Mach-E High Voltage Connectors -- reviewed by Sandy Munro

[timbop]

"quite frankly that is where tesla is winning: on their fasteners".

I guess we've come a long way from "Tesla's have far better battery technology", "Tesla has far better range", "Tesla's have far better inverter efficiency", blah blah blah

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[Garbone]

Every fastener should be 10mm except for 2, Those need to be 3/8.

 

[benk016]

I know people keep getting upset about what he's saying about the MME, but you have to think of it like this. He's not really saying Ford did anything WRONG. His company and job is to find ways to improve a design. This is more of an advertisement for his business than anything.

I also suspect that there is someone that has paid him to do this, and get some pointers on how to design their own EV. And I don't really think its Tesla. I just think he uses that as a benchmark.

I Think it would be interesting to see him compare a 10 year old Tesla, to a current model. I'm sure he'd come up with a huge list of things they needed to improve in the beginning. But they've had a decade to make those improvements.

A few videos back, Sandy mentioned even after all these things that he's pointed out, the MME is the 2nd best EV he's ever seen.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

how many vehicles has sandy done such a deep dive into? not many. Why is he doing it? MONEY and the mache is a hot item and he is getting views like crazy on it. Seems like to me ford might have built a hot item here.

But what do I know? Again not like I stayed in a holiday Inn last night.

It's a shame there aren't more fasteners as that's first and foremost on my mind when buying a car. And clearly, though @trutolife27, if Ford would have just listened to Sandy, they'd have made a really popular car with the Mach-e.

/sarcasm off

 

[timbop]

I know people keep getting upset about what he's saying about the MME, but you have to think of it like this. He's not really saying Ford did anything WRONG. His company and job is to find ways to improve a design. This is more of an advertisement for his business than anything.

I also suspect that there is someone that has paid him to do this, and get some pointers on how to design their own EV. And I don't really think its Tesla. I just think he uses that as a benchmark.

I Think it would be interesting to see him compare a 10 year old Tesla, to a current model. I'm sure he'd come up with a huge list of things they needed to improve in the beginning. But they've had a decade to make those improvements.

A few videos back, Sandy mentioned even after all these things that he's pointed out, the MME is the 2nd best EV he's ever seen.

Yes, that is very true - it is more of a commercial for Munro's services than an indictment of the car

 

[Nklem]

Agreed on all fronts. Sandy’s looking for Consulting work and I believe he is very good and worth it. It’s hard for a manufacturer To give up the reigns but he is making some good cases to have Ford pay his team $200/hour for improvement……every penny counts in the auto industry.

 

[benk016]

I would like to see Ford start to produce some of these components in house, or at least more customized versions of the components. I think that would solve a lot of the findings that Sandy has found. Its just a symptom of using 3rd party parts to create this vehicle.

 

[kdryden99]

I would like to see Ford start to produce some of these components in house, or at least more customized versions of the components. I think that would solve a lot of the findings that Sandy has found. Its just a symptom of using 3rd party parts to create this vehicle.

Ford is in it's first real attempt. Once they get to years 5-10 this will be a real possibility.

 

[benk016]

Ford is in it's first real attempt. Once they get to years 5-10 this will be a real possibility.

Exactly. I don't expect them to start right away. But they need to at least be working towards that.

Sandy mentioned in the video that Ford could have mandated how the connectors were made and what fasteners they used, but I have a feeling that would have added some cost to make those changes, and ford decided that money wasn't worth it.
That is the biggest thing that annoys me about Sandy. I don't doubt Ford didn't think of a lot of this stuff, but a decision was made and Sandy wasn't involved in that.


In 5 years, if Ford hasn't changed anything, then I'd start worrying about their decisions.

 

[RonTCat]

Agreed on all fronts. Sandy’s looking for Consulting work and I believe he is very good and worth it. It’s hard for a manufacturer To give up the reigns but he is making some good cases to have Ford pay his team $200/hour for improvement……every penny counts in the auto industry.

Every penny counts, which is why Sandy isn't getting any Ford cheese. He has to bring some new ideas to the game, not the old ones he recycles to Tesla.

 

[Garbone]

On the battery ports I agree with Sandy. My thought is on the individual modules that they will be depot level repairs and no mechanic or line worker will be removing those plugs.

 

[kdryden99]

Exactly. I don't expect them to start right away. But they need to at least be working towards that.

Sandy mentioned in the video that Ford could have mandated how the connectors were made and what fasteners they used, but I have a feeling that would have added some cost to make those changes, and ford decided that money wasn't worth it.
That is the biggest thing that annoys me about Sandy. I don't doubt Ford didn't think of a lot of this stuff, but a decision was made and Sandy wasn't involved in that.


In 5 years, if Ford hasn't changed anything, then I'd start worrying about their decisions.

It's hard to mandate suppliers to do things your way when you are very low production volume. Once Ford is ordering 300-400k units a year it's easier to tell your supplier, everything needs to be standardized since we are using your stuff across our whole lineup and don't want headaches. Ford has barely passed the 5 figure mark in deliveries. If this is the worst thing about this car then Ford did a great job regardless of what Sandy thinks about the screws.

 

[JoeDimwit]

Sandy is referring to the assembly line. All the tools are setup for the assembly operators for each task they need to perform. It costs time and risks confusion when they need to keep changing tools during their task.

The only other option is have an operator for each different fastener. That is extremely inefficient and means too many people standing around 80% of the time waiting for their 1 task to happen.

It is pretty clear from this comment that you have never worked in an automotive assembly plant. They don’t build cars the way you or I work on them in our garage. That car moves from station to station, where production people do the same task to each vehicle every 30-50 seconds. They don’t need to change tools, there are different connectors so there isn’t a possibility to make a mistake. There is no sitting around while someone else is working on a car.

 

[TruWrecks]

It is pretty clear from this comment that you have never worked in an automotive assembly plant. They don’t build cars the way you or I work on them in our garage. That car moves from station to station, where production people do the same task to each vehicle every 30-50 seconds. They don’t need to change tools, there are different connectors so there isn’t a possibility to make a mistake. There is no sitting around while someone else is working on a car.

I have not worked in a auto assembly plant. I can only pull from my experience in building kidney dialysis machines 34 years ago. I'm sure things have changed a bit.

 

[trutolife27]

Every penny counts, which is why Sandy isn't getting any Ford cheese. He has to bring some new ideas to the game, not the old ones he recycles to Tesla.

correct. Ford is already doing time studies up and down the line. Launch teams have everything placed where it needs to be. Ford already has people doing things that sandy is talking about.

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