In Sequence - ILVS and AI Today

How simulation helped Ford synchronize its powertrain plants with the assembly line, and what AI changes about modeling systems like it

Picture an assembly line where every engine arrives at the moment it is needed, already matched to the car it will go into. It is not pulled from a stockpile of every variation the plant might need. It was built for that car, shipped in that car’s place in line, and delivered to the station just as the car rolls up. Today that is routine in automotive assembly. Around 1987 it was an ambitious bet, and I had the good fortune to work on it, leading a team from Coopers & Lybrand that supported Ford.

The project was called In-Line Vehicle Sequencing, or ILVS. It was one of the largest projects of my career, and simulation modeling was at its center. Looking back at it now, nearly four decades later, is a good way to see both how lasting the core ideas have been and how dramatically AI is changing the work of modeling systems like it.