Ford India celebrates 100,000th Figo’s production

Ford's hot-selling compact Figo– which has revived the fortunes of the Blue Oval and put it firmly among the top four auto manufacturers in country – celebrated the rolling out of its 100,000th unit at the Maraimalainagar plant recently. Body and paint shops and Trim, Chassis and Final (TCF) teams celebrated the event during two days that saw senior managers praise the great work of plant employees. Blanking and stamping started the celebrations to mark the occasion of 100,000 Figo roll-out, with a cake-cutting by Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India, and Tom Chackalackal, vice president, Manufacturing. At the body shop, employees joined Boneham to cut a ceremonial ribbon and mark the historic occasion. Boneham congratulated employees both on India's historic World Cup cricket win as well as rolling out the 100,000th Figo in such a short span of time. "We are proud of the great work you are doing and we hope you will carry on this enthusiasm to our other new products as well," he said. Chackalackal urged the employees to continue their excellent safety record of 50 days without any First Time Occupational Visit (FTOV) incidents. At the paint shop, colourful balloons marked the rollout of the historic Colorado Red Figo. Paint Shop General Manager Anand Misra congratulated employees on having reached the milestone, just 12 months of after the first Figo rolled off the line. He commended the reduced use of paint – from 134 to 47 litres per car, as well as lower power consumption rates. "These efforts show the boost in productivity as well as a commitment to greener manufacturing," he said. Sathyan, General Manager of Material Planning & Logistics (MP& L) compared the rolling out of the 100,000th car to scoring the last winning run of the World Cup. "We will one day reach a situation where we will reach 10 million cars,” he said. Balasundaram Radhakrishnan, vice president of Powertrain Operations, observed that while producing 100,000 cars is smart, to achieve this production with the lowest number of Things Gone Wrong (TGW) in the region is smarter – and that for the Figo to win the highest number of awards among any car ever in India was the smartest thing achieved thus far by Ford India employees.