Ford Motor Co.
The announcement will include details about the $3.5 billion factory and 2,500 new jobs in Marshall, the two officials told Crain's Detroit Business, a sister paper of Plastics News.
The automaker is cutting 2,000 salaried positions and 1,000 agency jobs. Affected employees are in the U.S., Canada and India.
Wiring harness clips made of 100 percent ocean plastic used in the Ford Bronco Sport models won an Altair Enlighten Award, while a composite wheel system from Lacks Enterprises takes runner-up position.
With 700 pounds of plastic in a midsized vehicle, that's a big opportunity for sustainable materials, Ford technical expert Alper Kiziltas said.
The automaker, in a letter to customers, said the molded-in-color hard tops on both two-door and four-door Broncos suffer from a quality issue that creates an "unsatisfactory appearance when exposed to extreme water and humidity."
The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker has received approval from the Michigan Strategic Fund to transfer an existing Renaissance Zone tax incentive to help establish the 200,000-square-foot facility, which Ford says will cost $100 million and house roughly 200 employees.
Automakers and suppliers can pursue an array of advanced materials, processes and technologies to answer the automotive industry's challenges. But at Ford Motor Co., widespread implementation ultimately comes down to customer experience.
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