The Ford Romeo Engine Plant was a

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

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

plant located at 701, 32 Mile Road in

Romeo, Michigan Romeo is a village in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,767 at the 2020 census. Romeo is located on the rural-urban fringe of the Detroit metropolitan area, and many of its residents commute to jobs closer to th ...

. 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 ge ...

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 (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

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 (engine), cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V engine, V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette (manufactu ...

was produced for the

Lincoln Town Car The Lincoln Town Car was 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 t ...

. Most recently, it manufactured the

Ford Modular engine The Ford Modular engine is an overhead camshaft (OHC) V8 and V10 gasoline-powered small block engine family introduced by Ford Motor Company in 1990 for the 1991 model year. The term “modular” applied to the setup of tooling and casting ...

. On December 30, 2022 it was announced the plant had permanently closed and employees were being offered either a buyout or transfer to another Ford factory.

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

Previously 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 Motor Company since model year 1948 as a range of full-sized pickup trucks — positioned between Ford's Ford Ranger (T6), Ranger and Ford Super Duty, ...

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

, Shelby GT500,

Explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

, E-Series van, Crown Victoria and the Mercury Grand Marquis. 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, three-row luxury SUV manufactured and marketed under the Lincoln brand of Ford Motor Company — and now in its second generation, with a hiatus from 2006 to 2020. The first generation Aviator was manufa ...

Lincoln Navigator Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (n ...

, Ford GT (2005-2006), SVT Mustang, Mustang Mach 1 and

Cobra COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

. 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 supercharged 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 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