Ford Rouge Factory Tour
Another highlight of the trip to Detroit was the opportunity to visit the Ford Rouge Factory. This is the sprawling factory where all their F-150 trucks are built.
I’m not going to lie, this was the tour I was most looking forward to.
After arriving at the factory, we were seated in a theatre to watch some historical footage from the early days of Ford.
Then in another theatre, we got a dynamic demonstration of all the phases of building a truck with a dazzling presentation that included projection mapping, robots, lasers and smoke (see a few moments from this part of the tour in the video below).
Then it was on to the main event!
The factory tour is open to the public and consists of a catwalk above the factory floor that lets you see and hear every stage of the truck building process. People and robots all working to build the vehicles in a place that to an outsider, looks like chaos. One truck is assembled every minute!
The place is jam packed with tools, people, robots, equipment and an overhead system that brings various parts to the required areas of the factory floor…it really was like what you’d see in the movies with car doors zooming by overhead while the trucks are being assembled below.
As you exit the catwalk, you get to browse around the museum of vehicles that have been built there over the years.
A really cool way to spend an afternoon if you’re ever in the area.
I put together a little highlight video from the factory floor:
There are a lot more photos from the factory tour and the Detroit Auto Show on my Flickr.
Disclosure: The Ford Motor Company paid for my travel and accommodations at the three-day NAIAS 2015 Digital Summit in Detroit. I was not compensated in any other manner for my time. The opinions posted here are my own.
