US AUTOMOBILE manufacturing giant Ford recently announced it would produce a "world car" -- a single model -- sourced, assembled and sold globally. The vehicle will be introduced as Ford Mondeo in Europe and Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique in North America.

The extensive use of communications technology -- fax, video-conferencing and modems -- facilitated the integration and coordination of this project. Ford Europe handled the design and production of the car because the company's European affiliates have considerable expertise in medium-size car development. But the vehicle was designed in four design facilities before the final choice was made.

Specific design and development tasks were carried out at various locations in both Europe and the US. Power-steering and the six-cylinder engine, for instance, were developed in North America and the four-cylinder engine, manual transmission and body engineering, in Europe.

A complex computerised network with direct on-line access to engineers and manufacturing activities ensured that R&D staff scattered around the world could communicate almost as if they were in the same office.

The design that finally emerged has been put into production at the Ford's Belgian plant and these engineers will train staff and design the assembly plant for production in the US.