Ford executives announced the hiring of 350 veteran engineers after artificial intelligence and automation systems failed to achieve desired quality levels. Some of them were former employees and some had worked for suppliers.
The company’s chief operating officer, Kumar Galhotra, told reporters that Ford had “increased its reliance on automated quality systems” and had disappointing results, Bloomberg reported. So the company is “bringing back technical experts,” who will “locate failures before the parts arrive at the factory.”
“We mistakenly thought that just by introducing artificial intelligence and taking the design requirements that we had, we could produce a high-quality product,” added Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of automotive hardware engineering.
Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean Ford will completely abandon its AI plans. Instead, the company is using rehired employees (dubbed “grey-bearded” engineers) to train younger staff and reprogram its AI tools.
The rehiring appears to be working, with Ford expecting to save $1 billion this year. The company also earned the top spot among mainstream brands in the JD Power Initial Quality Study released this week.
