Exclusive: Ford on building the BlueOval workforce, campus, and what happens now

Ford Motor Co. has its management team in place for BlueOval City's Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center (TEVC).

Now, the company's leadership can turn their attention to the big-ticket goals: finishing the factory and filling it with workers, getting people without manufacturing experience to work at a car plant, and making it all happen on time.

Kel Kearns, plant manager, and Vanessa Presson, employee relations director, sat down with MBJ about where work on the plant stands now, what comes next for Ford, and how they plan to create a sustainable workforce pipeline that reflects West Tennessee.

Building the BlueOval City workforce and campus

Construction on Ford's West Tennessee factory is chugging along at a rapid pace.

Kearns said that the buildings are set to be complete before the year is through, on schedule.

Ford will spend 2024 installing the facility in phases simultaneous to hiring. Specialized machinery, such as stamping machines, are already on trucks on the way. 2024 will see Ford working out the process to help the facility pump out 500,000 trucks per year.

“Next year is the phase of facility installation led by all those manufacturing engineering people who are based in Dearborn,” Kearns said. “Part of deep learning is I need the operational people. [They are] part of that installation phase. They’re learning and understanding the facility as it’s being installed. They’re part of the launch process and the resolving of issues and bugs and things like that, but that’s a key part of the learning process. They do it in parallel together, and then we’re best placed to run up. After the facilities are in place and starting to be launched, then the next wave of the production operators who actually build the vehicle, then they’re required.”

That means as Ford shifts into the latter phases of construction, it is also starting to shift to hiring. Ford has always been adamant that it plans to hire a West Tennessee workforce that reflects the area demographics.

“We’re focused on hiring a predominantly West Tennessee workforce,” Kearns said. “That includes team managers, engineering specialists, process coaches, team leaders, technicians, electrical, mechanical, and tool and die trades, as well as production team members. That’s a very large scope of opportunity for people with different skills, knowledge, and experience.”

Based on demographic data from the U.S. Census, as of 2021, Shelby, Fayette, Hardeman, Haywood, Lauderdale, Madison, and Tipton counties were a combined 54.3% non-white and 52.1% female.

Ford already has a training program, BlueOval Learning, ready to roll. The architect of that plan — Liliana Ramirez — spoke in depth with MBJ when it was revealed in March. That plan already includes preparing women as well as people with no manufacturing background to enter the pipeline for BlueOval roles.

Presson said that getting women involved is “one of her favorite things to talk about” and a top priority as the hiring phases begin. Ford has been spending a lot of time at local schools and is working to encourage women to enter STEM fields. Ford is also eyeing collaborations with local organizations.

“People select careers based on somebody that they know,” Presson said. “You’ve got one obstacle with, maybe no one in their family has ever even worked in manufacturing.”

And child care and transportation remain top barriers to address.

Kearns and Presson both praised the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) transit study to get workers to and from BlueOval City. Kearns himself enjoys charter buses and has utilized them at other facilities. He believes that solutions like that can even create a better environment if correctly utilized.

“People have to open their minds up to different nuances and different ways of doing things,” Kearns said. “The opportunity with coaches is that they are Wi-Fi enabled, and if you’re traveling to work for an hour, which I used to do in Asia, you can sit there working on your computer and clear all your emails and do all that stuff. Then when you get to the office, you can focus on the events of the day or spending time with people and being a people leader. If you’re driving your car, you’re driving out to work. It’s a waste of time. You get to work and you spend the first hour clearing all the emails that have come overnight, and you’re put in a very different situation.”

Overall, the TEVC's management team will be moving together to make sure that BlueOval City has the workers it needs to hit its targets. Presson said the team is always asking questions on how it can help the process be equitable.

“Different things like, ‘What else can we do if there’s justice involved?’” Presson said. “What can we do to increase that labor participation rate because we’re going to need everybody. We’re going to need anybody and everybody to consider these jobs, just because of the sheer volume.”

And BlueOval's leadership team will need to move fast: key positions are already hiring and hourly worker hiring will begin next year, according to Presson. People who hope to one day work at Ford should look at local programs, such as industrial maintenance, if they are seeking skilled positions, but there will be plenty of jobs to go around.

“We’re going to train people,” Presson said. “We’re building something so cool, and it’s unlike anything else. We know what’s in front of us to make sure that people are going to be very successful when they come in. We’re going to give them all the tools that they’re going to need to be successful.”