The Ford Production System

In January 1995, Ford employed a company-wide re-engineering initiative called Ford 2000. One of the major objectives of Ford 2000 program was to develop and implement a new manufacturing system called the Ford Production System (FPS). According to Ford's website, "The vision of FPS is a lean, flexible and disciplined common production system, defined by a set of principles and processes, that employs groups of capable and empowered people, learning and working safely together, in the production and delivery of products that consistently exceed customers' expectations in quality, cost and time." FPS was an attempt by Ford to transform itself from mass production system to lean manufacturing system...

By 2003, all the plants of Ford had adopted FPS in their operations. It was estimated that after the implementation of FPS, Ford had achieved savings to the tune of $500 mn per year.

The personnel at the plants also received web-based training while best practices were identified and shared between the plants. By mid-2003, Ford was in the process of standardizing manufacturing operations across all its plants globally. The company planned to implement standard operating procedures and uniform plant layouts...