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(upbeat rock music)

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<v Narrator>Digitizing operations is more</v>

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than a nice-to-have for manufacturing companies:

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it's an imperative, and they know it.

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More than 80% of them are actively investing

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in digital operations, according to a recent BCG survey.

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Digitization, when done right and at scale,

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yields impressive upsides,

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including a 10% to 20% reduction

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in production and supply chain costs.

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As our casework and research has made clear,

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a wide variety of success factors

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separate the leaders from the laggards.

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Ford stands out among the leaders.

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To find out what companies in all manufacturing sectors

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can learn from Ford's success,

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we've come to its advanced manufacturing center

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here in Redford, Michigan.

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Ford has invested in the center

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to accelerate the deployment of digital operations use cases

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across its manufacturing network.

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(rock music continues)

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<v ->Hi Mike, when you think about Ford's ambition</v>

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for digital operations,

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first, how would you describe that?

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And then, second,

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what do you see as the major challenges

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that you faced along the way?

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<v ->Our vision is to really leverage access</v>

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to not just digitization of our manufacturing process,

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but also the product realization,

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product development process,

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how our products are performing in the field,

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what our customers are interested in,

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and incorporating that

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into a really intelligent manufacturing process,

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one that really delivers the greatest value

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to our customers.

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<v ->This center, and your team specifically,</v>

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what is your role

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in trying to overcome some of those challenges

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and speed up for it along this journey?

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<v ->Yeah, while we have really a few principle priorities</v>

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around data analytics and digital factory,

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digital engineering methods, process innovation,

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and certainly additive manufacturing,

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so we have people

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that are leading each of those five pillars.

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Where we're really getting the benefit is the fact

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that we're working across many of those priorities,

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and the fact that we're colocated in a place

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where we can really innovate across

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and incorporate the technologies

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at the right level and the right places

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to create really innovative practical solutions.

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I think that's the real advantage

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of the advanced manufacturing center

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and the people that are here.

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<v Narrator>Structure and facilitation are essential.</v>

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Many companies mistakenly conduct a broad survey

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to solicit ideas from operations employees

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or follow an ad hoc first-come, first-served process.

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The problem is, without proper guidance about the context,

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employees often identify projects

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that are too narrow in scope or not scalable.

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<v ->How do you get your ideas?</v>

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Right, and there's tons of needs and pain points

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and noise really from the organization,

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but how do you prioritize the places where you focus?

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<v ->They really come from three places.</v>

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One is whatever the product demands are,

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so if you have areas in your current production processes

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where you're not meeting the customer requirements,

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those are obvious areas of focus.

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Sometimes in our product development plans,

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the product requirements for a new model

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may require us to innovate a process

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to meet some of the requirements.

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From a manufacturing pain points that, you know,

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when we look across our operations,

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Ford has a very mature process

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for measuring performance across many indices,

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and so it's pretty easy for us

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to stratify our current process performance,

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recognize plants that are struggling

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and that might need help with a solution

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to close the gap to "Best in."

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<v ->Yup.</v>

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<v ->And then the third source is,</v>

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we do a lot of technology scouting

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and looking for technology

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that maybe hadn't been previously considered

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as automotive application, and evaluating where it may fit.

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<v Narrator>The center provides</v>

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a unique physical space for testing,

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as well as access to specific technical skill sets

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that can be best utilized centrally.

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<v ->But how have you thought about</v>

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like building your team and structuring your team,

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you know, to really help Ford along this journey?

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<v ->So we made sure that the organization</v>

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was small enough to be nimble,

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but large enough to be,

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to have significant impact.

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Our plan going forward,

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my plan going forward, is to do some level of turnover,

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where I, as the technology continues to move,

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and we deliver solutions into the operations

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or into product programs,

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I wanna move some of the people from this organization

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into those product programs and into those facilities.

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And then I wanna extract, either people from the operations

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or recruit from industry or from academia,

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the next generation of forward thinkers.

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<v Narrator>Ford Center features several cells</v>

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in which agile teams use proof-of-concept projects

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to test technologies, including additive manufacturing,

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collaborative robots, machine vision,

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and automated guided vehicles.

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<v ->Obviously you're experimenting</v>

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with a lot of different things,

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but are there particular technologies

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that you're doubling down on, so to speak,

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in this organization?

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<v ->We have a significant footprint</v>

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of additive manufacturing at Ford Motor Company.

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It's somewhat distributed,

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or it's historically been somewhat distributed.

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<v ->Sure, in the plants?</v>

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<v ->In the plants, and in product development,</v>

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and in some of our relationships with, again, academia.

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So the commitment to consolidate,

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and bring the people and the equipment here,

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and really focus some of the development work

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around the next generation of materials;

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accelerating some of the openness of the software

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and the material sources,

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really developing automotive-grade solutions.

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With the computing power that is emerging,

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it's now providing an opportunity

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to introduce artificial intelligence

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in places that we hadn't historically had the opportunity,

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so it's been really exciting to see

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in much more simple processes

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where you can introduce artificial intelligence

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and really accelerate process performance.

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<v ->Yeah, reflecting on your journey</v>

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over the past couple of years,

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like what advice do you have

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for someone in your shoes in a different company?

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<v ->I mean, it's really important to not be afraid to fail.</v>

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And that's really important,

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and it's easy to say, hard to do.

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And in order to innovate,

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sometimes you have to not follow processes.

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So I think that's one of the first pieces of advice

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I would give you, you can't be afraid.

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There will be failures.

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You need to have the humility to learn from those things.

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That would be one of the biggest pieces of advice.

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One of the things I've really been impressed by

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with the team that I have here

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is it seems like the more fun we have

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the more, the higher the quality of the output

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and the higher the volume of output.

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You gotta have fun,

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and I think you can have fun in your work.

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<v Narrator>Ford has made great progress</v>

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in transitioning to digital operations,

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but most companies have seen mixed results.

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Simply put, it's hard to digitize operations.

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A company needs to invest massively in change management,

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new technical skill sets, cross functional collaboration,

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strategic investments, and access to pricey talent.

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It must also evaluate a daunting array

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of new technologies and vendors-

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and these are just the prerequisites.

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(upbeat rock music)