FLAT ROCK, Mich. – Ford Motor Co. is marking a big change at a major assembly plant in Flat Rock.
For more than 20 years, the facility has been known as the Auto Alliance International Plant. But it will now be Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant, now that Mazda has ended production of its Mazda 6 at the plant.
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Gov. Rick Snyder was among the leaders who joined Ford officials Monday to announce the transition.
The plant will continue to produce Mustangs and will produce the new version of the Ford Fusion next year – adding another 1,200 workers for a second shift.
In addition to adding 1,200 new hourly jobs tied to Fusion production, Ford also is investing $555 million to build a state-of-the-art, fully flexible body shop capable of producing multiple vehicles. With each new major plant program, Ford is significantly increasing the flexibility of its equipment and facilities to build multiple vehicles at one location. By 2015, Ford will be able to produce 25 percent more derivatives per plant versus 2011 on a global basis.
Ford also is upgrading the plant's paint shop with an environmentally friendly 3-Wet paint process. The 3-Wet process, which Ford is rolling out across more than 15 assembly plants globally, allows three layers of paint to be applied one after another while still wet, with less manual intervention, resulting in a superior product created with fewer pollutants and less expense.