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Ford Manufacturing Shutdown: Some Good News In The Announcement

In announcing the shutdown from 2016 of its Australian manufacturing operations, there is good news among the more sombre announcements from Ford Australia of job losses, of heavy financial loss and of an icon axed. While it will cease building car


In announcing the shutdown from 2016 of its Australian manufacturing operations, there is good news among the more sombre announcements from Ford Australia of job losses, of heavy financial loss and of an icon axed.

While it will cease building cars, Ford Australia CEO, Bob Graziano, committed to further investment in Ford Australia’s product development facilities.

Over the past year, and for the second year running, Ford Australia invested more than $200 million dollars in the research and engineering of a range of Ford's global products, and in its Virtual Reality Centre design facility in Campbellfield.

Last year, Ford Australia’s total investment in research and development here topped $270 million dollars, bringing the company’s total R&D investment in Australia during the past six years to more than $1.9 billion – the largest of any carmaker in Australia.

Ford Australia’s design centre at Campbellfield, placed to serve the Asia Pacific Region and a hub for satellite facilites in South Africa, India and China, is one of only three such facilities across Ford's global operation.

The other centres being in Cologne, Germany; and Dearborn, USA.

It employs more than 900 engineers and designers (including those in the satellite facilities), and is linked through Ford's 35 supercomputers located at Dearborn. While headquartered here, the new Design Centre was developed under Ford’s ‘One Ford’ global product strategy.

“Ford Australia will continue to be known as a centre of excellence in this space,” Mr Graziano said today.

This will come as a relief to the designers and engineers employed at Ford Australia’s research and design facility.

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