How do you build a $30,000 electric car? Inside Ford’s skunkworks.

To that end, Ford EVDC currently has approximately 350 people working in Long Beach at any given time. Foreign office workers who work in engineering and software, for example, bring the team size to about 480, but in Ford’s words, it’s still a very small fraction.

4. A very simple design and a release design with great flexibility in making changes should be provided.

This is interesting. EVDC has everything from three types of 3D printers to a CNC mill larger than my first three rooms (including one just for making large clay models). This allows for quick iteration and an easy approval process without the need to send changes and drawings outside of the production environment. Speed ​​also comes from the fact that everyone is under one roof, protecting the warehouse. All this is in addition to the wood shop, metal shop, etc. Even things like furniture designs and designs are made in-house.

5. There should be a limited number of required reports, but the required work should be well documented.

The less time you have to justify your decisions to upper management, the more time you have to get the job done.

6. There should be an assessment of the monthly cost not only of what has been spent and committed but also of the expected income at the end of the program.

This may seem like Project Management 101, but it goes beyond calculating time and money to get a project done. Because the Universal Electric Vehicle is designed to be as affordable as possible, continuous evaluation of the impact of design decisions on costs is essential. This ranges from material selection to making seat mounting bolts to look out, fast installation and lower labor costs down the line. Ford is taking action on this.

7. The contractor must be commissioned and must take more responsibility than usual to find the right vendors for the job. Marketing tactics are often better than military tactics.

Modern manufacturing technology has made Johnson’s seventh law unnecessary. Because EVDC is highly integrated, from computerized design to clay models, rapid drawing, assembly, and testing, the need for outside contractors has been eliminated.

8. The control system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by the Air Force and the Navy, meets existing military objectives and should be used for new projects. Also push the responsibility of auditing to subcontractors and vendors. Don’t repeat multiple trips.

When we change the contracts to engineers, the law is very much in line with what Ford is trying to do. At EVDC, these teams have advanced testing equipment, which helps them validate designs before they leave the office. There is also a mock car made of 80/20 aluminum extrusions, which is used to lay out all the wiring and everything that is attached, minus the battery pack. This allows engineers to verify not only the hardware, such as the indoor modules that make up the zonal structure of the UEV, but also the software.