Virtually Done

Ford Motor Co. shows off the fruit of its 3-year-old North American virtual build program with the introduction of three sedans spawned from the new CD3 (Mazda6-derived) architecture slated for '06.

The vehicles — Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr — are Ford's first cars to be completely developed in a North American-based data-driven virtual environment in which manufacturing and product-development engineers collaborate on issues that are not traditionally tackled until late in the product-creation schedule.

“Before, the manufacturing engineers couldn't (share plans) with the product-development guys until very late because that was the time when we would start to rebuild the plants,” Stefan Juthage, chief engineer-Product & Process Compatibility, says at Ford's virtual build center in Dearborn, MI.

“We have created a tool for the manufacturing engineers to sit together with the product guys in sharing information early on with facts” to establish manufacturing plans up front. “In the virtual environment, we are able to show them from the beginning how the actual plant looks and also how the future production plant looks.”

Virtual tools, mostly related to computer-aided-design and corresponding platforms that allow engineers to interact within various disciplines and environments from remote locations, have been around for at least 10 years, says Janice Goral, manager-virtual center.

During the CD3 program, Ford for the first time held product-development engineers to strict virtual build deadlines, by which time their particular corner of the vehicle would be scrutinized in a digital environment that could be manipulated and evaluated, Goral says.

Representatives from Ford's Hermosillo, Mexico, assembly plant — where the cars are to be built — were brought in for virtual build programs. The sessions encompassed everything from material handling to cutting overhead work and resulted in changes to certain components or toolset decisions.

Juthage says the methodology may sound rigid and potentially suffocating to creativity, but it “is driving discipline in the organization.” Ford now is taking manufacturing engineers into the design studios, in order to better prepare a prospective vehicle program for project approval, Juthage says.

Near-term, virtual builds scale back the waste associated with spotty tooling assumptions that previously have been inevitable, says Phil Martens, group vice president-product creation.

Ford's strategy is to “reinvest” the waste in new product programs that otherwise never would have happened.

“That's how we did the Zephyr,” Martens says, noting the Fusion program will span an estimated 38 months, down from the typical Ford timeframe of about 45 months.

The Zephyr was conceived 13 months after the Fusion kicked off, but it will bow simultaneously thanks to virtual build techniques that opened the budget and accelerated the Zephyr program.

Martens anticipates virtual build to contribute to a CD3 quality rating at launch that should exceed the prime competition, namely the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.

Juthage says the process in the future will further cut lead times by solving nagging ergonomic issues that often scuttle plans late in development.

Ford's Chief Technology Officer Richard Parry-Jones tells Ward's the auto maker is in year No.1 of a 5-year plan to revolutionize the global company and to develop all its brands under similar parameters as guided the CD3 program.

The process eventually will lead to two additional products per year, he says.

Ford's process has been so successful that BMW AG, which once said “no” to Ford's virtual benchmarkers, has, along with Renault SA and Volkswagen AG, recently asked permission to study the system.

Ford's answer: “No.”