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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 2 6 *Member of ASM International AUTOMOTIVE ALUMINUM— PART X In the Midst of the Great Recession, Ford Quietly Goes All In Ford begins to reassess its capacity to develop and launch an aluminum-intensive platform on its own. Laurent Chappuis,* Light Metal Consultants LLC, Grosse Ile, Michigan Robert Sanders,* Novelis Inc., Atlanta Authors’ Note: When we started Part X of this series, we struggled to depict the miserable economic conditions that Ford and the rest of the industry were operating under when planning the aluminum-bodied F-150. Unfortunately, the current situation is likely to make this seem very real again. We hope that our story will remind readers how true leaders can seize opportunities even under the worst conditions. B y November 2007, Alan Mulally had been CEO of Ford for 14 months. Nearly five years had elapsed since the launch of the Jaguar XJ andmuch had changed. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) was now for sale and its role as a lightweight technology demon- strator for the company was coming to an end. JLR had been leading work on an advanced lightweight platform to be shared with Volvo and Lincoln. Faced with this looming reorganiza- tion, Ford kicked off the D11 study, an in-depth analysis of a new lightweight large car platform. The objective was to reassess the company’s capability to develop and launch an aluminum- intensive platform on its own. The man- ufacturing team was asked to investi- gate three concerns: First and foremost, the investment needed to support the required aluminum production; the second question was for stamping oper- ations to assess the state of aluminum stamping productivity after a decade of mass production; and the third ques- tion was for the body construction team to investigate what it would take to con- vert from a steel body shop to an alumi- num one. The development of any vehicle is a highly complex affair, involving con- siderable investment and the careful weighing of many alternatives, all while meeting an ever increasing set of regu- lations. All manufacturers have devel- oped very detailed project plans that funnel through a series of milestones or gateways. In general, the plan in- volves four phases: pre-program, dev- elopment, execution, and launch. The chief programengineer (CPE) is the con- ductor, balancing the myriad wants and needs of the design studio, marketing, engineering, and manufacturing with financial and regulatory requirements. To allocate resources, programs are rat- ed for complexity: A new high-volume platform coupled to a new powertrain would score the highest. DEVELOPMENT PHASES The pre-program phase involves a small team that defines the gen- eral sales, engineering, and produc- tion targets. Its duration is flexible and contains only one gateway—a manage- ment review that decides if the program is worth pursuing in its current defini- tion. The CPE is named during the last From left, 2008 models of the Mazda 2, Ford Fiesta, Mazda 6, and Ford Fusion. The Mazda 2 and Ford Fiesta shared the “B” platform, while the Mazda 6 and Ford Fusion shared the “CD” platform.