Hey, Dean from Leisure Travel Vans
We're in Kansas City, Missouri.
Beautiful Kansas City, Missouri.
And we're very excited because we are at the Ford Assembly Plant where
they make a Transit Chassis that we use on the Wonder motorhomes
and we're going to go through a tour
of the entire factory. We are very excited!
Okay, I've got all my safety gear on
We're going to go through the entire manufacturing plant.
They have 1200 acres of manufacturing facility area.
So this is the largest Factory in North America.
They've built the F-Series chassis here
for 41 years!
and of course, they started building the Transit Chassis here in 2013
and this is where it all begins
They make the floor plans right here
All done by computers
They have a laser cutting machine
and this is where it all starts
to build the Transit Cutaway Chassis and in 13.1 hours, we're gonna have a
completed Transit Cutaway Chassis
as you can see behind me, those are called
'Godzilla robots'. Most factories might have 1.
This plant has 6.
The Transit is the most complex build that Ford has with over 2,000
variances of build,
so 6 'Godzilla machines' building the Transit.
Now that's very cool!
They build the Transit Van Chassis and the Cutaway Chassis all in
the same assembly line. So depending on the mix of build, similar to what we do
at Leisure when we have different floor plans and we mix the build, they do the
exact same thing here at the factory so that is very cool.
Now you can see these are some of the finishing robots in this area
There's one of our Cutaway Chassis
Getting made. So you can see, the box tubular steel steel chassis framing all
welded construction. You can see the robots are getting it ready for final finish.
Very cool.
TIG welding MIG welding and fuse welding makes the Transit
Chassis super-strong.
so this is one of the DC tools that they use here at the
factory. They don't use any torque wrenches anymore,
so everything is done
right here by this machine
if I don't torque this at the correct pressure,
lights are coming on and we have a problem.
so, very cool that everything is done
precisely on all the Transit Chassis.
I love that.
So this is why they don't
have me working in the factory
because I have 1 minute and 30 seconds to do my job.
I would never get it done in time!
1 minute 30 second move times.
we're in trim shop, they have nine different
assembly lines coming in here to finish the units
there's a hundred different pieces
of glass they have to choose from
and they have to get the units all done
Above me is their hour clock of how many units that they have to be building
every single day
and right now they're a little behind.
probably because I'm here, disturbing the whole system.
As you can see, the mix of the different Transit
vehicles that they make down the assembly line.
There's one of our Cutaway Chassis
With a diesel engine, 178 inch wheelbase,
you see all the box tubular steel
framing, spot welded.
see the beautiful structures that we have that we can put the floor on.
That's one good-looking Chassis.
So this is where they put the windshield on
As you can see, on the Transit Chassis
The Chassis stops, it goes around
The windshield goes in. They do a picture of it.
If the frame isn't perfect, it won't install the windshield.
Very ingenious.
You're probably wondering, 'where do all these parts come from?'
They have a MSC center
that is the size of 3 football stadiums
that they collect all
the parts.
Behind us is the Material Sequencing Center (MSC)
and all these
carts that you see going by us
are all the parts that are coming into the main factory.
So they get pulled in the exact sequence so that every single trim kit
and windshield in part comes from the assembly line just in time they don't
allow any forklifts that could damage parts or people. All done with little trollies
that bring the parts from the MSC centers. This factory is incredible.
Behind me are the 'clam shells' that actually pick up the Chassis so there's
sensors in the floor. If I were to step outside the yellow line, it would stop it
and stop the assembly line
and I would be thrown out of here like that.
so stay inside the yellow line.
I'm now in the Chassis Shop. They called the de-skin area
so the entire motorhome has gone through all the different areas.
Through paint,
through final trim, and glass
the 'clam shells' come over,
Up on the clam shells there's different wheel bases
They have to tell the clam shell which wheelbases it is.
We build on the 178 inch wheel base.
And then it's going to take it off the skids and put it
up int he air.
now you can see the Chassis is raised up in the air, there's one of our beautiful
Cutaway Chassis.
Anything that goes underneath the chassis this is where
they put the fuel lines on, all the brackets here to get that ready for all
the axles and things that are going to get installed next.
Pretty cool to see it
coming down the line in the air
So in this area here, they're
getting all the breaks and the hub's ready to go, and on the Transit
that we order, we have 4 all-wheel disc brakes.
Okay, so this is the decking area.
We've got about 16 decking carts.
If you look around that's where they put
the bottom part (the motor, the transmission, the axles, driveshaft) all
gets done and then we're going to install it into the Chassis.
so it'll stop about six inches short before they install it now they'll go
inside and connect the shifter cables into the transmission and then they're
like fully install it up into the Chassis.
So you can see, we got one out of
our Cutaway Chassis coming down the line in this area here, they're putting
tailpipes on anything below it, and of course the Ford front grill
so everything's gonna go on. They're getting ready to put the lights on next
They're getting ready for the headlamps to go on and seats are gonna go in next
you can see the lower suspension. Leaf spring suspension with heavy-duty shock absorbers.
so now we have to get the tires put on to
the Transit Chassis. They go through almost 5,000 tires a day putting them on
the Transit Vans and the Cutaway Chassis.
Is that not crazy?
and of course we use a
16 inch tire in all of our Transit Chassis. And that's all done right here
This is where the last move station is before it comes off the line
as you can see it's
always moving as it comes down. So they're going to put fuel in, diesel fuel
about six gallons. Fill up the DEF and then they're gonna fire it up for the
first time and drive it off the line so all the final inspections are done
making sure that everything is perfect before it gets shipped to us,
so we can build a beautiful motorhome on top of it.
we're at the end of the assembly line, and I'm gonna
start this baby up and drive it off the assembly line.
it started! Is this not cool?
Being able to see a new baby born. From start to finish.
Very exciting!
So once again, we come off the final assembly line and then it's got to go
into testing you can see they're making sure that everything's working they're
aligning the headlights making sure that everything is fully functional on the
Chassis. Of course, before it gets shipped.
Now we gotta simulate road speed.
so they lock in these place and got the rollers, they're gonna fire that up
make sure that everything is working
They're going to run it at full highway speed.
so now that we road tested the Chassis, made sure that everything is fully
functional, now it comes to the CAL line because we're not done yet this is
the 'Customer Acceptance Line'.
So it has to come from there, onto this line
where all the Ford inspectors go through the entire Chassis with a fine-tooth comb
They're looking for pain scratches, or any defects. Anything that isn't
working correctly, then it's going to be repaired before it you go to our customer.
This is a very important part is why Ford quality is at the top of the
industry, because they do this check now. Not later.
Okay so CAL line. This is the CAL 2 line. Over and above
customer service, customer quality. It takes a picture of every single unit as it
comes off this assembly line to make sure that all the right options were on it.
Well, that's what Ford quality is all about.
You can see, here's one of my
Cutaways coming down the line, and of course on our Ford Transit Chassis we
order the diesel 5-cylinder engine. 185 horsepower, 350 foot-pounds of torque,
six-speed automatic transmission, we've got the SYNC 3 navigation system, we load
these Chassis up, so they're perfect for our end customer.
We're still not done testing yet.
We're now in the, what we would call the 'rain shower' in our factory,
but this where they do high-pressure water testing, you can see the
water nozzles behind me.
They're going to water test the entire Chassis to make
sure that there's no water leaks at all.
Very cool.
Hey, I want to thank Mike for taking us to the factory at Ford here in Kansas City.
It was fabulous.
And what a beautiful facility where they build the Transit Chassis for us.
And I'm just looking at the Ford mission statement:
"Our mission is to produce vehicles that meet or exceed our
customers and stakeholders expeditions in a safe and rewarding environment."
Let me tell you, this plant does that.
What an incredible build.
Incredible people that work here.
Over 8,000 people,
they run basically 24 hours a day
with the F-150 series, 7 days a week.
Correct.
Wow, what an incredible factory.
Incredible facility.
The largest Ford factory in North America by the way.
And Mike is great, he's been working here for:
Twenty nine and a half years.
Twenty nine and a half years! And the guy looks like he's 25 years old.
How does that happen? Thank you very much.
It's been our pleasure to have you here too in Kansas City.
Thank you very much, you have
Mike from Ford
and Dean from Leisure Travel Vans!