding steady at 67 percent, with C-MAX Hybrid at 63 percent. The new lineup continues to draw new customers from Toyota and Honda, with most conquest sales coming from Toyota.

Ford Fusion Hybrid continues to fly off dealer lots, attaining some of the highest turn rates in the Ford showroom. Fusion Hybrid is turning in just 14 days on average as customers are drawn to the all-new car's fuel economy, styling and design. This turn rate is even higher in key markets like Los Angeles, at just 10 days. Fusion Hybrid represents an all-time-high percentage of overall Fusion sales, at 15 percent.

Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid – the newest addition to Ford's electrified vehicle lineup – is also expected to achieve its best sales month ever since its launch in February.

"Our all-new electrified vehicle lineup is drawing new customers to the Ford brand," said C.J. O'Donnell, Ford electrification group marketing manager. "We're hearing from our dealers they literally can't keep our hybrids in stock."

~ LCP ~

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, a five-part ebook essay series, beginning with the Great Collapse, tells the story of entrepreneurs who are bringing factories back to life in Michigan and putting blue collars back to work.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is available through Amazon and Vook.com.

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

Last Chance Mile is available wherever books are sold online including Abbott Press. Autographed editions are available through www.rodkackley.com

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is also available at Schuler Books & Music on 28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center in Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids May Be Beer City USA, But It's Not Alone In Michigan

Grand Rapids might be Beer City USA, but it is not the only city in Michigan where craft brewing is the new growth industry and beer tourists are landing to visit their favorite breweries.
Southeast Michigan, especially Metro Detroit, has plenty of craft beer entrepreneurs, too.
It’s only right. Beer and the companies that make it are as much a part of Michigan’s culture as Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.
The following is an excerpt from one of the Restore the Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance ebook essays, Quenching The Thirst:


As I wrote earlier, brewers came to Detroit in the mid-1800s. Among them was Bernhard Stroh who was destined to create one of the Motor City’s icons, the Stroh Brewery Company. At one time there were more than 70 breweries in Detroit. Then there was only one, Stroh. For a long time after that, there were none. But now it is different.
New breweries are growing as fast in Detroit as the hops can be brought in to make beer. Stroh may be gone, but there is a line of brew masters ready to follow the tradition set down by those that preceded them.
For instance, Atwater Brewery.
Atwater was built in Detroit’s historic Rivertown District in March 1997, inside an old factory warehouse, one of Detroit’s many vacant buildings. According to the state’s Pure Michigan website at www.michigan.org, Atwaters founders wrote that while their business is new, “Our brewing process, however, is over 200 years old. Our imported Kasper Schultz brew house allows us to brew our brands in the true heritage-style of traditional German lagers. And, when we say, “imported brew house,” we mean it! All of our main brewing equipment was brought in from Germany, where precision and passion for beer has its roots. In fact, when we have service calls on our equipment, we call in the Germans!”

For more of the story, please go to www.rodkackley.com.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is a five-part ebook essay series that tells the stories of the entrepreneurs who are driving Michigan's economy. Why is beer a part of this series? Simply because the definition of manufacturing is taking raw materials and making something out of them. Hops + Barley = Beer.
Food processing is in this series for the same reason. 

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is available wherever ebooks are sold including Amazon and Vook.com.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan are trying to change the way the world sees their community, the way the community sees itself, and perhaps how the community sees the world.

Autographed editions of Last Chance Mile are available at West Coast Coffee in downtown Grand Rapids and at Schuler Books & Music on 28th Street in Grand Rapids. Autographed editions will also be available during a special New Writers Event June 29 at Barnes & Noble in Woodland Mall, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American  Community is also available wherever books are sold online including Abbott Press.

Auto Manufacturing Growth Continues, Ford Won't Be Slowing Down This Summer

* Ford will add an additional 200,000 units of annual straight-time capacity this year after increasing annual straight-time capacity by 400,000 units in the region last year.
* Ford will shorten its summer shutdown from the traditional two weeks to one week for a majority of North American assembly plants, increasing production by an extra 40,000 units
* This year Ford plans to add close to 3,500 hourly jobs to meet customer demand for the company's best-selling vehicles.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) will add an additional 200,000 units of annual straight-time capacity this year. In addition, Ford will produce an extra 40,000 units by idling select plants for only one week during what has been the traditional two-week summer shutdown.

"To meet surging customer demand for our top-selling cars, utilities and trucks, we are continuing to run our North American facilities at full manned capacity, and we will add 200,000 units of annual straight-time capacity this year," said Jim Tetreault, vice president of North America Manufacturing. "Approximately 75 percent of our plants are running at a three-crew, three-shift or four-crew pattern in order to ensure we're getting more of our products into dealerships."

This is the second year in a row Ford has taken the action in order to meet strong demand for its products.

To meet demand for Ford vehicles, the company will add nearly 3,500 hourly jobs in 2013. With its latest announcement of more than 2,000 new jobs at Kansas City Assembly Plant, as well as more than 1,400 new jobs at Flat Rock Assembly Plant, Ford is three-quarters of the way to its plan to create 12,000 hourly jobs in the United States by 2015. 

The company hired more than 8,000 salaried and hourly employees in the U.S. last year.

Did any of us doubt Detroit could come back like this? Be honest. We stood on the edge of the abyss and looked straight down. Yet somehow we have pulled back. 

That story is told in Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, a series of ebook essays beginning with The Great Collapse.

Restore the Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is available through Amazon and Vook.com or wherever ebooks are sold.

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

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever books are sold online including Amazon, Abbott Press and Barnes & Noble.

Autographed editions are available at West Coast Coffee in downtown Grand Rapids and Schuler Books & Music on 28th Street in Grand Rapids.

Brake Lights Come On Even When You Don't Touch The Pedal, New Idea Out Of San Diego

We have all been taken by surprise by a car in front of us that slows down suddenly. The driver might take his foot off the gas or might downshift, but he does not touch the brakes. 

Of course that means the brake lights don’t come on and accidents happen.

Now some innovative people in San Diego think they have the answer:

Vectolabs, LLC.  is raising funds to launch their patent pending brake light system they believe will change the brake light forever.  

Dubbed the Adaptive Perceptible Deceleration Indicator (APDI) by engineers at this innovative company, the product is designed to reduce the risk of rear end collisions by enhancing visibility.  An onboard accelerometer and microprocessor coupled with automotive grade LEDs alleviates 3 major deficiencies of current brake light systems

• Today's brake lights only appear when depressing the brakes.  Down shifting and engine braking slow your vehicle considerably although brake lights never illuminate
• Brake lights only indicate a driver is applying brakes without any indication of the level of urgency
• Driving distractions are on the rise and inattentive drivers might lose precious time by failing to notice brake lights in front of them

Vectolabs' proprietary algorithm alerts drivers behind the slowing car; whether the car is slowing by engine braking, downshifting or conventional braking.  In addition, two levels of flashing distinguish between normal deceleration and emergency braking. 

Vololights™ will be the branded product utilizing this technology in a motorcycle license plate frame.  "Vololights revolutionizes motorcycle safety.  With the ability to signal any method of deceleration in addition to alerting drivers how fast the rider is braking, Vololights could potentially reduce rear end collisions," said Ken Whalster.  Ken knows a thing or two about motorcycles; he is a rider and President of BikeBandit.com, the largest online powersports distributors cataloging 8 million parts.

This breakthrough technology is being well received by some in the media.  Vololights was featured in the popular Cycle World magazine as well as Gizmag.com.  Autoevolution.com even declared, "Vololights is just amazing!" 

Here’s something else that is worth noting. Check out how they are putting the money together for this:

The San Diego based start-up launched on the popular Kickstarter crowdfunding platform during May for Motorcycle Awareness Month.  The funding will be used for production molds to target the motorcycle and scooter markets. 

 Phase two will include multiple plate designs and eventually the company looks to adapt the technology to fleets and automobiles. 

"Following the company's mission to improve the lives of customers through unique and innovative products, we think motorcycle safety is a great place to start," said Faizal Ali, the company's co-founder and also an avid motorcyclist.

~LCP ~

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, an ebook essay series that tells the stories of the innovative entrepreneurs who are reviving Michigan manufacturing is now available through Amazon and Vook.com.

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 the community sees itself.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Abbott Press.

Autographed editions of Last Chance Mile are available at West Coast Coffee in downtown Grand Rapids and at Schuler Books & Music on 28th Street in Grand Rapids or they can be ordered at www.rodkackley.com.

No Pay Raises For The "Top 25"

No pay raises for  the “top 25” executives of the two remaining companies that received “exceptional” Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) assistance, General Motors and Ally Financial, formerly GMAC.
The Acting Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation, Patricia Geoghegan, issued that ruling April 26, 2013.

According to a statement that was issued to explain that ruling:

“The cash compensation for the top 25 executives at the two companies has not increased from 2012 levels.  Moreover, for 2013, cash salaries for the top 25 executives at the two companies as a group are on average four percent below the median for cash salaries and 56 percent below the median for total cash compensation for similar positions at similar companies. 

Compensation continues to be predominantly in stock and therefore performance-based:  All but one of the pay packages approved in 2013 contain a majority of stock compensation (rather than cash).  Transferability of the stock remains subject to deferral generally over a period of three years, and hedging of the stock compensation remains prohibited.  Bonuses are subject to clawback if they were based on materially inaccurate financial statements or other materially inaccurate performance metrics.
OSM continues to limit total direct compensation:
GM’s average pay packages for its top 25 employees for 2013 do not exceed the 50th percentile compared to similar positions at similar companies.
Ally Financial’s average pay packages for its top 25 employees for 2013 are mid-way between the 50th and the 75th percentiles compared to similar positions at similar companies.”

GM and Ally have been paying back TARP money. The statement released April 26 also shows that General Motors has repayed approximately $30 billion of the nearly $50 billion that was invested in GM.
Treasury Department officials said in December 2012 that the U.S. should be out of the GM offices within the next 12-15 months
Ally Financial has paid back about one-third of the U.S. government’s $17.2 billion investment in TARP money.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance: A five-part ebook essay series that begins with story of the U.S. auto industry’s Great Collapse, details its recovery and tells the story of entrepreneurs who are driving new manufacturing clusters in Michigan.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is available through Amazon and Vook.com.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community. How could Grand Rapids, Michigan transform itself from a lunch-bucket, Rust Belt community into a home for Nobel Price

winners, while Detroit was falling apart less than three hours away?

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells that story and is available through Amazon, Abbott Press, Barnes & Noble and the iBookstore. Autographed hardcover and softcover editions are available by clicking here.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is also available at Schuler Books & Music on 28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Chrysler's Investing: This Time In Ohio

Chrysler Group Plans to Invest Nearly $20 Million in Toledo Machining Plant

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- 

• Investment to increase capacity for production of torque converters for new generation, fuel-efficient nine-speed transmission
• Company's total investment in U.S. facilities over $5.2 billion since June 2009  

Chrysler Group LLC announced today that it will invest $19.6 million in its Toledo Machining Plant inPerrysburg, Ohio, to increase capacity of the torque converter it's machining for the nine-speed transmission. With this announcement, the Company's total investments in its U.S. operations since June 2009 increase to over $5.2 billion.

The new torque converters will be paired with the next generation, fuel efficient nine-speed front-wheel drive transmission being assembled at Chrysler Group's Indiana (Kokomo, Ind.) Transmission Plant I. The new transmission will debut in the 2014 Jeep® Cherokee.

"The new nine-speed transmission is a critical part of our strategy to meet fuel economy requirements over the next several years and Toledo Machining will play an integral role in bringing this transmission to market," saidScott Garberding, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing, Chrysler Group LLC. "Securing this additional investment is a testament to the dedication and commitment of the plant's workforce and helps secure its future long-term."

The investment will fund the installation of new equipment and tooling for additional machining and assembly capacity. Installation is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2014 and will be completed by the end of 2014.

In August 2011, a $72 million investment in Toledo Machining was announced to modernize the plant to produce the eight- and nine-speed torque converters on two new production lines and a new steering column for the Dodge Dart and Jeep Cherokee. These installations will be complete in the third quarter this year.

In February, the Company announced that it was investing $374 million in several of its Kokomo, Ind., facilities, including establishing a new manufacturing site in Tipton, Ind., to increase production capacity of the nine-speed transmission.

Toledo Machining currently produces torque converters for Kokomo Transmission (Ind.), Indiana Transmission I and II (Kokomo, Ind.), Sterling Heights Assembly (Mich.), and Toluca (Mex.).

The plant also produces steering columns for the following assembly plants: Warren Truck (Mich.), Belvidere (Ill.), Sterling Heights (Mich.), Toledo Assembly Complex (Ohio); Windsor (Ont.), Toluca (Mex.), Saltillo (Mex.), Arab American Vehicles (Egypt) and Carabobo (Venezuela).

~ LCP ~

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, a five-part ebook essay series beginning with The Great Collapse, is now available through Amazon and Vook.com.

Other essays in the series include: Quenching The Thirst, the story of the rise of the craft brewing industry in Michigan; Farm To Fork, the story of food processing in Michigan; Outrage in Michigan, the story of the Right To Work legislative battle; and Where Are The Workers, the story of the struggle to convince young workers to make a career out of manufacturing.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story

of Grand Rapids, Michigan and how a $1 billion donation from Jay Van Andel started the reinvention of this American community.

Order your autographed hardcover or softcover edition of Last Chance Mile by clicking here.

Ebook editions are available through Abbott Press and Amazon.

Manufacturing Jobs Growing in Michigan: Factory Help Wanted

Manufacturing employment increased in Michigan by 14,648 jobs in 2012 according to Manufacturers News Incorporated, a rise of 2.3 percent despite the loss of 54 manufacturing companies.


This momentum is expected to continue in the months ahead. Chrysler plans a $240 million expansion of its Detroit plants; Ford will invest $773 million to expand hiring at six factories across the state; and GM plans to expand its Lansing facility. 

That is pushing employment at several auto suppliers, including Detroit Manufacturing Systems, which opened an auto parts plant in Detroit and will supply Ford with instrument panels. Brose North America opened a new facility in New Boston; auto parts maker Faurecia opened a new plant in Fraser; and Magna E-Car Systems established a new assembly plant in Grand Blanc Township. 


“Michigan’s industrial climate continues to improve,” said Tom Dubin, president of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. “ The state’s efforts to reduce business costs have resulted in many companies reinvesting in its manufacturing sector.”


Grand Rapids is the number-one city for manufacturing employment in Michigan.
Manufacturers News Incorporated reported April 22, 2013, that 41,715 people were working in manufacturing jobs in Grand Rapids in 2012, an increase of 5.8 percent over 2011.
Detroit was in second place with 31,772 manufacturing jobs, no significant change from the previous year.

While Grand Rapids has the most manufacturing employment by city in the MNI survey, Southeast Michigan still leads the state on a regional basis, with 378,278 people bringing home paychecks from manufacturing businesses.

Southwest Michigan, a region that includes Grand Rapids, had manufacturing employment of 204,651 in 2012.

This is good news of course. But it also presented a challenge in 2012 for many manufacturers, who struggled to fill open positions in their factories and engineering labs.

Here’s an excerpt from Where Are The Workers? the second installment in a five-part ebook essay series, Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance.


Manufacturing is on its way back led by the automotive industry. However, the case is also being made that manufacturing isn’t ready for the revival, especially the suppliers who are chained up to the OEMs.
Are enough new warriors being recruited to this fight? Here’s the story of a real warrior, a man who saw actual combat. Now he is facing a new and in some ways more difficult challenge.
Bryan Heath survived Marine Corps boot camp and three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, but never realized how tough it would be to find a job in the civilian world.
After knocking his head against the employment wall with job after job that went nowhere, Heath was doing his internship on the shop floor at Commercial Tool & Die Inc. (CTD) when I met him near Grand Rapids, Mich., while he continued taking classes across the street at Expert Tech LLC, a sister company of CTD, part of the Commercial Tool Group family of companies. Expert Tech was set up to find that missing generation who for one reason or another has decided that factory life is not for them.
 “Learning this trade is something I will be able to use for the rest of my life,” Heath said. “This was the perfect opportunity to step in and say ‘this is who I am.’”
Kind of like what he did in boot camp? Bryan looked me in the eye and said, “Yes sir.”
Commercial Tool & Die opened Expert Tech, to help itself and its competitors, as well as people like Bryan Heath. It’s an effort to deal with an industrial crisis born of the rebirth of manufacturing in West Michigan. Business is booming. The demand is there after a decade that was lost to the industrial sector. Now the problem is finding people trained in the skill sets that are needed.
“The community colleges have pulled back, the voc-tech schools are not as prevalent as they used to be. There just isn’t the infrastructure there used to be support skill and knowledge development in our trade,” Commercial Tool and Die President Todd Finley said.
Quite simply, the talent pool is nearly drained and could become a barely damp puddle.
 “We have really gutted our educational pipeline for skilled manufacturing,” Expert Tech President Ryan Pohl explained. “There is no feeder pipeline for people coming in with basic skills.”
Filling that pool company by company could be an insurmountable challenge because although it is something every shop should be doing, let’s be honest; some are so small that they are running as fast as they can just to stay in place. There’s no money and no time to put together anything close to an in-house training program
That is why CDT formed Expert Tech. “Give me someone who will show up every day and work hard,” said Pohl, “and we will train them for a company or I will train someone for free, betting I can find work for them.”

~ LCP ~

Where Are The Workers?  is one essay in a five-part ebook series, Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, now available through Amazon and Vook.com.