Via Bloomberg
Ford rehired over 350 veteran engineers referred to internally as “gray beards” after an aggressive AI adoption strategy backfired.
Ford had been increasingly relying on AI-driven inspection systems to streamline production and address quality control issues, however the firm acknowledged that AI lacked the nuanced judgement when it came to complex problems.
“We had been relying more and more on automated quality systems and not getting the desired results,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer.
“We brought back technical specialists and they hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor,” he continued.
Ford won’t abandon AI, but instead will partner AI with human oversight and experience.
“Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product,” said Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering.
After rehiring proven engineers, Ford is experiencing a marked improvement in its quality standards.
According to the latest J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey, Ford ranked top among mainstream brands. This is the first time it has achieved that milestone in 16 years.
In Infinite, Dave Wright and I explore how human + AI workflows can not only improve yesterday’s standards, but also raise them.
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