To that end, the Ford EVDC currently has around 350 people working at Long Beach at any given time. Employees in outside offices that deal with manufacturing engineering and software, for example, bring the team size to around 480, but in Ford terms, that’s still a very small division.

4. A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided.

This is an interesting one. EVDC is extremely well-equipped with everything from three types of 3D printers to a CNC mill bigger than my first three apartments (including one just for shaping full-size clay models). This allows for rapid iteration and a simplified approval process without the need to send changed models and drawings off-site for manufacturing. Speed also comes from everyone being under one roof, preventing silos. All of that is in addition to a wood shop, a metals shop, and more. Even elements like seat design and patterning are done in-house.

5. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.

The less time you spend justifying your decisions to upper management, the more time you have to actually do the work.

6. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program.

This may seem like Project Management 101, but it goes beyond just budgeting time and money for the project’s development. Because the Universal Electric Vehicle is being designed to be as affordable as possible, constantly considering the effect of design decisions on cost is critical. This extends from material selection to making the seat mounting bolts face outward, speeding installation and reducing labor costs on the line. Ford is being relentless in this pursuit.

7. The contractor must be delegated and must assume more than normal responsibility to get good vendor bids for subcontract on the project. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones.

Modern manufacturing tech has largely made Johnson’s seventh rule irrelevant. Because EVDC is so vertically integrated, from computer design to clay models, rapid prototyping, assembly, and testing, the need for outside contractors has largely been eliminated.

8. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don’t duplicate so much inspection.

If we swap contractors for engineers, this rule becomes much more relevant to what Ford is trying to do. At EVDC, the teams are fully equipped with high-level test equipment, enabling them to validate designs before they ever leave the office. There is even a mock car made of 80/20 aluminum extrusions, used to lay out an entire wiring harness and everything that attaches to it, short of a battery pack. This allows the engineers to validate not only hardware, such as the in-house modules that make up UEV’s zonal architecture, but also the software.