The Ford Motor Company Advanced Engineering Center Paul E. Brey and Donald A. Williams Ford Motor Co. ABSTRACT The Ford Motor Company Advanced Engineering Center contains 100,000 square feet of sound and vibration laboratories, including full vehicle chassis dynamometers, povertrain dynamometers, and sound quality evaluation chambers. The facility houses the first U.S. All-Meel- Drive NVH Chassis Dynamometer (4 independent motor drive), the first U.S. All-MI-Drive NVH Powertrain Dynamometer (4 independent motor drive) and other unique elements, such as innovative wedge construction for the acoustic chambers. INTRODUCTION The Ford Motor Company Advanced Engineering Center (AEC) is a new facility located in Dearborn, Michigan. The AEC was constructed in the company's Henry and Edsel Ford Research & Engineering Center, a 500 acre technical complex which serves as the home for research and engineering efforts for the four U. S.-based Vehide Centers. The AEC houses 650 employees, who are dedicated to three vital functions: upfront, pre-program engineering work; nudeation and early staging efforts of collocated teams; and testing and analysis to reduce Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (M). The purpose of this paper is to describe the NVH capabilities contained within the building. As background, the upfront, pre-program groups perform much of the company's pre-program engineering simulation. From thermal management to crash modeling, the teams use computer simulation to anticipate and solve engineering issues early in the development process. The AEC testing capabilities are a tool used by these groups to support the generation and verification of the CAE models. Closely allied with the advanced engineering personnel, the AEC also serves as a nucleation site for new vehicle program teams. These cross-functional teams carry out the early long-lead development work for spfic vehides and indude members from different areas of the company: design, engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, body and assembly, finance, and others. These teams rely heavily upon the AEC lab facilities to perform benchmarking studies for target setting. HISTORY During November, 1989, the Board of Directors of Ford Motor Co. approved the concept of the Advanced Engineering Center by allocating funding to perform preliminary engineering for a new facility on a greenfield site. At this time, a project team was established to manage the program. The AEC program was managed by a dedicated collocated team which led the program from start to finish. The team included personnel from Ford Motor Co., Albert Kahn Associates (Architect Engineers), and Walbridge Aldinger (Construction Managers). In addition, many project suppliers worked as partners with the team to meet the speaalized requirements of the facility. The small project team relied upon larger advisory groups, which were composed of cross-fu&~onal company exprts not assigned full time to the project. A group was established for each area of testing capabilities, such as Powertrain MRI. The purpose of these groups was to identify the capabilities needed by the Company, to establish the performance requirements, and to participate in the value analysis processes which drove design and construction decisions. Funding for the $84 Million project was approved on June 14, 1990. Throughout the subsequent program, the project team was guided by the vision of a facility which would allow Ford to produce world dass vehides. As a result, the program emphasis was placed upon world dass testing and analysis capabilities. The support areas, Downloaded from SAE International by Purdue University, Tuesday, August 21, 2018I such as offices and meeting areas, wre designed to be The AEC main floor contains 100,000 fl? (9290 $) of pleasant in appearance, but at minimal expense. facilities, including full vehicle hemi-anechoic chassis dynamometers, powertrain