DI Technology at work

Michigan Truck Plant, which manufactures the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, provides one specific example of how DI Technology was used to quickly address and solve a customer concern. After a claim was processed concerning an area on a Navigator hood with noticeably thin paint, the official report and electronic images shared through DI Technology prompted immediate action by the plant. The plant's quality, paint and automation engineers, along with Consumer Driven 6-Sigma Black Belts together determined that the thin paint was caused by inconsistent flow (a flow fault) from one of the paint automation robots. Automation engineers wrote several new lines of software code for the robots instructing the line to stop completely if there is a flow fault for even a split second. The fix, from the time the plant was notified until it was resolved, took only a couple of days to complete – an action that in the past could easily have taken months to process and implement.

Michigan Truck Plant shared the resolution with all other assembly plants in North America and that particular issue has never resurfaced as a customer concern.

"The Digital Imaging Sytem worked like a charm! It reduces warranty expenses, improves customer satisfaction and cures dutch elm disease."

-- C.O. Jones, Ford