Ford's New World Headquarters

WWJ AutoBeat Reporter Jeff Gilbert takes us on a tour of Ford's brand new 2.1 million square foot headquarters

Transcript

00:00Welcome to Ford's new world headquarters.

00:04You may have watched it go up across the street from the Henry Ford complex.

00:08Finally, they're letting us look inside.

00:11This huge entryway with impressive staircase is the first thing you'll see,

00:16but it's just the start of a state-of-the-art 2.1 million square foot building.

00:22The main point I would say that I hope people come away with for Ford's new headquarters

00:27is the amount of effort put into really designing a building that acts like a tool

00:33to support and enable the team members to do their best work when they're on site.

00:38There are a lot of collaboration areas, spaces to get a cup of coffee,

00:42three tech-enabled courtyards, as well as areas to meet in private.

00:47Wherever you are in this building, you know you work for Ford,

00:50be it some sports cars, regular cars, hidden blue ovals,

00:54and a lot of homage to the vehicle's history.

00:57There's also a lot of light in this building and a lot of open space.

01:02There's also a lot of space to meet and to eat.

01:05A 160,000 square foot food hall, don't call it a cafeteria,

01:10with eight different food stations.

01:12Ford is a global company.

01:13We have guests from all over the world coming in here,

01:15so we want to pay homage to that diversity through this food hall.

01:18So we have a station here called Torque that is more Mediterranean-focused.

01:23Firestone, which is more Italian.

01:25Five Spices, which pays homage to the Asian cultures.

01:28We were taken into a huge workshop with both classic tools and modern tools.

01:33By the way, everywhere you go in this building,

01:36it's designed to support large vehicles driving through.

01:40Then there's a new modern design center.

01:42All of this video is provided by Ford because we were allowed to see,

01:46but we couldn't take our own pictures.

01:48Now, a lot of this had been scattered around a lot of different Ford buildings.

01:53Now we're bringing those teams together alongside the product

01:56to really work collaboratively,

01:58and that will drive a lot of efficiency to help deliver the Ford Plus plan.

02:02One of the most important areas is the showroom.

02:05It replaces the old design dome.

02:07Ford can show off vehicles here,

02:09and execs can get a look and sign off on the final design.

02:13There are about 2,000 people working in this building today.

02:17Eventually, it'll be more than twice that number.

02:20In Dearborn, I'm AutoBeat reporter Jeff Gilbert.