E25: Robert Lillquist - Ford Motor Company

In today’s show, we speak to special guest Robert Lillquist, the F-Series Manufacturing Engineer at Ford Motor Company, who has worked his way up in the company after starting there seven years ago. Robert is known by his peers as a motivated and disciplined individual who has a passion for engineering, sustainability, and renewable energy. His broad range of expertise allows him to be involved in almost all manufacturing processes and is able to provide a unique perspective on solving problems. We learn about Roberts's professional background, his current role at Ford, some of the biggest challenges that Robert has experienced, what is essential to becoming successful, the importance of thinking out of the box, the management style at Ford, what the best selling vehicle of all time was, and much more. Tune in today to get advice and tips from a respected figure and leader in manufacturing, Robert Lillquist!

Transcript

EPISODE 25

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:02] ANNOUNCER: You're listening to The Industrial Movement, where we discuss the people, the processes and the equipment that drives American manufacturing. If this is your first time listening, then thanks for coming. The Industrial Movement Podcast is produced every week for your enjoyment. The show notes can be found in our website at www.theindustrialmovement.com. 

Come back often and feel free to add this podcast to your favorite RSS feed or iTunes. You can also follow the show on Twitter @theindustrialmovement, or on our Facebook page. All links to our social media can be found in the show notes and also at the bottom of our website. Now, let's get onto the show.

[INTERVIEW]

[00:00:40] MH: Hi, folks. Welcome to The Industrial Movement. My name's Morty Hodge, your show host. With me as always, my sidekick, Greg Smith.

[00:00:47] GS: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the show.

[00:00:50] MH: Today, we're honored to have Robert Lillquist. He works with Ford Motor Company. His title is F-Series Manufacturing Engineer. Robert, welcome to The Industrial Movement.

[00:00:59] RL: Thank you.

[00:01:00] MH: Tell us a little bit about your role with Ford. Tell us a little bit about the plant and start to get into your story.

[00:01:08] RL: Sure. When I started with Ford seven years ago, I wasn't actually on in a F-Series program. I had to work my way up. I've been very blessed in the sense that Ford has let me move around. They've let me seen a lot of the country and work on different products and now I'm here. I'm talking to you guys. I'm in Louisville, Kentucky. It's a sunny day in May, 95 degrees and humid, which is how they like it down here, that's part for the course. Louisville is home to two Ford Assembly Plants, actually. You have a LAP, which is Louisville Assembly Plant. That's where we build the escape and the Lincoln course there. So we double up there on those products.

Then I work at Kentucky Truck Plan, KTP. KTP has been deemed the truck capital of the world, because we build a few trucks there. We build the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. I actually, my first launch at KTP was in 2017. I was a launch engineer on the 2018 Ford Expedition, Lincoln Navigator launch. I met my wife on that one actually. So when we met we were both at Ford and she was an engineer at the plant. Then we went our separate ways, because Ford never let me say one place for too long, but eventually we got together. 

Now fast forward an hour, actually, fast forward to last year. I just got off of the Mustang Mach-E launch in Cuautitlán Mexico. So I spent 17 months down there launching the Mach-E, which was our first battery electric vehicle. Now Ford has me in Louisville, Kentucky, and I'm here with my wife and our two kids. They have me working on the, the 2023 Super Duty Launch. So if you're not familiar with the Super Duty, that's a name brand. That's your F-250, 350, 450 and then even the 550. We go up to the 550 at Kentucky Truck.

That's where I am now. I've really had to keep an open mind with all this. I've never been more stressed than I am now with my job, because the thing about Ford is that they'll give you as much rope as they'll take. I took a lot of rope on this one and over the last seven years, that's been all building up to this, basically. So when I started at Ford, I was in Body in White (BIW) construction. So building the structure of whatever I was working on. At first I was an Expedition Navigator and I've worked on a few things since then, but I left body construction voluntarily. It wasn't received well. They really wanted to keep me. But Body in White (BIW) assembly isn't where we struggle as a company.

We do struggle in final assembly and the reason for that is, as it comes down to the complexity. There's so much more complexity and final assembly with the different trim levels and the different configurations you can get on these trucks. So right now I'm working on trimming out these trucks and there's exterior trim and interior trim and there's a lot. It's really heavy and there's a lot of complexity and there's a whole bunch of new stuff. We have coming out for this 2023 model year. There are some things I can't say on here, just because of confidentiality reasons. We haven't shown this truck in the road yet. But yeah, there's a lot of really cool things coming in and excited to be a part of it. 

The super duty is a huge profit engine for us. I mean, just say at KTP, we build and sell nearly 400,000 of them annually. So it's a lot. So we're running all out, all the time until the wheels fall off. So that's what I'm a part of here.

[00:05:02] MH: Most people listen to show they know me as a, I'm a Ford fanboy. I grew up in in Dearborn, Michigan. I'm somewhat of a Henry Ford pseudo-expert, but I know a lot about the Ford Motor Company. I have a lot of family and friends that worked there over the years. The Super Duty, that's what I drive. Trust me, I know that's a big profit center, because I wrote a big check for it. It's very expensive, but it's well worth it. The one thing I wanted to ask you about as far as launching a vehicle, you said, there's a lot of complexities to it. I don't know what you can and can't talk about. When you said you deal with the trim. It's heavy, at different – there's a lot of different options and it's complex. Tell me specifically if you can. What exactly is your role there?

[00:05:50] RL: There's different ways I can answer that. So I'm just going to give it my best shot. So typically people in my role will take a program, cradle-to-grave. So what that means is, you get involved upfront before any of this is real, and really before the program is even approved. You're looking at designs, you're looking at concepts. Everything is virtual. The CAD of the truck and all these different parts, they're virtual. The layout and where you going to put everything on, the point of fit, virtual. So I spend the first, I'd say a year and a half, that’s a good approximation, just looking at designs and seeing all things put together. We're going through different milestones and so every program is different milestones you need ahead. 

There are certain things you need to accomplish to go through different milestones and you're going through milestones from the very beginning, pre-program approval to the very end and try to get okay to buy, which means you start shipping trucks out to the customer. So that's the first phase, I’ll call it. You're doing something that we call, DPA Digital Pre Assembly. So a DPA is you're looking at designs. So I'm a launch engineer. I want to clarify this. I'm a launch engineer. So I really see things through to the end. Right now, six days a week, it will be seven days a week eventually, I'm sure. I'm in the plant and we're working on things. We’re just varying the build prototypes. Prototypes, I'll just say this, I want to try to drive one of the trucks home, because you're still working out the issues. I was just shock talking to the chief engineer on this program, yesterday. The guy by the name of Andrew Carnahan, a really smart guy. He is getting all stressed out, because of issues and delays. I'm just like, “Andrew, you got to crack a few eggs and make an omelet.” That's true on everything. 

Anyways, so now here we are before this, before this truck made its way to Kentucky. I was up in Dearborn, Michigan. Home of Ford, so Ford is in your DNA. That's real good to hear Marty. I was up in Michigan and I was at our pilot plant. After everything is done virtually and the digital pre-assembly is done and the designs are released for molding or stamping whatever, everyone goes to the pilot plant in Michigan and we do our prototype builds. It used to be called something else, VP, Vehicle Prototype and now it goes by a different name DCV, Design Coordination Vehicle. 

Ford's always changing the names of things, but at the end of the day, it's the same. So before you hit the plant, you're building prototypes. It's a real slow process, so at KTP for example, they're busting out about 1200 Super Duties a day. When you're building prototypes it might take two days to build one, you know what I mean? Just because well, the people up there in Dearborn working at the pilot plant, they're great, they're absolutely phenomenal, but they're not the normal people building the trucks. So a launch engineer is assigned to a program like I am here in Louisville. We were all up there, so our whole team was up there on the launch team. 

Product specialist and the trainers, people from the plant, the people that really are liaison to the production. They were up there and we're just working together on hammering out issues. So it might be routing issues or we're looking for anything that might – that's going to throw us off and I think, that takes a lot of different forms. It could be a wire routing issue or access to something. You want to find all that stuff before it hits the plant. The longer it takes you to find it and get it fixed, the more expensive it is to fix it. There's not a problem in the world that can be solved with the money, with some capital, but you really want to hammer out as much as you can during these prototype builds. So that took place over the course of four months, September through the end of the year, really.

Then at the end of the year, we had a transition and actually was a big juggling act, because what all the last year was building up to was the shutdown period at the plant. So that's the other hat that I where the launch engineer. This is the part that I really get a kick out of. I don't just work on building the truck. I don't just own issues of building the truck and trim pieces not fitting on. I also own the delivery of new equipment. So what that means is lift assists, for example, we use a hoist to install the IP, the instrument panel to the truck. I worked with the company, the supplier that  designed and built a new IP instrument panel that can hoist for us.

Then I get those installed at the plant and I commission them. I'm also working on facility stuff. If I need a platform to be at a different height or if I need some ergo table like a table that can lift and spin. I own the delivery and the installation of that. I'm not just working with the production people and building the truck. So that's our main deliverable when you think of Ford, you think of our products, you think of our trucks and, and our cars, but also working with maintenance people and the skilled trades. So Ford has a really strong relationship with the UAW, United Auto Workers, and I'm working with them. They do a lot of great work. Of all the plants I've been to, and I've been to every Ford assembly plant in the US, actually, Michigan and Kentucky, Illinois, Kansas City, Ohio, I've been to them all. KTP is one of the strongest labor forces I've ever worked with.

Their trades are absolutely phenomenal and anything you throw the way they can do. The only regret is that I wish we had more of them, honestly. That's the other hat that I wear and if that makes sense. So you just own the truck, you own the layout and you own the equipment. If there's an issue with this hoist, whether it's causing damage or the guy operating it, the guy or the girl operating it just wants it set differently that's something that I work on every day. So it's a big balancing act. I want to see this truck all the way through to the end. Then so right now, if you want to be real technical, we haven't even started lunch. We're building trucks on our line with our people. So we're getting a feel for it, but in the grand scheme of things, maybe we haven’t even started launch yet. 

The whole rest of the year is launch time. So it's been building up to that, been building up to that for two years now and it's crunch time. This is when it gets real exciting. It also gets real stressful, because no issues are real, right? It's not an issue on a computer, not just moving something a couple of millimeters or moving a table a couple inches. Now, it's all real. Parts are real, the people are real. So simulation time is over. Now it just gets a bit more emotional. Now you get a question you really expect this out of that person and there's too much work put on them. So we have a few months to hammer all that out before we go all in with this new truck, the 2023.

[00:13:29] GS: Seeing a project like that from cradle-to-grave, as you said. I love that phrase, by the way. What is the biggest challenge? Is it the design part? Is it the logistics of it or is it troubleshooting, once you start producing them?

[00:13:41] RL: That's a great question. I'm actually going to give you two answers to that, if that's all right. The biggest challenge is actually other people determining your fate. So what I mean by that is there are people within Ford, people within my division, VO, Vehicle Operations that will – they’ll release a part, they’ll release a design without making sure it works with our tools. So what that means is I go back to my example of the instrument panel. So we handle – a unique thing about Kentucky Truck Plant where I work is that we actually build the instrument panels for our products in-house in the plant. So we build the instrument panel. So the instrument panel with that is so just you can envision it.

It's that thing in front of you, so it's your steering wheel, it's your radio display, your climate display. You're in control that your cluster display all the way to the glove box where you're where your passenger sits. So it's a big it's a big assembly. It weighs about £145 fully built up, and it spans the entire width of the truck. So you need a unique thing about KTP that we build ours in-house and to save the company millions of dollars. So the biggest challenge that I've had is people making decisions on your behalf like yeah, they can handle this design or they can handle this fastener. Then what we find when we're doing our layout work, our cycle line layouts and figuring out where we need new tools for new tools being like DC nut runners, things that we use to put nuts and bolts on, we have a lot of those hundreds.

We find that fasteners have been released and don't work with our tools or the new design of the instrument panel doesn't work with our tools. What that means, what they usually means is you need new tools and that means capital expenses. So that I guess is the most frustrating challenge for me, so when I take something cradle-to-grave like this, I really want to be cradle- to-grave, and I don't want people making decisions on my behalf. I really don't – does that make sense? I just went off on that and that was ridiculous. But to be more technical, so because I said I was an answer in different forms, it's a balancing act. So the nature of the build right now, if you went to KTP right now. Yeah, literally right now, because they run for about ten and a half hours every shift, so they'll go down in about 4:30. We're building the 2022 Super Duty, okay. So that's all they're building. All the different configurations of that. 

Well, the nature of our build until we go all out and switch over to the 2023 is completely, the nature of the building is integrated. What that means is we're building these launch trucks on our assembly lines, while they're building the 2022 and that makes it really hard, because there's so many differences, there's so many new things coming in for this truck. There's new parts completely, there's usage changes which means that so today when you put some parts on certain trucks and, some you don't. So there are changes with that common for 2023 and we try to communize where we can. 

Communize that means, make it the same, maybe the same going from 2022 to 2023, that's just so much smoother. The transition is going to be a lot easier for everyone, especially for production and to find people building the trucks and so that's been a big challenge and just figuring out the timing of it all. When can we put this team? When can we put this tool in? Then on top of all that, we're trying to design tools that works for both trucks. So I'm going to go back to the instrument panel example. I'll just stick to that, because I spent a lot of time on everything that touches as an instrument panel and building up the instrument panel, my name is almost become synonymous with the freaking instrument panel.

Anyways, we had a design tools that works for both trucks or that’s we’re trying to do. A tool that works for 2022 and 2023 and you might be thinking, “Well Rob, that sounds really easy, because it's a Super Duty. Super Duty is a Super duty, right?” No, not at all. Well, there's a lot that changes on the inside of these trucks and the design engineers that work out of Dearborn, all of our PDC Product Development Center, they're changing things all the time. They're changing geometry, the changing materials and that’s a big challenge for us. It's like trying to hit a moving target. 

When we were designing the new instrument panel decking hoist. You had to look at two different instrument panels, a 2022 and 2023. You look at two different cabs of 2022 and 2023, and you try to find as much common ground as you can. We did that quite successfully, so right now at the plant. They're using hoists that work for both trucks, so that when the launch trucks get to that station, they don't have to switch tools. They used to have to do that, because before you fully commit, before you go all in, we have backup strategies at Ford. So what that means is you never just have one tool, you always have a backup. Those things break and there are things you don't have control of. We have maintenance crews for a reason just like any other automaker or manufacturing company. 

Before you go all in, you just you install like you replace your backup with your new design, because you don't want to force something new, especially if it's drastically new on the operator all at once. Because then you're talking downtime when you're talking loss production and that's when people start pointing fingers usually at the launch team. Hey, launch you cost us whatever 50 trucks today and then the plant usually wants to get paid for that even it's not real money lost, but it's just not a good situation for anyone. So, just the balancing act is probably the biggest challenge that I worked through. For some programs, I'll go back to my most recent one. I was in Mexico launching the Mach-E that was a great launch.

A launch like that probably only comes around once in a career, because it was new. It was totally new from the ground up. So there is no balancing act. We put the Mach-E and the Cuautitlán Mexico, which is about 30 miles north of Mexico City, if you know where that is on the map. But before they built the Mach-E there, we built the Ford Fiesta there. You guys heard of the Ford Fiesta, probably seeing them from people – I mean, people love them. I work with people that still drive one to this day. They were that popular that the five door ones with the hatchback. Then there was an ST version of those. It was a big hit. I remember the date July 30th 2019. We got everything out from that plant that built the Fiesta.

It was a gut and shut, so we shut it down, grinding it out and then we had four months to get all the new equipment installed and commissioned and ready to build the Mach-E. Then that's all we build the Mach-E. So there wasn't a juggling act and there wasn't a 2020 Mach-E that we were coming in right behind. It was 2021, right on around the gates. So that was nice, that was really nice, because well it was a brand new product for us and I love the Mach-E. I have two actually. I have one and my wife has one. I was that committed to it, but it was brand new which mean you got to take your time with it and you didn't have to jump in and out and you didn't have such fast limited reps installed right not when we’re building these launch trucks. Right now, we're building at most three a day, at most, which is really nothing in the grand scheme of things, because at KTP we both fixed 100 a shift. 

Anyways, you might get three trucks and then everything you want to find out, you got three trucks to do it. So okay three trucks like ready, set, go, because you got to do your trials or make your observations with these three trucks. So during the two – well let me do some math here. It takes about 2 hours to start and trim and then get out of trim. That's how fast we run at KTP. So you got 2 hours and it's a moving line too, so it doesn't stop and you're trying to get in and out and it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy to witness. There are people – it reminds me of well scenes of the birds on the beach and then the water like the tide comes in and the birds run away, right? Then the tide goes out and then the birds run back. It's like that literally.

How you have to jump in and out. So this is a really long way of me saying that that balancing act, the integrated bill, is a challenge because you're really trying to build two trucks at once, but you're focusing on one and you have such limited reps. So I'm not the kind of guy that says, “Okay, let's try to get this tomorrow.” I'm very much a today person like let's do it today. Let's figure this out today. So when something doesn't work today, I need to put it off till tomorrow, I know that’s hard. It wasn't that on the Mach-E launch, because that's all we were focusing on for whatever I said, the 17 months I was down there. So that was from the day we took out the Fiestas to the day we went all out with the Mach-E. 

We got the okay to start shipping. December 18th, 2020 was the date, it was a week before Christmas. That's when Ford said, okay, you can start shipping these to customers and then that's when I left. Then Ford said, part of the next thing, and I really had to make it back to Louisville to be with my wife, and here I am.

[00:24:11] MH: That's great. What advice would you give to other manufacturing leaders out there? Any advice you'd pass along to the listeners?

[00:24:19] RL: Keep an open mind, keep the most open mind that you can. So for me, going from an electric vehicle, a battery electric vehicle like the Mach-E to a big gas powered truck like the smallest engine we're going to have on this, I mean, it's a Super Duty. The engine sizes are big. I'm not sure I can say – I'm not sure if allowed. I want to stop myself there. I wasn't sure if I could say.

[00:24:45] MH: Yeah. Don't say anything that's going to get you in trouble for sure.

[00:24:48] RL: Yeah. We've had enough of that trouble. Anyway, just keep an open mind going from a battery electric SUV, that's a Mustang to a big gas or diesel powered truck. So I had to accept that. I had to receive that. It was like starting over from the beginning almost, because I just mastered the Mach-E and I’ve gotten so used to not talking about fuel or engines, right? On the Mach-E, you never hear the word engine, because it doesn't have one. It has motors that are on the axles and it has a powertrain and it's just electric. Then I'm up here, I'm working on a Super Duty, which is not electric. 

The most exciting thing that's happened to Ford this year is really, it was a very exciting thing to happen to Ford in a long time. Maybe even our 118 year history is that we had the electric F-150 come out this year, the F-150 Lightning. The thing is, a smash every truck is spoken for two years. Before we even started building them we had to invest millions and millions of dollars into upping production just to try to keep up with demand. So anyways, I didn't get that. I didn't get to go from an electric vehicle to another. That would have been nice. That would have been a smoother transition, but no, I'm talking about spark plugs and glow plugs and engine types and transmission type. 

Well on the Mach-E with different battery types you have a standard range or extended range, and there was code for that 3P or 4P, and then you had two drive types, Rear-wheel drive or All-wheel drive. So I had to keep an open mind and accept that this is different, but different is not always bad. So I went from something totally brand new, something that was just totally – I mean, it was new for us. It was new territory. It was it's still really a blue market, because let's think about the electric vehicle space. You have a Tesla whose run by this guy and Elon Musk, I guess. Maybe you've heard of him.

[00:27:24] MH: We still have a show soon. 

[00:27:26] RL: Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to be on that one, actually.

[00:27:31] MH: We actually had an interview with Tesla scheduled this week and it had to be pushed back, but I think, it’s scheduled for next week.

[00:27:37] RL: Okay. When you get when you get Elon on, maybe, we can all get together, because I have some questions for him.

[00:27:45] GS: Take a ride to space or something. Maybe we just talk on the ship on the way up.

[00:27:49] RL: Yeah. Well, let’s talk about space. I don't know much about that, so I won't be able to keep up with him. I'm sorry. Anyways, it's a blue market and it was totally new for Ford and it was totally radical. On top of all of that, we branded it as a Mustang, and that wasn't received well, there are people that said it's not you can't just call it a Mustang. We didn't just call it the Mustang. We truly made it a Mustang through engineering and a rigorous testing. It really earned that name. But I went from that to working on the Ford Super Duty which we have been building since 1999. That's when the first Super Duty ever came out. It’s not when we started building trucks with KTP has been in operation since 1969, so they turned 50 years old a couple of years ago, 2019.

We've been building trucks for a long time. There's a whole bunch of cool new features coming out for this 2023 version of it, but it's just another Super Duty, but something I had to keep in mind and I have to keep reminding myself to this day is that yet it is just a Super Duty and there's nothing radical about it, but it's a huge profit engine for the company and makes us a whole bunch of profit. It creates a whole bunch of jobs. It's good for the economy, is good for a Louisville, Kentucky, it's good for Detroit.

[00:29:24] MH: It's good for you and the whole United States, because the people that use those trucks are the people that keep America going.

[00:29:30] RL: Right. Exactly. It's America's truck, the Ford F-Series, and the Super Duty is part of that has been the best-selling truck in the US for 44 years straight.

[00:29:41] MH: Best-selling vehicle of all time.

[00:29:43] RL: Right, exactly. It's number one year after year. Then from there it's the battle for second place and usually Ram, the Dodge Ram usually takes that. That's fine and they go back and forth with –

[00:29:58] GS: Chevy. 

[00:29:59] RL: GMC or Chevy. The advice I would give anyone in manufacturing, whether you're an established leader or someone is getting into that industry to keep an open mind and be flexible, because that's going do you really well and make you really valuable as some of the manufacturing.

[00:30:18] MH: What are some of the biggest lessons learned that you've experienced with your time at Ford?

[00:30:24] RL: Biggest lessons learned. Decide your own fate when you can, for sure so I catch on that earlier. If you're going to see something through, if you're going to launch a product, if you're getting a new product line, you want to control your own fate and you want to make decisions. You want to have influence. You want to be involved in strategy. So strategy, I got lost in my head, because I just recently finished my MBA program at Wayne State and one of the courses –

[00:30:57] MH: Congrats. That's good work. Great school, by the way. 

[00:31:00] RL: Yeah, yeah. Real good school. Namesake of the business school. Mike Ilitch, founder of Little Caesars.

[00:31:06] MH: Owner of the Red Wings.

[00:31:07] RL: He owned the Wings. He owned the Tigers. 

[00:31:10] GS: Tigers.

[00:31:10] RL: It was really good for Detroit, and he never left. That's something that everyone should really admire. Michael is really admirable. Anyways, no, I got lost thinking about strategy, because I took a class and strategic management and I've learned things at Ford and there are things you learn in school. I just remember reading up on strategy out of a textbook and textbook definition of strategy is the means by which an individual or an organization achieves their goals. The reason strategy exists to enhance the quality of decision making. Over my seven year career at Ford, I and many others that usually come to me to talk about decisions other people have made on our behalf, they come and talk to me as if I'm going to stage some uprising or hostile takeover, as if I have the power to do that. I don’t, because I'm just an engineer right now. 

Strategies are there to enhance the quality of decision making, but we feel like a lot of low quality decisions are made. So Ford is very old. We're 118 years old, and we're very mechanistic in our culture compared to some companies like Tesla who are younger. They might be more organic, right? They really think outside the box and it's paid off well for them. They're worth nearly $400 billion. 

Try to have an influence on strategy and try to control your fate. Those are two big lessons I've learned, because I didn't serve in the military and I won’t pretend that I did, but sometimes it feels Ford is almost militarized and the Ford is a great place to work for veterans. Ford does a lot for veterans. Great relationship on Fridays at the plant. It's where Red Day, Red is an acronym in this case, Remember Everyone Deployed. I mean, it's like the military, sometimes you're told exactly what to do. It's very yes, ma’am. No, ma'am. Yes, sir, no, sir. Thank you, sir. May I have another, sir? That kind of stuff.

[00:33:28] MH: I hear those management styles like you used to. It's interesting. Yeah, I agree with you. I doubt that Tesla is like that, right? I think it's more probably collaborative.

[00:33:39] RL: Right. Exactly. That's an advantage, though. I consider that to be an advantage, because Ford is so stuck in our ways and it's almost as much of a killer as Lean Six Sigma. You get really good at doing something, but you get really good at doing the wrong thing. I think the poster child of that is Kodak, right? They got really good at doing something, developing chemical film, whether we're going getting good at the wrong thing and them eventually led to their bankruptcy. Anyways, it's 2022 and it's time to start thinking it's 2022, everyone. So I would stress that as much as possible and I would start asking questions and don't accept this is the way we've always done it. It's not broken today. Don't fix it. Don't accept that. That’s no way to innovate. 

I've only been at KTP now since January of last year. I've been in all these other different plants. I've seen a lot and even though they're all Ford plants, we don't, they don't all do things the same way. So I try to bring in this is outside knowledge, even though it's still within Ford. I've seen different ways of doing things, sometimes it's just not received well. So if you see a better way of doing things, if you have an idea, do you have an innovation, bring it up. Don't be afraid to speak, because you'll probably regret it forever. I know all of us in our daily working lives, we have meetings and whether they're virtual or in person, I think we hold back sometimes, maybe out of fear of sounding silly or we're coming off as not knowing what we're talking about it.

I haven’t been at Ford as long as some people. That's true, but I've seen a lot. I have a lot of miles on me, literally. There are times where I didn't say something and I wish I did and I should have. Just build up to that and don't be afraid of how you sound, because you might just have a really simple idea that'll save the company $1,000,000. I've had those ideas and they come to me from my time at different plants. So I won't go into details, but I spent about four months in Chicago back in 2019, launching the new Explorer and the Lincoln Aviator. Those are two popular products of ours. We use something there that we weren't using at Kentucky.

I'm going to end up using it in Kentucky and just from using it, it was a net save about $400,000. Really simple too, guys. Really simple. This wasn't radical at all. I wish I could say it was, but it was just I was doing something else was out there that that's helping us out and it's, it's keeping us from having to do all those crazy facilities work like taking pits and stuff and it's going to be great. It's going to be an absolute hit at the plant and there's nothing special about it. There's nothing special about me. I just knew that was there. But if I let other people to where I'm going with this is if I let other people decide what we're going to do about this issue, we would have enough spending that money. 

100% I guarantee it, because everyone was on board for it, and I was like, “Wait, I really don't want to do that.” To me, it just seems stupid. You're digging your own grave almost, literally. Digging pits, digging your grave, same thing. Anyway, speak up. Speak up, you might just have that idea.

[00:37:23] MH: That's great advice. Well, I hate to admit it, but we're out of time today. Maybe you could come back on for an encore interview, because I love hearing these stories. It's great. Yeah. Great time. We appreciate you sharing. One of our goals is to create a community of manufacturing leaders and help our listeners connect with our guests and help create that community. If someone wants to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

[00:37:49] RL: I would search me up on LinkedIn, Rob Lillquist, search me up in the in the search bar and you can shoot me a message or connect with me. I don't turn down any request to connect unless it seems like it's a bot or something or a scam. Just find me on LinkedIn Rob Lillquist, I think it's a picture of me at a Ford plant with a rivet gun in the background. I'm wearing my green.

[00:38:14] MH: Green safety vest. Yup, absolutely. 

[00:38:16] RL: Yeah. Very typical Ford engineer look and just talk to me on there.

[00:38:19] MH: Rob Lillquist, thank you so much for joining us today on the industrial movement. You have a great day.

[00:38:24] GS: Thank you.

[00:38:24] RL: Thank you.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[00:38:26] MH: Well, folks, that's it for this week's episode. Be sure to visit our website www.theindustrialmovement.com to view today's show notes and get more golden nuggets of value that we have collected from manufacturing and industrial professionals in our archived episodes. On our website, you can also sign up for our newsletter and find links to join the Industrial Movement Community on Facebook.

The Industrial Movement podcast is where we discuss the people, the process, and the equipment that drives American manufacturing. I'm your host Morty Hodge, wishing you great success.

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