Ford Motor Corporation has decided that in order to keep emerging in strong markets, its important to analyze the production method line to make it faster and more efficient, while reducing plant downtime, meaning the time period where the company is not producing anything, hence not adding value.
In 2011 Ford started an expansion project in where assembly plants would reach China and India, while power-train plants in Brazil, China India and Russia. A very well thought idea given that cheap labor would reduce costs and these countries are becoming More economically developed countries allowing exports around the world to be possible.
It’s also said that the company will start reducing the global vehicle platforms from 15 to 9 by 2017, on top of plans of increasing the number of vehicles per plant in order to improve efficiency as workers will be focused on less similar pieces, reduce costs and respond more quickly to changes in consumer tastes.
The company also aims to improve manufacturing flexibility and speed by investing in new technology (3D printing of prototype parts).
Its said that Ford plans to run 90 percent of its global factories virtually on three shifts a day by 2017 boosting production run time by more than 30 percent.

reference:

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2013/10/7/Ford-aims-to-make-its-factories-more-flexible-efficient.aspx