Ford Dagenham Manufacturing Complex Marks 80th Anniversary

Ford of Britain marks 80 years of production at its Dagenham complex.

Edsel Ford, son of company founder Henry Ford, broke ground for the facility in May 1929 and its first vehicle, a Model AA truck, rolled off the production line Oct. 1, 1931.

Ford Dagenham builds engine every 24 seconds.

Since then, almost 11 million vehicles and more than 38 million engines have been built at Dagenham.

The 475-acre (192-ha) site, Ford's largest U.K. production complex and one of the country's main automotive centers, houses an engine plant, a stamping facility and tool room, a powertrain engineering team and a transport operation.

Some 4,500 people work at Dagenham, making it London’s largest industrial employer.

Dagenham’s future looks bright, with Ford committing to a £1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) investment in affordable, low-carbon-dioxide technologies over the next five years at its four U.K. engineering and manufacturing facilities.

Its main engine plant and Dagenham Diesel Center produce four engine types used in more than 25 vehicle derivatives. Dagenham builds a new engine every 24 seconds – nearly 1 million annually – for vehicles built worldwide.

The center produces Ford's lowest-CO2-emissions engine, a 1.6L TDCi diesel powerplant featured in Fiesta and Focus ECOnetic models.

Some 300 product-development powertrain engineers are based at the center.

Dagenham Stamping’s 450 employees operate eight automated tandem-press lines, producing panels shipped to Ford’s global vehicle-assembly operations. The factory also operates a 440-lb. (200-kg) roll-feed-cell press producing subassembly parts.

The Tooling Operations’ 325 workers use high-speed machining, bench and tryout facilities to make and commission dies and tools to support stamping operations globally. It has operated for more than 50 years.

Dagenham is the largest shipping point for finished vehicles into the U.K. and for components supplied to Ford’s European powertrain and assembly plants.

Its infrastructure includes railway lines connected directly to the English Channel tunnel and U.K. main line, and a deep-water jetty used to load and unload vessels traveling between the U.K. and Continental Europe.

Dagenham-built engines and parts are shipped to South Africa, Argentina, Russia, Taiwan, North America, India, China, Japan, Brazil, the Philippines and Thailand.