2434. The Practice of Weight Engineering at Ford
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Paper
Abstract
Ford continues to evolve vehicle design practices to respond quicker to global customers. Weight Engineering impacts the Ford Product Development Process from program inception through post production analysis. At the beginning of 1997, Ford consolidated the Weight Engineering organization into one department reporting to the Director of Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT). Previously, most Weight Engineers reported through Vehicle Operations (VO). In the VO organization, Weight Engineers were assigned to programs after preliminary vehicle attribute targets were established by the program team. As part of AVT, weight engineers are charter members of the vehicle team that establishes preliminary vehicle attribute targets. Weight Engineering’s historical ongoing program/production responsibilities continue through a ”matrixed” Management approach–joint reporting to AVT and Vehicle Center Management.
