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Assembly Line at the AutoAlliance Plant
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The AutoAlliance plant in Flat Rock, Michigan is a big place, encompassing over 2.7 million square feet. The assembly line which is responsible for putting together the Ford Mustang, as well as other Ford family vehicles like the Mazda 6, is 13 miles long. Along that line, there are more than 400 robots that make over 6,000 body welds on each car, as well as an additional 61 robots that apply seals and sound-deadening materials, and ten automatic paint machines that can apply 24 different color options.
What keeps all of these robots working in synchronization? Networking cables and a technology called CC-Link. What makes CC-Link so crucial to the operation? The biggest selling point of this technology is the effective data transfer distance. Your average home networking cable will begin to see significant transfer rate loss after a few hundred feet, and when you need to operate precision welding robots over long distances, that just won't cut it. CC-Link allows for effective data networking at distances of 8.2 miles.
A Ford autoworker assembles a Mustang
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The implementation of CC-Link technologies is one of the factors that has allowed Ford to stay solvent while the other two big Detroit automakers, GM and Chrysler, have needed to get government aid.
The factory isn't all robots, though. There are still plenty of real-life people involved in the production of the Mustang and they are a crucial part of assembling every single vehicle. But when it comes to manipulating a jig bed to stabilize and fold large pieces of the car's body panels, machines are required. Also, CC-Link is reliable. Despite the fact the the network covers 95% of all automated components along that 13 mile assembly line, there has not been a single network failure since the system was installed. With that kind of reliability, Ford's ability to continue producing vehicles like the Mustang will continue unabated, and will keep the classic American muscle car in driveways across the world.
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