Seven million and counting. (WIP).

Ford's Norfolk Assembly Plant in Norfolk, Virginia, is exceptional. That is, there aren't too many plants in operation today that have been around since 1925, much less ones making what is arguably the most important single product in an automaker's lineup. Oh yeah, and it recently produced its seven millionth vehicle. Though it has made cars in the past, including the Model T, Norfolk Assembly is a truck plant and has been since it started making the F-Series exclusively in 1974, well before suburbanites decided that pickups are a necessary fashion accessory. The expertise gained from all of those years of making trucks may be a big part of why Norfolk has survived when other, newer plants have been shuttered. Which is not to say that the plant hasn't been upgraded. Over the years Ford has pumped millions into it for new paint and welding equipment, and is currently constructing a $375-million state-of-the-art body shop to build the next-generation F-150.

But a lot of what consistently keeps Norfolk among the most productive of Ford's facilities is an evolving lean manufacturing mindset and commonsense problem solving. Norfolk Assembly plant manager Mike Hom offers an example of the latter when he talks about how workers handled an automatic transmission shift performance problem. A team which included six sigma black belts analyzed all of the operations that could cause the problem, and determined that the chains attached to each engine during transfer kept the units at an angle which lead to hydraulic fluid leakage. Since Norfolk installs three different engines, no uniform chain length could solve the problem. So, the team attached color coded chain sets to the transfer equipment to accommodate the different engine sizes. This kept the engines level and eliminated the shift problem.

As for running lean, Norfolk has reduced parts inventory from one day to about two hours. It has developed a synchronous material flow to its four trim lines, which calls for parts to be in one of two places: lineside or in an on-site storage and retrieval area dubbed the "marketplace." The marketplace layout mimics the order of operations on the lines so that parts can be more quickly and intuitively accessed and delivered lineside. When part levels get low at a particular station, the operator activates a radio-frequency signal which causes a paper parts order slip to be generated in the marketplace. As soon as the slip is printed a light comes on at the station letting the operator know that the order is being processed. This simple feedback loop helps to ensure that parts are making it to the line in time.

According to Hom, Ford is currently getting back to basics: emphasizing quality and productivity. If so, the company could hardly find a better touchstone than this septuagenarian plant.