THE FACTORY
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Immediately before the company began updating It to coincide with the arrival of the new Transit, we paid Ford's Southampton plant a visit and recently returned to check out the changes.
Anyone planning to build an automobile factory on the site today would soon decide that such a task was impossible. On a triangular plot bounded by a railway, a motorway and a cemetery, the only way to expand is upwards...except that on the other side of the M27 is Southampton airport, whose users tend to have first claim in that direction. And we should mention that the original landowner retained the right to drive sheep through the middle of the site, so a vital strip of property has to be kept clear, just in case!
With its wartime history of aircraft production, the plant's architecture is not without interest. The highlight is the original main assembly hall, designed by Barnes Wallis, employing the same geodetic techniques he put to such effective use in the Wellington bomber.
While Southampton doesn't actually produce any body pressings on site, its products start off from nothing more than a pair of chassis rails. One major advance is that all of the Transits made there can now be fully built on-line—previously, the taller versions had to have their roofs added at the end of the line because they simply wouldn't fit. The old Hi-cube model was even worse, having to be transported to the North of England for the tailsection to be fitted and then back to the Midlands for final painting!
While we said earlier that building height was an issue, Ford has managed to incorporate a fivestorey spray shop which can accommodate the tallest van.
Southampton is now an object lesson in squeezing a quart into a pint pot. Many of the improvements are obviously intended to boost productivity, but the plant also takes seriously its role as a leading member of the community. Such Improvements as quieter cooling fans and revised truck movement arrangements help its immediate neighbours, but it's obvious from walking around that Ford is fully active in the broader community.