The Ford Romeo Engine Plant is a

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

plant is located on 701, 32 Mile Road in

Romeo, Michigan Romeo is a village in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,596 at the 2010 census. The village is situated at the southeast corner of Bruce Township, with a portion extending south into Washington Township. Armad ...

. The plant began in 1967 as a small Ford industrial equipment plant, and in 1973 it was expanded 10-fold to become an

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

and

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

plant. From 1973 to 1988, tractor engines and parts, farm implements, and assembled tractors were made there. Shortly after 1990, the first 4.6 2-valve per cylinder

V-8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

was produced for the

Lincoln Town Car The Lincoln Town Car is a model line of full-size luxury sedans that was marketed by the Lincoln division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. Deriving its name from a limousine body style, Lincoln marketed the Town Car from 1981 to ...

. It manufactures the

Ford Modular engine The Ford Modular engine is Ford Motor Company's overhead camshaft (OHC) V8 and V10 gasoline-powered small block engine family. Despite popular belief that the Modular engine family received its moniker from the sharing of engine parts across num ...

General Information

*The plant is built on 268 acres. *Plants total area is 2.2 million square feet. * Currently there are 1,074 total employees at the plant: ** 952 are hourly **122 are salary The introductory paragraph states that Ford Romeo produced, among other things, 4.6L V8 engines for "tractors". The plant produced Ford tractors when first built, and until about 1988 as noted. Ford sold its tractor product line around that time, retained the plant, and converted it to production of its 4.6L and 5.4L "Modular" engines, beginning some time in 1990 for MY 1991 Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln cars and light trucks. The plant was subsequently expanded on 2001.

Production

Currently the Romeo engine plant produces engines for the

F-150 The Ford F-Series is a series of light-duty trucks marketed and manufactured by Ford since the 1948 model year. Slotted above the Ford Ranger in the Ford truck model range, the F-Series is marketed as a range of full-sized pickup trucks. ...

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, they ...

Shelby GT500 The Shelby Mustang is a high-performance variant of the Ford Mustang built by Shelby American from 1965 to 1967 and by the Ford Motor Company from 1968 to 1970. In 2005, Ford revived the Shelby nameplate for a high-performance model of the f ...

Explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, E-Series van,

Crown Victoria The Ford Crown Victoria ("Crown Vic") is a full-size sedan that was marketed and manufactured by Ford. The successor to the Ford LTD Crown Victoria, two generations of the model line were produced from the 1992 to 2012 model years. The Ford ...

and the

Mercury Grand Marquis The Mercury Grand Marquis is an automobile that was sold by the Mercury division of Ford Motor Company from 1975 until 2011. From 1975 until 1982, it was the premium model of the Mercury Marquis line of full-size sedans, becoming a standalone mo ...

. The plant is well known producing the Ford F-150 and the Mustang engines, due to the fact that both vehicles are iconic for Ford. The current engines the plant produces are the: 4.6 liter 4-valve V-8, 5.4 liter 4-valve supercharged, 4.6 liter 2 and 3-valve V-8 and 4.6 liter 2-valve flex fuel V-8 engines. In the past the plant has produced engines for the: Expedition,

Lincoln Aviator The Lincoln Aviator is a mid-size luxury SUV with three-row seating marketed and sold by the Lincoln Motor Company, Lincoln brand of Ford Motor Company. One of four SUVs offered by Lincoln, the Aviator is currently in its second generation, slott ...

Lincoln Navigator The Lincoln Navigator is a full-size luxury SUV marketed and sold by the Lincoln brand of Ford Motor Company since the 1998 model year. Sold primarily in North America, the Navigator is the Lincoln counterpart of the Ford Expedition. It is the h ...

, Ford GT (2005-2006), SVT Mustang, Mustang Mach 1 and Cobra. In 1996 is when the Romeo engine plant produced its first version of the 4.6 liter V-8 Cobra motor that was hand built. Production at the plant averages around 3,000 engines a day. Annually the plant produces on average 628,000 engines. The plant supplies to various Ford plants in: Dearborn, Mi.; Wixom, Mi.; Lorain, Oh; Norfolk, Va.; Kansas City, Mo.; Louisville, Ky.; Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, Mi.; St. Thomas, Canada; Ontario, Canada; Mexico and Australia.

Plant Operation

The plant operates on two lines, the first is a high volume line, and the second line is a niche line. The high volume line is more than 4,000 feet in length; it produces 140 engines an hour. The high volume line builds the 4.6 liter 2-valve and 3-valve V-8 engines and the 4.6 liter 2-valve flex fuel V-8 engines. The niche line is where employees hand build the 5.2 liter 4-valve super charged engines for the Shelby GT500.

Plant Achievements

The Ford Romeo Engine Plant is certified by the ISO 9000 standard for quality along with the ISO 14001 for environmental efficiency. This plant has also won the prestigious Shingo award for excellence in manufacturing in 2002. There was a nine percent improvement rate over the year of 2007 on the combined engine warranty data on a 4.6 liter engines. On February 19, 2009 the Romeo plant employees and Ford celebrated as they produced their ten millionth engine. This was a 4.6 liter 3-valve V-8 engine which was shipped to

AutoAlliance International Flat Rock Assembly Plant, formerly known as Ford's Michigan Casting Center (MCC) (1972–1981), Mazda Motor Manufacturing USA (1987–1992) and AutoAlliance International (1992–2012), is a Ford Motor Company assembly plant located at Drive ...

in Flat Rock, Michigan and was installed in a new 2010 Mustang GT.

Layoffs

Due to 9/11 and the resulting recession of the economy Ford suffered great losses and needed to start making cuts in employment. Ford announce by 2012 a total of 14 facilities and assembly plants will be shut down. In 2008, 300 employees were laid off due to the rising fuel prices and decrease in demand for the V-8 engines. More recently in February 2010, Ford spent 155 million on their Cleveland plant for upgrades and new engines were added to the Romeo plant.

Closing

As part of the 2019 UAW contract negotiations, it was announced that the Ford Romeo Engine Plant would be closing. Employees would be offered positions at the nearby plants.

References

{{Ford factories Ford factories