INSIDE THE HENRY FORD
FORD ROUGE FACTORY TOUR
United in Purpose Ford, UAW and The Henry Ford celebrate 10 years of partnership at the Ford Rouge Factory Tour vehicle assembly line is probably one of the most studied and celebrated examples of teamwork. Thousands of men and women working in concert to build hundreds of our society’s most complex, yet most common, machines every day. When you take the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, you see the art of the assembly line in motion as you walk along the 1/3-mile elevated walkway, following the trim line for final assembly of the Ford F-150 at the Dearborn Truck Plant. Dedicated workers teaming up with each other and advanced tooling to manufacture the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. Just as important to the Rouge’s success is the collaboration between UAW Local 600 and Ford Motor Company. In 1997, the two approved the Rouge Viability Agreement, investing billions in the complex to make it the world-class example of sustainable manufacturing it is today. And as the idea for the Ford Rouge Factory Tour unfolded during this transformation, the UAW was an important partner in creating a visitor experience worthy of the Rouge and its legacy. The relationship between the UAW and Ford Motor Company hasn’t always been so collaborative. “It was one of the worst relationships in the beginning,” said Bernie Ricke, president of UAW Local 600. “It has evolved into a place where we now have the best relationship in the industry.” Ricke represented the UAW as part of a committee tasked with reviewing the Rouge’s progress and finalizing the visitor elements of
The
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the factory tour. This group of The Henry Ford experts, Ford and Ford Land executives, and entertainment architects met monthly in a special conference room in the basement of Ford Motor Company’s world headquarters in Dearborn to brainstorm and collaborate. “We wanted the tour to have a natural flow, a setup that explained the Rouge’s history, the new sustainable plant and the current building of the truck,” said Ricke. Hundreds of ideas were thrown on the table, from adding salmon ladders in the Rouge River to building a strip mall in the Rouge complex to including movie screens on Miller Road for visitors to view as they were bused to the tour entrance. “There was even talk about enclosing the visitor walkway in the plant with glass and making it air-conditioned,” noted Ricke, “but we wanted visitors to hear, d A United Auto Workers feel and smell what it’s really like badge from on the line, not just see it.” 1935. In the end, the Ford Rouge Factory Tour is a five-part, self10TH guided experience that includes the ANNIVERSARY open, elevated walkway at Dearborn SPECIAL Truck, along with two theater experiVisit the Ford Rouge Factory Tour FREE! ences, a vehicle gallery and an obserMembers can get vation deck where visitors can view two FREE tickets to the plant’s astonishing living roof. visit the Ford Rouge “The Rouge is famous all over Factory Tour May-June by subscribing to The the world,” said Ricke. “Once we had a Henry Ford eNews. man come all the way from Mongolia to Signup today at take the tour, telling us that coming to TheHenryFord.org/ the Rouge was on his bucket list.” enews.
DID YOU KNOW? / Student Travel Magazine recently voted the Ford Rouge Factory Tour a top U.S. factory tour for a field trip.
ALL IMAGES FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE HENRY FORD
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JUNE-DECEMBER 2014