Wayne Stamping & Assembly

The Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant is a Ford manufacturing plant in Wayne, Michigan producing Ford Focus vehicles. Past products have included Galaxie, Mercury, Edsel, Maverick, Lincoln, Escort/Lynx/EXP, Granada/Monarch and Versailles. Many of its more than 3,000 employees are represented by UAW Local 900.

Facility description

The 3.5 million square foot plant opened in 1952 on 229 acres, and integrates both stamping and assembly operations. Assembled body units and stamped body components are transferred from the stamping/body area of one building to the paint and assembly area of the adjacent building via an overpass bridge. The assembly process includes welding (with and without robots) and sealing of sheet metal body components, metal finishing (sanding and surface preparation), phosphate coating, painting, and final assembly.

The facility is located next door to the Michigan Truck Plant, which builds the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.

Environmental issues

A long-term agreement between Detroit Edison and Wayne allows landfill gas from Woodland Meadows Landfill to be collected, compressed, and sent through underground piping to the plant. The boilers burn a combination of natural gas and landfill gas to create steam for use in the plant. The landfill gas also powers three engine generators, which produce approximately 2.4 megawatts of electricity. The electricity is sent to Detroit Edison's grid system using a step-up transformer. Flaring of the landfill gas is minimized in turn reducing emissions from the landfill. Exhaust from the engines is recycled via ducts to the boilers' fireboxes; the combustion in the boilers acts as a re-burn cycle to further reduce the emissions from the engines. The 2 MMBTU per hour of recovered heat from the engines means less gas in the boilers, reducing energy consumption and emissions. The partnership of Ford and Detroit Edison gives the utility company an electricity source from garbage that displaces coal-fired power.

Rail operations

The Ford complex is serviced by two Class 1 railroads, Norfolk Southern and CSX. The complex straddles the Wayne Junction, where Norfolk Southern's east-west Michigan Line crosses CSX's north-south Saginaw Subdivision. Norfolk Southern's Wayne Yard (milepost 18.5) is to the south of the Stamping & Assembly plant, and consists of ten sidings (plus the dual main). CSX's Wayne Yard (milepost CC90.1) is on the east side of the plant, and consists of more than 20 sidings. Much of the rolling stock consists of tri-level enclosed auto racks (89' long and 19' tall).

References

* [http://media.ford.com/facilities/plant_display.cfm?plant_id=71 Media.Ford.com]
* [http://www.p2pays.org/ref/13/12250.pdf Landfill Gas Recovery at Ford Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant]