Ford Motor Company and Big Data

Ford Motor Company is one of America's largest car manufacturers, and has been since the early part of the 20th century. As industrial engineers we should have an appreciation for this company's contributions to our field, namely that they were the trailblazers towards the era of mass production using Henry Ford's famed assembly line and interchangeable parts. However, Ford's reign as the king of the auto industry came to an end beginning in the 1960's, mostly due to rise of the Toyota Production System used by most Japanese auto manufacturers. Since then, Ford has been looking for ways to reclaim the advantage in the market they once held and their newest idea has been to use big data as a tool to help them in their business. The article linked to as follows tells about Ford's uses of Big Data and which direction they believe the field of study will go in the future. http://www.zdnet.com/fords-big-data-chief-sees-massive-possibilities-but-the-tools-need-work-7000000322/

 

The article details an interview with Ford's Big Data analytics leader, John Ginder. I believe the fact that Ford has dedicated a entire department of resources to Big Data problems speaks to the potential value they see in the tools we are learning about. I also found it interesting why Ford shifted their focus to Big Data analytics in the first place: out of necessity. The company only began experimenting with Big Data in the mid 2000's when they were in danger of going bankrupt. As their old methods of doing businesses were slowly dragging them under, they began looking for "outside the box" ideas and more analytical, data-driven solutions were one of those ideas. Ginder acknowledges that making analtyics a part of the company culture helped turn around the company and has opened a multitude of new possibilities for the company.

Currently, Ford is focusing its efforts on two areas of Big Data and trying to analyze them together to arrive at solutions to problems. These first area is data found internally, mostly relating to data gleaned from sensors within vehicles. Instead of the sensors in vehicles only staying contained within the individual vehicle systems as was previously done, Ford is attempting to use the sensors on each vehicle to send data to one central location as well, compiling mountains of information on how vehicles actually operate in the process. They plan to use this data to improve upon existing designs and improve customer experience in the future based on how customers actually operate the vehicle. The second area is something we have been studying more closely in class: the use of data available freely on the Internet. Ford is using tools such as Google Trends and other data mining tools to analyze what consumers are talking about in blogs, message boards and other social media sites. This is being done to better determine what consumers want in vehicles and what their reactions are to different features. The Google Trends has been especially helpful in determining sales forecasts, as they can see how many people in the world are using Google to search for a particular brand of car. Using these two approaches in unison could bring about potentially revolutionary solutions in the company, but Ginder acknowledges there is more to be done and that they have only scratched the surface of Big Data's potential.

In order for Big Data to move forward in its usage, Ginder believes new and better tools need to be developed. They rely mostly on open-source software such as Hadoop (which we have learned about), and although these tools are powerful they require trained software professionals to operate properly (perhaps this is why I struggle with using this stuff). Ginder thinks that in order to take a leap forward in usage, Big Data must develop softwares that anyone can use, not only those with computer backgrounds (hopefully by the end of the semester). As Big Data becomes more prevalent, Ford will continue to use solutions found from them more and more and hopefully make vehicle travel better (and safer) for society in future. This would benefit everyone, but especially Ford's bottom line as they attempt to reclaim their place atop the American auto industry.