Impact

• 

News | Reading Matters

• 

Program Profile

• 

Researcher Profile

• 

Back Matter

Program
Management

Joel Moses
Acting Director

Institute Professor
Professor of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science

CTPID Facts

45 faculty, researchers, staff, graduate students

$8 million in annual research volume

25 industry sponsors

15 government agencies

Established in 1985

I M P A C T
Emerging Work from CTPID

Impact Spring 2003: Cover Stories

Industry Issues | Ford-MIT Alliance Research

Also see: Students Mine Knowledge at Ford

Industry Issues: Ford's Back-to-Basics Focus Turns Alliance to Powertrain, Manufacturing, and Management

By Nancy Duvergne Smith

The Ford-MIT Alliance brings industry issues to MIT's research heart. As the Alliance begins a second five-year term, Co-Executive Directors Kristin Schondorf and Steven Schondorf are looking at tightening Ford-MIT connections and expanding into new research areas.

At a March 18 CTPID Industry Issues Community Lunch, the Schondorfs, MIT alumni who married shortly after earning graduate degrees in 1992, discussed some Ford pressure points and how MIT can contribute to solutions.

"The future of the Alliance lies in new or expanded research topics that bear on Ford's priorities," said Kristin Schondorf. Applying the results of the long-term projects favored by researchers to daily production cycles means tackling topics such as more efficient power trains and reducing paint shop expenses. Increasing the flow of students and faculty to Ford will also help to strengthen the relationship.

Both Schondorfs are using their Ford expertise to connect MIT research with company experts. Kristin, whose work has focused on engines, and Steven, who has worked in both fuel cells and electronic systems, are developing ideas that can be translated into production solutions.

"As projects are ending and new ones starting, we are trying to understand how to apply the research results to production and engage core Ford people," said Steven. "The key is to be persistent and relentless."

The Schondorfs are working with MIT and Ford leaders to tackle four major Alliance challenges:

Challenge: How can we support Ford's Back-to-Basics strategy?
The nation's economic stress is hitting the auto industry hard and Ford is feeling the pressure. The company's response is a Back-to-Basics strategy, which means foregoing auxiliary business opportunities and concentrating on making great cars. "The focus is on making high-quality vehicles that people want to buy and that we can sell at a profit," said Steven. "That's why power train, manufacturing, and management issues are among our priorities."

Challenge: How can we engage parts of Ford that are not directly involved in Alliance projects?
Key questions include how the Alliance can serve a broader audience at Ford in addition to members of the research and the advanced engineering communities. The goal is to make the Ford organization feel like the relationship with MIT is a strategic asset available to anybody who has a problem. "If we can make MIT feel like Ford's right arm, the Alliance would be more credible throughout Ford and we would not have to rely on executive drive to make it successful," said Steven.

Challenge: How can we affect core engineering and not just research or a few programs?
Bringing new ideas into production is the fundamental way of getting value out of Alliance projects, the Schondorfs say, and that means involving people in research, advanced engineering, core engineering, as well as engineers on specific programs. Getting the core engineering team involved is particularly important to spreading new technologies across multiple programs.

Challenge: Communication
The Schondorfs are working to bring Ford people to MIT more often and vice versa. Beginning next year, the vice presidents and executive committee of the Alliance will come to MIT three times a year instead of once. MIT researchers, beyond their research activities, will travel to Ford to share project results with a larger pool of Ford people in an annual Technology Day.

"Communication is really the key," added Alliance Co-Director John Heywood, Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Sloan Automotive Lab.

"Ford has some very strong needs, so they have their own agenda. Ford wants fresh ideas from MIT, it doesn't want to prescribe what those ought to be. Our experience is that we rarely disagree about the high priority issues and the areas where MIT has expertise, but that has to be preceded by getting to know people. The success of the program depends on not only doing good work but being able to communicate it."

top

Ford/MIT Alliance Research

1997-2002 Research Focus:

• Environment
  
• Product Development Process Technology
  
• Active Safety
  
• Virtual Education

2003-2007 New Research Interests
(in addition to ongoing projects):

• Powertrain
  
• Manufacturing
  
• Management
  
• Materials
  
• Infotronics/Telematics
  
• Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Storage

top

MIT Students Mine Knowledge at Ford

When MIT students spend a summer working at the Ford Motor Company, the knowledge transfer is in depth and tangible. Daniel Whitney, CTPID Senior Research Scientist and

"My attitude toward students and research is basically driven by the model of MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing Program," said Whitney, who sends MIT students to Ford every summer and most Januarys as part of his Design Structure Matrix and Assembly Advisor projects. "You should put the students out into companies for extended periods of time."

Jagmeet Arora, who gathered thesis research at Ford as part of the Assembly Advisor project, spent last summer at Ford engine plants and engineering offices investigating engine design related to assembly. His thesis research is helping to untangle a Ford problem.

"The hypothesis proposed by the Ford manager was that the problem he encountered could be solved by improvements in design," said Whitney. "And we suspected that some of these problems were the result of things that happened in the plant independent of the design. Jagmeet went to the plant to see what actually happened. We found out that the factory was being inconsistent in certain ways and they should look into it further. That's a good lesson for any student - the difference between what happens in the design office and the factory."

Antoine Guivarch, who is set to earn master's degrees in Technology and Policy and in Mechanical Engineering in June, spend last summer and January working on Design Structure Matrix research at Ford.

"Direct contact with engineers really helped me realize the number and scope of critical problems that product development faces today," Guivarch said. "Classes at MIT introduced me to the conceptual issues in product development and showed me methods to address them, together with some practical applications in class projects. But practical experience on a large, real project like the one I conducted at Ford was necessary to translate the class concepts to day-to-day consequences."

Tackling real projects with real deadlines is a critical educational experience, Whitney believes. "None of these projects could be reproduced by MIT. That's the point. We go to factories not simply for the reality, we go there for the complexity. The main reason is that if your solution does not scale to the complexity, you don't have a solution."

Ford provides a rich learning arena, said Whitney, who as worked with Ford over 25 years. "My experience with Ford is that they have been tremendously open. They are great partners."

top

Program Links: CMP | Ford-MIT | IMVP | LAI | LARA | LSI | MSL | MITIQ | T&L