Ford executives said they were hiring 350 veteran engineers — some of them former employees and others working at suppliers — after artificial intelligence and automated systems failed to deliver the desired level of quality.
Bloomberg reports The company’s chief operating officer, Kumar Galhotra, told reporters that Ford “relies more on automated quality systems” and has had disappointing results. So the company “brings back technicians” who “look for points of failure before a part reaches the factory floor.”
Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle engineering, added: “We mistakenly thought that by applying artificial intelligence and accepting existing design requirements, it would produce a high-quality product.”
To be clear, this doesn’t mean Ford has completely abandoned its AI plans. Instead, it uses rehired workers, so-called “greybeard” engineers, to train younger staff and reprogram AI tools.
That rehiring is paying off, which Ford expects will lead to $1 billion in cost reductions this year. The automaker also ranked first among major brands in the JD Power Initial Quality Survey released this week.
