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Ford Motor Co.'s transmission plant in Sharonville is trying to put the automaker's recovery strategy in gear.

The 51-year-old plant produces gears and other transmission components for most of Ford's key models, including the redesigned 2010 Taurus full-sized sedan, which is debuting later this summer and is seen as a key element in Ford's recovery plan.

Unlike General Motors and Chrysler, Ford has reorganized without a federal government bailout or bankruptcy. The automaker used a media tour for the new Taurus Monday to show off the productivity, quality and spirit at the 2.4 million-square-foot Sharonville plant, which employs 1,500 hourly and salaried workers.

"This is one of the most advanced plants of its kind in the world," said Darryl Hazel, senior vice president and president of Ford Customer Service. "All Ford products have some piece of this plant in it."

At a time when jobs lost to foreign manufacturing is a growing concern, he said the Sharonville plant is net exporter of goods to China, where it ships gears for the Chinese version of the Focus.

The Sharonville plant also produces gears -- which account for about a third of the transmission content -- for other Ford and Lincoln-Mercury vehicles, including the Ford Fusion, Flex, Edge, Expedition and the Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKS.

The plant also assembles the 5R110W heavy-duty transmission for the F-150 pickup trucks. The plant produces more than 7,000 gear sets a day.

The plant is also putting the finishing touches on a $200 million Ford investment, announced two years ago, for a new six-speed transmission which Ford has under wraps. Tom Thieman, plant manager, said he couldn't discuss that project.

"We'll have you back in soon to discuss that," he told a reporter during a tour of the plant.

The Sharonville plant in the early 1980s was the first Ford plant to adopt a team leadership approach, which gives hourly employees a voice in productivity, quality, safety and other factors. The day-in and day-out operations of the plant are supervised by 105 hourly team leaders. It's been a key to the plant's success, officials of the company and United Auto Workers Local 863 at the plant said.

Despite U.S. car and truck sales being down 60 percent from where they were just two years ago, Gary Alexander, UAW committee person, said morale among his members "is surprisingly upbeat. We're a real industry success story."

Ford, he noted, has posted higher market share in seven out of the last eight months. "Our quality is the level of anybody in the world including Toyota and Honda," Alexander said.