Inside Ford’s Digital Transformation with Teamcenter for Manufacturing Planning and Quality Management [VIDEO]
Ford Motor Company is transforming vehicle production – linking engineering and manufacturing data and processes together with a digital twin powered by Siemens Xcelerator digital manufacturing solutions.
Manufacturing engineers are challenged to keep up with new product introduction requirements and design changes, along with management of thousands of components and interdependent assembly and process tasks.
According to Dave Doody, powertrain manufacturing engineer at Ford Motor Company, these challenges are a reality and were compounded by complex processes and disconnected data, making collaboration between product and multiple manufacturing teams difficult. To overcome these issues, they had to rethink how teams share information, manage requirements, and coordinate changes across the organization.
Hear from Dave Doody on how Ford overcame siloed data and disconnected workflows by connecting product design, quality and manufacturing using digital validation to streamline planning.
Breaking Down Data Silos with a Single Source of Truth
Data silos are a common challenge in manufacturing, but for a global company like Ford, with thousands of engineers, complex processes, and multiple facilities, the impact is magnified.
“The problem that we really have is a lot of the data is in silos and people make copies of data all over the place and it’s really a big task to be able to just prior to the launch, make sure that everybody is up to date,” said Mr. Doody.
A solid backbone of data with a single source of truth addresses this challenge and connects engineering directly to manufacturing and quality. With Teamcenter, Ford is able to centralize information, reduce silos, and ensure teams work from the same accurate, up-to-date data. This results in increased collaboration, reduced risks, fewer errors, and a more efficient path from design to production.
Extending Teamcenter to Manufacturing and Quality
According to Mr. Doody, in the past, engineers had to work with siloed data and duplicate copies of data scattered across departments. This meant that keeping everyone aligned before a vehicle launch was a massive challenge. Connecting engineering and closing the gap between design and manufacturing became critical. To address this, Ford has extended Teamcenter into its manufacturing planning and operations with Teamcenter Easy Plan and Teamcenter Quality.
With Teamcenter, Ford is building a connected, digital backbone for manufacturing. Here’s how:
- Connected data backbone – Manufacturing data is shared across the organization, reducing silos and ensuring everyone works with the latest information.
- Integrated workflows – FMEA process and Control & Inspection Planning can leverage requirements and characteristics from 3D/PMI models, enabling risk assessment and inspection definition early in the design and development phase.
- Smarter change management – Updates are automatically visible to the right people, at the right time, with clear tracking of when changes take effect.
- New process tools – Ford is also leveraging innovations like stage model applications for in-process tolerances, a new bill of process application, and simplified tolerance stack analysis.
“We’re really moving towards having an integrated approach. We’re working on getting an FMEA workflow that’s linked to our 3D models or PMI models. We are looking at putting our requirements online so that we can check them and when we need to check them against new changes and to get an integrated workflow where the changes are recognized by the people that need to know what has changed and when it has changed and when it is effective.
Dave Doody, Powertrain Manufacturing Engineer, Ford Motor Company
Building stronger collaboration
“I’m really impressed over the past few years, Siemens has really put in a big effort to understand part processing and part planning within the manufacturing world,” said Mr. Doody.
By using these solutions, Ford can improve visibility, reduce errors, and ensure updates are recognized by the right people at the right time, supporting more efficient planning and execution.
The collaboration between Ford and Siemens has helped improve alignment between engineering, quality and manufacturing. With Teamcenter, Ford now has a single, connected source of truth. This makes it easier to track changes, reduce errors, and ensure updates reach the right people at the right time.
We’re excited at Ford, we’re excited with the partnership of Siemens and we’re looking forward to going ahead.
Dave Doody, Powertrain Manufacturing Engineer, Ford Motor Company
Mr. Doody’s experience using Siemens solutions shows how the right combination of technology, process, and collaboration can transform the way engineering and manufacturing teams work together, improving accuracy, efficiency, and overall performance.
