Despite what Ford "might do" to Jaguar over the next ???? years, I made a
recent visit (last August) to the Jaguar assembly plant in Coventry. I believe
it's one of the four (?) Jag plants in the Coventry area. They do wonderful
tours, showing you every bit of production. These remain a handmade car. The
tourguide was a retired Jag employee who had done just about everything except
carpentry and interior assembly. He had also worked for Ford in Detroit in
the 60's beforing working at Jag. He raved about Ford's approach and efficiency
compared to Jag's in the past. He commented that the understanding there was
that Ford planned to continue making Jag, not Forduars.
The main change that Ford had implemented was redesigning the production
approach. For example,
instead of having 3 assembly lines, the Jag plant was remodeled to have 1
serpentine line to handle all vehicles. The assembly of the vehicles was
computerized so that the relevant parts for each car (ie correct interior type,
color, optioal equipment, etc) were delivered to the appropriate point at the
assembly line from their various storehouses at (roughly) the same time as the
car arrived for assembly of those parts. It was impressive.
These cars are beautiful.
my 2 cents worth.
J.Tipp
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