Ford Motor Company, audited.
21 of ~28 facilities (US scope)797 dock doors2,292 trailer spots18 rail-served
We core-sampled 21 of ~28 plants, We mapped Ford's biggest assembly plants, its stamping and powertrain feeders, and its parts DCs; the two-queue gate pattern held across every one.
Network size: US-only operating footprint built from Ford's official plant locator (https://corporate.ford.com/operations/locations/global-plants/) and Ford's 2024 10-K Item 2 Properties (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000037996/000003799625000013/f-20241231.htm): 7 vehicle assembly + 4 stamping + 5 engine/powertrain + 2 transmission + 2 axle/components + 8 US parts distribution centers. Excludes the closed Romeo Engine Plant and all non-US sites. (2024-12-31)
Public audit. Not affiliated with Ford Motor Company. Data from satellite imagery + public records.
We audited Ford Motor Company’s yards from satellite.
Click any site for its gate, docks, and drop yards. No badge, no NDA, just what a driver sees.
Ford Motor Company’s stack is connected. The yards never were.
Your TMS runs the road. Your WMS runs the building. The yards are the tier between them, and they were never on the network.
Every truck gets re-keyed, re-queued, and re-found at each step. The lost time lives between the steps, which is why no single tool ever fixed it. The audit below is that gap, measured on your real yards.
A real audited site, played gate→dock→exit on the true yard geometry. Switch sites with the picker.
Ford - Kansas City Assembly Plant, Claycomo MO
Truck queues at the gate. Guard checks paper BOL, runs the plate, types data into a screen, prints a gate pass.
Movement durations are honest floors set by yard geometry; the uplift lands on the wait fields (queue + dispatch + secondary checkpoints). “Today” timings reflect the radios-and-clipboards world; “With YardFlow” reflects the protocol acting end-to-end. We may be wrong about parts of this, your actual numbers will tell us where.
What the handoffs cost across your network, and what removing them is worth
Read from satellite + Street View across all 21 facilities. At a comparable network, Primo Brands cut drop-and-hook turns from ~48 to ~24 min. Set your real volumes and margins in the calculator to put a number on it.
What surprised us reading Ford Motor Company’s network
Three patterns held across the sites we sampled. None of them show up on a facility list. All of them change how the yard runs.
- 01
BlueOval City is 950 acres of greenfield. Ford's EV bet is the size of 720 NFL fields.
- 02
18 of 21 audited sites are rail-served. Auto inbound runs on railcars, not trucks.
- 03
797 dock doors across 21 plants. The auto OEM dock count is parts pacing, not production capacity.
Turn what you saw into a number for finance
This audit is the evidence. The model is the math. Open the calculator seeded with Ford Motor Company’s audited yards, set your real volumes and margins, and it sizes the opportunity to the dollar.
This deep-dive is the evidence behind the /for/ford memo.
Are these your yards?
Tell us where we got it wrong, or see what 15 minutes of orchestration looks like on your worst site.
We are not asking for a pilot. We are asking for a conversation.
A 30-minute call, direct with Casey. We show you what we found across your yards, you tell us straight where it fits and where it does not. If the call goes well, we talk pilot. If not, you keep the analysis.
None of these times work? Email me at casey@freightroll.com or call or text me at 410-236-7434, and we’ll find one.
Casey Larkin, YardFlow. Jake, our founder, joins when it helps.