Ford recently earned the top ranking among mass-market automakers in J.D. Power’s latest Initial Quality Study after several years of working to improve vehicle quality.
Company executives say artificial intelligence contributed to that progress, though they concluded the technology alone could not address many of the engineering challenges that contributed to quality issues.
One of the company’s biggest changes involved rebuilding its technical workforce. Ford hired, promoted, or brought back hundreds of veteran engineers whose experience now informs product development and the AI systems used throughout manufacturing.
According to executives, that expertise has become part of the company’s quality process long before vehicles reach customers.
Why It Matters: Ford’s announcement details how the company is combining AI with engineering expertise across product development and manufacturing. Company leaders say experienced engineers now play a larger role in developing and refining the automated systems used throughout production. Early quality scores have improved, though it will take more time to know how newer vehicles perform over the long term.
- AI Needed More Than Data: Ford executives said the company initially believed AI could improve vehicle quality by processing engineering requirements and design specifications. That expectation proved incomplete, according to Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, because the systems could only learn from the information available to them. He said years of engineering knowledge had left the company before it could be fully incorporated into Ford’s development process or used to train its AI systems.
- Rebuilding Engineering Expertise: In 2023, Ford launched a quality initiative that included hiring, promoting, or bringing back about 350 veteran technical specialists while more than doubling its population of technical experts. These engineers now lead mandatory design reviews, mentor newer employees, identify potential failure points before production begins, and help improve the machine learning models used throughout manufacturing.
- Rethinking Quality Reviews: The company also reorganized how engineering, manufacturing, software, hardware, and supplier teams work together. Executives said many quality issues emerged where those groups intersected, leading Ford to create an industrial systems team that brings them together earlier in the development process. The goal is to identify potential problems before production begins instead of relying primarily on fixes after they appear.
- AI Remains Part of the Process: The company continues expanding AI across its manufacturing operations, including hundreds of AI-powered inspection cameras and proprietary systems called AiTriz and MAIVs that verify vehicle assembly before production is complete. According to Ford, experienced engineers now play a larger role in developing, validating, and refining those tools.
- Quality Improves as Recalls Continue: Ford moved from 15th place three years ago to become the highest-ranked mass-market automaker in the latest J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, finishing behind only Porsche and Genesis overall. The company has also continued issuing recalls, many involving vehicle platforms developed between 2013 and 2020. Ford says those recalls are tied largely to older vehicle programs, while the J.D. Power study measures customer-reported issues during the first months of ownership rather than long-term durability.
Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks – BBC
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