Over the past three-plus years, new vehicle production has been affected in a major way by numerous supply chain shortages, driving inventory levels down and prices to new record heights. Ford has worked to circumvent these issues by building vehicles without those hard-to-get components and storing them until the parts arrive. However, these elusive components aren’t just things like semiconductor chips and other high-tech pieces – last September, FoMoCo faced a shortage of Blue Oval badges, in fact. Now, it’s dealing with yet another strange shortage – this time, door handles for the Ford F-150 pickup, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Though Ford F-150 inventory levels have improved as of late, production was temporarily halted this past weekend after the automaker had trouble sourcing the correct door handles for the best-selling pickup. Production has since resumed, but workers are installing substitute handles on some trucks in an effort to keep assembly lines moving until the proper pieces arrive. Those handles don’t have proper key holes in some cases, and in others, aren’t painted the correct color.
This allows workers to not only be able to get in and out of the pickups, but also to perform checks inside the vehicles as it moves through he production process. These mismatched models will then be parked until the correct door handles arrive and can be swapped out for the temporary pieces. A Ford spokesperson confirmed that this issue affects production at the Dearborn Truck plant, Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, and Kansas City Assembly plant, and noted that the majority of F-150 pickups being built have the correct door handles.
“While a supplier part shortage is affecting some of our North American plants, we expect to make up all of the production that is impacted,” the Ford spokeswoman added.
We’ll have more on Ford’s supply chain issues soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, and non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comments
Henry had the right idea..make it in house.
OR! Make the same door handles for all their trucks….
Ford is building recall nightmares , I’m all in on my 2022 Ram Limited , and it’s not deleting anything . Nor dose it have 9 recalls. The most equipped truck on they road today.
So long Ford , you lost a valuable customer.
I couldn’t agree more, I have had 6 Explorers all back to back, my current 2021 ST has 3 outstanding recalls but no parts for the near future. No other OEM has the part supply issues that Ford has let alone the recall and QC issues. Im dumping my Explorer and moving to Genesis because they have no recalls or part shortages and they stand behind their product with twice the warranty. Too bad because I really like my ST.
The easiest truck to get broken into, Fords. Simple fix for current door handles, but Ford won’t spend the time or money, they’d rather WE their customer, pay to fix THEIR screw ups. I have to spend $90 for an aftermarket fix, which is better than having my 2022 broken into.
Ford is pathetic , just sell the company to someone who knows how to build vehicles and manage the supply chain . They will have to sell once they shift to money losing EVs which are not any better for environment to pander to the phony climate nuts . By 2026 , supply of EVs will be fare greater than demand , so many EV company’s will go u dear, Ford included