Sherminator98 Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2026/inside-ford-electric-vehicle-development-center Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 I think one of the watershed moments of the skunkworks was showing Farley and the other executives that vertical integration and being able to design and build most of the components in house had huge advantages in time, cost and quality vs the old adage where most parts were outsourced. Imagine how much better and faster the Bronco hardtops would have been if developed in a facility like this instead of sending designs and test pieces back and forth with Webasto. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motorpsychology Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 21 minutes ago, akirby said: I think one of the watershed moments of the skunkworks was showing Farley and the other executives that vertical integration and being able to design and build most of the components in house had huge advantages in time, cost and quality vs the old adage where most parts were outsourced. Imagine how much better and faster the Bronco hardtops would have been if developed in a facility like this instead of sending designs and test pieces back and forth with Webasto. Never heard why there was so much trouble with the MIC Bronco roofs from Webasto, as there isn't nearly the complaints from Jeep owners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 I know they've talked about multiple vehicles off of CE1, but this also mentions it: “We are finding ways to make our vehicles affordable, and not just thinking about the first vehicle,” Smith said. “We have in mind the second, third, fourth, and fifth vehicles that utilize a lot of the same components, assembly methods, the same techniques to save engineering costs over time.” 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 9 minutes ago, Motorpsychology said: Never heard why there was so much trouble with the MIC Bronco roofs from Webasto, as there isn't nearly the complaints from Jeep owners. Yes, that's why the MOD/painted top got canned early on because they were having issues making the regular MIC ones before they even started the MOD top.........the MOD tops are now just painted tops, as they don't have the removable rear side windows anymore (unless this has changed again). I had to get the MIC top because they weren't making the painted ones like I had ordered..........I had my rear cap (not the removable panels) replaced because it started cracking near one of the windows. I have to assume it's better now, but there were definitely issues early on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morgan20 Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 34 minutes ago, akirby said: I think one of the watershed moments of the skunkworks was showing Farley and the other executives that vertical integration and being able to design and build most of the components in house had huge advantages in time, cost and quality vs the old adage where most parts were outsourced. Yea, exactly. Not only that, but without the not invented here syndrome that bedeviled Ford's past efforts to do things in house, in which worse outcomes were common with respect to time, cost, and quality. Skunkworks seems to have kicked off a transformation at Ford that's not just operational, but cultural too. That's why I continue to be cautiously optimistic that the upcoming CE1 product launches will be a success on time, cost, and quality metrics. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenKohnen Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 Something that seriously jumped off the page at me was the Cultural Commandments. Very tech-world, very forward moving, and pretty much the polar opposite of what you'd expect in a "legacy" company. Fight Silos Democratize Step on toes Simplify …down to the atom Sir Isaac decides Be the end user It’s your job Explore constraints Fail fast Earn our right to exist Demonstrate ownership 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherminator98 Posted May 5 Author Share Posted May 5 2 minutes ago, BenKohnen said: Something that seriously jumped off the page at me was the Cultural Commandments. Very tech-world, very forward moving, and pretty much the polar opposite of what you'd expect in a "legacy" company. Fight Silos Democratize Step on toes Simplify …down to the atom Sir Isaac decides Be the end user It’s your job Explore constraints Fail fast Earn our right to exist Demonstrate ownership They modified them from the people who did this stuff: 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 9 minutes ago, BenKohnen said: Something that seriously jumped off the page at me was the Cultural Commandments. Very tech-world, very forward moving, and pretty much the polar opposite of what you'd expect in a "legacy" company. Fight Silos Democratize Step on toes Simplify …down to the atom Sir Isaac decides Be the end user It’s your job Explore constraints Fail fast Earn our right to exist Demonstrate ownership Fail fast is a similar concept to agile software development. Instead of spending weeks or months trying to develop something perfect, get something good out quickly and see how it works and see what doesn't work then refine it the same way. No committees, no red tape. As morgan20 keeps pointing out it remains to be seen if the rest of the company can be dragged into this culture (kicking and screaming I imagine)or of they'll slowly slip back to the old ways. I'm also cautiously optimistic. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 3 hours ago, Motorpsychology said: Never heard why there was so much trouble with the MIC Bronco roofs from Webasto, as there isn't nearly the complaints from Jeep owners. The specs Ford sent Webasto were challenging in terms of manufacturing, but instead of pushing back and jointly coming up with a better design Webasto pushed ahead and successfully made prototypes that Ford signed off on. At this point Ford greenlit the roofs for production so they could meet their commitments and just assumed the to;s would be perfect.. But when Webasto ramped up to production volume the quality was terrible and Ford did not do proper due diligence to verify the production builds before putting them in production. Clear case of not partnering effectively with suppliers, being too aggressive with specs and ignoring quality to meet production dates. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenKohnen Posted Tuesday at 07:00 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 07:00 PM 1 hour ago, akirby said: The specs Ford sent Webasto were challenging in terms of manufacturing, but instead of pushing back and jointly coming up with a better design Webasto pushed ahead and successfully made prototypes that Ford signed off on. At this point Ford greenlit the roofs for production so they could meet their commitments and just assumed the to;s would be perfect.. But when Webasto ramped up to production volume the quality was terrible and Ford did not do proper due diligence to verify the production builds before putting them in production. Clear case of not partnering effectively with suppliers, being too aggressive with specs and ignoring quality to meet production dates. Oh, those were a damn mess. The infamous "Dirt Mountain" Broncos. What was really weird was that most of the 2-door hard tops were fine, and the 4-door hard tops were all junk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildosvt Posted Tuesday at 08:57 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 08:57 PM 1 hour ago, BenKohnen said: Oh, those were a damn mess. The infamous "Dirt Mountain" Broncos. What was really weird was that most of the 2-door hard tops were fine, and the 4-door hard tops were all junk. The "dirt Mountain" had nothing to do with tops, But chip shortage. There are two different vendors for tops now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenKohnen Posted Wednesday at 02:17 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 02:17 PM Could have sworn a large number of 4-door units got sent there because of the hard top issues as well. I could be mis-remembering, that was a wild time in Ford stores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherminator98 Posted Wednesday at 02:54 PM Author Share Posted Wednesday at 02:54 PM 17 hours ago, wildosvt said: The "dirt Mountain" had nothing to do with tops, But chip shortage. There are two different vendors for tops now. 35 minutes ago, BenKohnen said: Could have sworn a large number of 4-door units got sent there because of the hard top issues as well. I could be mis-remembering, that was a wild time in Ford stores. Yep it was because the horrific quality tops coming out at launch https://thebronconation.com/general-bronco-discussion-n.139/what-is-the-dirt-mountain-i-keep-hearing-about-t.7690/ Knock on wood my almost 4 year old Bronco doesn't have any cracking in its MIC top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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