New 2005 Ford Mustang Getting Ready for a Dealer Near You

Being that machines are only as capable as the people who program them, Ford has invested more than $30 million into training Flat Rock's employees in advanced manufacturing

Christina Slomba installs a door latch to the interior door frame of a 2005 Mustang. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada)

processes. A new high-tech lab is also accessible to thousands of high school students in the local community, making sure a new generation of Ford employees will be up to speed when called upon.

While the Flat Rock plant is state-of-the-art, it's not the first flexible plant in Ford's arsenal. Additionally, the domestic automaker has optimized Chicago Assembly, which makes the new Five Hundred/Mercury Montego sedan and Freestyle crossover, Norfolk Assembly which produces the F-150, Kansas City Assembly which also builds the F-150, and the Dearborn Truck Plant which, you guessed it, builds the F-150 as well as the new Lincoln LT, based on the F-150. Ford will revise 75 percent of its North American manufacturing facilities into flexible facilities by 2010.

The new Mustang goes on sale later this year, and is expected to do much to raise Ford's new car profile and in the process help the blue oval to maintain number one brand status, now threatened by Chevrolet.