A fire at Meridian Magnesium Products of America plant in Eaton Rapids, Mich revealed just how fragile supply chains can be. It stopped production of Ford’s F-150 due to a lack of critical parts from this supplier.

The F-150 is Ford’s most popular and most profitable model.  In addition to Ford, other auto manufacturers have been impacted as well, including BMW, Chrysler, GM, and Mercedes-Benz.

At first, Ford believed the factory fire would stop production for weeks or longer. With Meridian’s help, and the rescue of specialized tooling that wasn’t damaged in the fire, Ford cobbled together a new worldwide supply chain for the affected parts on its F-150.

At the time of the May 18th article from Detroit Free Press, Ford expected to re-start production within a few days.

This post is based on the Detroit Free Press article, From panic to triumph: Behind the scenes of Ford’s epic F-150 restart, by Phoebe Wall Howard, May 18, 2018, and the NPR.org article, Ford Halts Production of F-150s After Fire At Supplier’s Facility, by Camila Domonoske, May 10, 2018. Image source: Iconotec/Glowimages.

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1. Why did a fire at one supplier force Ford to temporarily halt Continue reading →