Ford failing to provide needed data to aftermarket roof makers

[SamG]

After falling victim to Webasto's short comings and failing to produce even close to enough hard tops, ford is now failing to provide the aftermarket with the data necessary to help quell these problems.

Below is taken directly from a conversation with Patriot Fastbacks today 6/8/22

"We are making forward progress, Ford has not been the most cooperative with us in obtaining the needed data, so that’s been a bit of a sticking point. However, with our Master mold makers, who have been doing this type of work for decades, data from Ford isn’t completely necessary, it just cuts the time in more than half.

So that being said, we’re looking at more towards the end of the year, hopefully before the cold season hits.

Sorry for the not so good news, but we’re definitely progressing as fast as we can towards some new super badarse tops!!"


Hey @Ford social media person - work your way through your cross functional teams to find the design engineers who hold this data hostage.
Hint* They are located in the PDC building off of Oakwood blvd

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[BlueBronco]

What "data" do they need that Ford is supposed to provide??

 

[Destroyer]

Maybe I don't understand the full process, but what exact information are we trying to obtain directly from Ford that is going to speed up aftermarket hardtop production? Bronco's are out there and available for aftermarket companies to buy. We have the ability to laser scan the ENTIRE vehicle to get exact measurements for everything needed to produce a top. Everything else beyond that is the companies design goals, testing, and production. Personally, I'm not buying this excuse, they're just taking their time to get it out. Blaming things on Ford for "data" they are or are not providing is ridiculous.

 

[Razorbak86]

Hey @Ford social media person - work your way through your cross functional teams to find the design engineers who hold this data hostage.
Hint* They are located in the PDC building off of Oakwood blvd

Too bad you burned all those bridges after you left FoMoCo, or you could have followed up yourself.

 

[GToddC5]

What "data" do they need that Ford is supposed to provide??

Right?!? Ford won't send out a complete functional 3D model to work from? I don't blame them.

 

[F OR D]

isn't patriot a jeep only company right now? maybe that is part of their issue?

sounds as if they basically want half of the engineering work done up front by ford, with no direct benefit to ford. also hard or soft top ford can't meet the demand, so aftermarket top adds no value to them.

i mean did oracle get the schematics for tail lights? pretty sure they engineered it from existing and any data points they could get. same with most to all of the other products to market.

that said, i think ford could do a better job. i also think a vendor publicly saying this is a bad approach and look. it screams give me a shortcut so we can turn more profit. just my 2c.

 

[broadicustomworks]

Too bad you burned all those bridges after you left FoMoCo, or you could have followed up yourself.

Dang. You a like the even more abrupt version of me. I'm scared.
But you're still my hero.

 

[MayhemMike]

“ Those Wright Brothers aren’t providing anyone with the specs f their aircraft design. It sure would be a lot easier to compete with them if they did”. Some knucklehead, circa 1904.

 

[BlueBronco]

that said, i think ford could do a better job. i also think a vendor publicly saying this is a bad approach and look. it screams give me a shortcut so we can turn more profit. just my 2c.

Thing is, Patriot didn't publicly say anything about it. OP looks to have posted a private email in an attempt to shame Ford and instead threw Patriot under the bus.

 

[flip]

Wouldn't this type of info have to come with an NDA or some sort of contract? I don't know, just asking. Meyer Distributing has suppliers that were in the same situation and were waiting for their bronco to be built so engineers could come in and laser scan for product development. It sounded like Ford chose who they partnered with in the early stages so they could control how much data was out there.

 

[JBowles]

Typically a lot of native cad data is available via SEMA with the appropriate manufacturer approval, and whats not available natively SEMA scans and has available in a number of formats.

 

[HBTFD]

What "data" do they need that Ford is supposed to provide??

You can scan a vehicle but that doesn’t tell you the tolerances for any of the dimensions, just the actuals for one unit.

 

[DogHauler]

Maybe I don't understand the full process, but what exact information are we trying to obtain directly from Ford that is going to speed up aftermarket hardtop production? Bronco's are out there and available for aftermarket companies to buy. We have the ability to laser scan the ENTIRE vehicle to get exact measurements for everything needed to produce a top. Everything else beyond that is the companies design goals, testing, and production. Personally, I'm not buying this excuse, they're just taking their time to get it out. Blaming things on Ford for "data" they are or are not providing is ridiculous.

Better scan a bunch of them, I wouldn't trust a sample of 1 to be a nominal vehicle.

 

[F-Spot]

I would think that the Technical Data Plans would be restricted to contracted manufacturers of the Hard Top...Webasto in this instance. Non contract holders probably need to reverse engineer on their own.

 

[sgraing1]

There's a reason Reverse Engineering has been around for decades.

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