Ford has rehired over 300 veteran quality engineers after artificial intelligence systems introduced to replace human inspection failed to deliver the expected results. The admission came as the company simultaneously announced its return to the top of the JD Power Initial Quality Study, the industry benchmark for vehicle quality, a ranking it last held in 2010.
Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters that the company had misjudged what AI could achieve without adequate human input. "Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that would produce a high-quality product," he said.
The limits of automated systems
Poon acknowledged that automated tools lacked the training and expertise of experienced technicians, many of whom had left the company before their knowledge could be used to improve its systems. "Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it's only as good as the information you use to train it," he said.
He added: "Over prior years, we didn't pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles."
The rehired engineers have since been brought back both to train AI systems and to mentor younger workers. "We recognised that for us to enhance some of our automation and machine learning and artificial intelligence tools we needed to ensure that they were trained by the most experienced individuals," Poon said.
AI ambitions across the business
Ford is among many major manufacturers to have moved aggressively into AI adoption, driven in part by Wall Streetenthusiasm for the technology's potential to cut costs and increase margins. In an October earnings call, chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra told investors the firm was "deploying AI across the entire industrial system", including the rollout of 900 AI-powered cameras in its plants to detect quality issues and mitigate supply disruptions.
Ford chief executive Jim Farley had also signalled a strong commitment to the technology, stating last June that "AI will leave a lot of white collar people behind."
A talent refresh alongside technology
In a press release marking its JD Power result, Ford said "reaching best-in-class quality required a significant talent refresh". This involved leadership changes across engineering, supply chain and manufacturing, as well as the rehiring of the approximately 300 veteran engineers who, in the company's words, "carry the hard-earned wisdom of decades of design."
According to information from BBC
