Product Development to Keep Ford Going in Australia

Ford is to announce new funding for its Australia-based product-development facility later this year as the automaker continues planning for what happens after it ends local production in 2016.

Trevor Worthington, vice president-Ford Asia-Pacific Product Development, reveals the plans at a conference in Melbourne, the CarAdvice.com website reports.

“We’re going to make an announcement in the third quarter of this year around what we’re doing with the layout and the software we’re bringing in and the hardware that will be brought in to support it,” Worthington is quoted as saying.

Ford Australia says in a statement Worthington reinforced the regional and global importance of the automaker’s Australia-based design and product-development activity in a keynote speech to the Society of Automotive Engineers Australasia.

“Today we have around 1,100 engineers and scientists, as well as 350 technicians in our product- development facilities in Victoria (state),” he says. “The team today is working on local programs and regional programs for Asia-Pacific, as well as global programs.

The Australian operation is one of Ford’s four global product-development hubs. The team is fully integrated with advanced virtual-engineering capabilities for both local and global vehicles, Worthington says.

Technologies that have come on line recently include a virtual-reality lab able to connect in real time with similar Ford facilities in North America, China and Europe. The lab allows technicians to “virtually” sit in a vehicle, walk around it and become fully immersed in its functions.

“Our virtual-reality lab allows global teams to see the same model and experience the same environment simultaneously around the world,” Worthington says.

Ford has strong partnerships with leading Australian universities designed to nurture emerging engineering and design talent, the executive says.

“The result of all that we’ve done over the last 15 years is a (product-development) team here in Victoria that’s well integrated into doing business in Asia and globally,” he says.

The Australian facilities have a key role in growing engineering and design capabilities and leading quality, cost and launch elements for local, regional and global programs.

“Australia is really the mature location we use in terms of growing our capability all through Asia-Pacific,” Worthington says. “I guess the core capabilities that we’ve got and the quality of the outcomes that we’ve produced and are in progress…are the strongest possible indicator that we believe this asset has great utility for the future.

“It is clear that that more you do this, the better you get.”