Ford is Reengineering Mach-E in Real Time and the F-150 Lightning Will Benefit

[Peter P]

Ford Reengineers Plug-In Mustang In Real Time to Boost Profit - Bloomberg

Ford Motor Co. is reengineering its electric Mustang Mach-E on the fly to make it more profitable, an approach that portends big changes in how the automaker designs and builds vehicles.

Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley told analysts Thursday Ford will no longer wait for the next model change to rework a vehicle. With software updates and hardware reengineering, the company is lowering the cost to build the Mach-E at its factory in Mexico in real time.

“We are not going to wait for next year,” Farley said on a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings, which fell short of Wall Street estimates. “We’re are going to reengineer that vehicle now, and then use that expertise for the F-150 Lightning” plug-in pickup that’s going on sale this spring.

As an example, Farley said engineers are reworking the Mach-E’s cooling system to reduce the number of hoses by one-third and cut the number of motors in half. Fewer parts mean lower costs and higher profit, he said.

This on-the-fly engineering to boost the bottom line will become a new way of doing business at Ford, Farley said. Ford’s CEO has frequently praised Tesla Inc. and is said to be reorganizing using that company as a template.

“We have learned so much about the lack of integration in our engineering operations as we compared our engineering on Mach-E to others that are best-in-class, and we are finding lots of profit opportunities,” Farley said. “Being in the industry as long as I have, I haven’t felt this chance to take out so much cost after Job 1.”

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[Orlando150]

Pretty sure they mean pump motors for the cooling system. Not removing drive motors.

I guess this is new for Ford (if they say so) but when I worked at a Tier 1 supplier 15 years ago this was literally half the job: value engineering our parts to reduce cost.

For example: removing 1 out of 4 loops of wire in a wiper motor. We would propose the change, GM would ask us to test the change didn't have too big a negative impact. If tests passed we'd change production in the middle of a model year or whenever. Just start shipping the changed parts and GM would start using them. Cost savings for us and GM. Over and over again for everything we made.

 

[Pedaldude]

This is old news, the Ford Model-T also was 'engineered in real time' and they even did things mid model year like change the layout of the pedals that controlled how you drove the car. People are complaining about the 2022 F-150s missing digital readouts on the climate control knobs; Imagine if after making a few hundred cars, the gas pedal and brake pedal locations were reversed!

This is just lip service for investors with new buzzwords that 'interruptors' like to use to make it seem like they came up with everything.

If the coolant routing and line count was changed without hurting efficiency and reliability, it's not just a cost cutting measure. It's potentially also a benefit for owners, who have less parts to replace and less points of failure. If less coolant pumps are used, it also means that range is improved, albeit negligible. it's sad that better reliability isn't something that Ford believes investors want to hear.

 

[wayfarer556]

I don't think this is a bad thing....if you watch this:


There is a TON of room for improvement. From what it looks like, Ford can both save money and make the system more reliable.

 

[GolfR]

Sounds like a nightmare for a service department. No idea which parts will be needed to implement a fix. Even worse for aftermarket companies as there may be multiple versions of a car per year.

I had a 1993 Ford Probe GT as my first car in high school. It was a great car but the problem was that it was a shared platform with Mazda and half the engines were Ford and the other half Mazda. No rhyme or reason which, just what was available on the line. It was impossible to get replacement parts because no one knew which engine and which version to buy the parts for. I ended up scrapping the car when the distributor went out because there were apparently six different versions of it used in the same year and they weren’t interchangable. Hopefully Ford doesn’t make this kind of mistake again.

 

[Chado]

Did you catch the part about the bring to market having to be different from their normal ICE and BEVs.

Farley didn't want to get into it but it was referenced a few times by others on the call that they know BEV buyers are to be treated differently from ICE buyers...to me, plus the rumors, that means hope that Ford may indeed spin off EVs to a more Tesla style of selling.

Also mentioned that they know the dealers that are charging markups above MSRP and they will be limiting their volume.

Call it lip service or spin if you want, but If you watched the tear down of the mach e, on the cooling system in general, it's amazing how much crap hoses Ford crammed in there compared to Tesla. Saving $1k on each mach e produced is a genius move for Ford.

It's almost like Ford is the only car company seriously learning from Tesla.

Jim Farley is the MAN!
@jimfarley98
#jimfarley98

 

[CoyoteJim]

It's almost like Ford is the only car company seriously learning from Tesla.

This!

(Except for all the Chinese companies who have ordered gigapresses for their factories now.)

 

[shocker]

Let's say Ford wanted to get a product out on the market without waiting for years while the engineering was perfected and the assembly procedures specialized around it. Hoses and clamps on an EV aren't stressed, the hottest loop is the cabin heat and it's probably 160F vs over 200F on an ICE vehicle. Tesla fanboys make a big deal out of this but I think it's a non-issue.
The Silverado EV will be way ahead of the 1st gen Lightning because it's a ground up EV rather than a conversion. But Ford will have trucks on the road for 18 months before the Silverados roll out.

 

[Sdctcher]

Let's say Ford wanted to get a product out on the market without waiting for years while the engineering was perfected and the assembly procedures specialized around it. Hoses and clamps on an EV aren't stressed, the hottest loop is the cabin heat and it's probably 160F vs over 200F on an ICE vehicle. Tesla fanboys make a big deal out of this but I think it's a non-issue.
The Silverado EV will be way ahead of the 1st gen Lightning because it's a ground up EV rather than a conversion. But Ford will have trucks on the road for 18 months before the Silverados roll out.

Good Reason to NOT buy the first batch. Wait for later in the cycle until the dust settles and a final version is engineered.

 

[O’Majestic1’slightnigF150]

Value Engineering for “hardware” + Agile Methodology for software development.

 

[tbinmd]

Anyone buying a first gen truck is just signing up to be a beta tester. There will be teething problems. Even early Tesla's had their fair share of issues. Refinement takes years.

 

[shocker]

Value Engineering for “hardware” + Agile Methodology for software development.

Agile - "Minimum Viable Product" AKA full of bugs we'll fix if the customer complains.

 

[PCL]

This is old news, the Ford Model-T also was 'engineered in real time' and they even did things mid model year like change the layout of the pedals that controlled how you drove the car. People are complaining about the 2022 F-150s missing digital readouts on the climate control knobs; Imagine if after making a few hundred cars, the gas pedal and brake pedal locations were reversed!

This is just lip service for investors with new buzzwords that 'interruptors' like to use to make it seem like they came up with everything.

If the coolant routing and line count was changed without hurting efficiency and reliability, it's not just a cost cutting measure. It's potentially also a benefit for owners, who have less parts to replace and less points of failure. If less coolant pumps are used, it also means that range is improved, albeit negligible. it's sad that better reliability isn't something that Ford believes investors want to hear.

Agreed. This is how cars have always been engineered. Unless people think all '22 Tundras will have the wastegate issue because Toyota won't make changes until '23...

 

[Nick Gerteis]

This is old news, the Ford Model-T also was 'engineered in real time' and they even did things mid model year like change the layout of the pedals that controlled how you drove the car. People are complaining about the 2022 F-150s missing digital readouts on the climate control knobs; Imagine if after making a few hundred cars, the gas pedal and brake pedal locations were reversed!

This is just lip service for investors with new buzzwords that 'interruptors' like to use to make it seem like they came up with everything.

If the coolant routing and line count was changed without hurting efficiency and reliability, it's not just a cost cutting measure. It's potentially also a benefit for owners, who have less parts to replace and less points of failure. If less coolant pumps are used, it also means that range is improved, albeit negligible. it's sad that better reliability isn't something that Ford believes investors want to hear.

Sorry to break it to you, but investors would love it if the trucks broke down completely the second they’re out of warranty, and the customer would just buy another one. Short term profits make this world go ‘round!

 

[Kev12345]

ford must've felt pretty embarrassed by sandy's mach-e model-y cooling comparison.

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