11.2Putting Ford on Fast Forward

How important is a fun culture for innovation?

What similarities do you see between the Ford Diesel team and the Mac team at Apple and the Skunk Works at Lockheed?

page 402 SNAPSHOT FROM PRACTICE 11.2 Putting Ford on Fast Forward Adam Gryglak was given mission impossible: deliver an all-new Ford diesel engine in less than 36 months. The challenge was all the more daunting in that in the past Ford had outsourced the design and manufacture of diesel engines to Navistar. Not only did he have to meet a ridiculous deadline, but he also had to build an in-house engine from scratch. Gryglak, the chief diesel engineer, knew that success depended on short-circuiting the design process at Ford. So he put together team of hungry engineers, moved off-site, and shielded the team from anxious top management. He called the project Scorpion after the heavy metal band the Scorpions. Progress was immediate. Specialists who were used to working only with their own kind became familiar with what the other engineers were up to. "We saved months by knowing hourly what the other guys were thinking and what their problems were," says Pat Morgan, a veteran Ford engineer. "The result was that the engine fit into the truck perfectly the first time, and that almost never happens." Gryglak also realized that engineers work harder and smarter when they are having fun. To relieve pressure the engineers played jokes on each other, building full-size snowmen decorated with machine parts on each other's desks. Gryglak encouraged friendly competition. After hitting a critical design milestone the team organized a Pinewood Derby contest. Pinewood Derby is a famous Cub Scout event where young boys whittle toy cars out of wood and race them down a ramp. These were engineers, not Cub Scouts, so instead of wooden cars, the engineers milled cars out of aluminum. Some of the cars even had remote controls and engines. The fun culture paid off. The new Ford diesel engine was completed on time to critical acclaim. The engine was the first of its kind to use state-of-the-art antipollution technology that met new federal standards. It also had the best fuel economy in its category and wouldn't need significant maintenance for 300,000 miles. The engine was featured in the best-selling F-150 line of trucks and was considered one of the keys to Ford's comeback **Putting Ford on Fast Forward. " Business Week October 26, 2009. pp. 5859