In early 2005, Bill Ford introduced the Piquette Project, an internal "think tank" focused on developing mobility product and service ideas that maximize the use of cradle-to-cradle materials, eliminate emissions and even change the whole model for how transportation is designed, manufactured, bought and sold. After two years of intensive, cross-functional efforts protected from the distractions of day-to-day operations, ideas from the Piquette Project are now being integrated into Company-wide strategic planning and product development activities. We determined that it made more sense to incorporate the philosophy and work of Piquette into our Company-wide activities rather than have Piquette continue as a stand-alone operation.
The project was named for the Piquette Plant, where Henry Ford and a team of his best thinkers developed the idea for the Model T and the moving assembly line. The Piquette team, which included representatives from Sustainable Mobility Technologies, Sustainable Business Strategies, Marketing, Design, Engineering and Research, was given two years of freedom to study trends and technologies and develop "white space" ideas. They were asked, "if you could develop a completely sustainable mobility product, what would it be, how would you make it, how would you sell it and who would you sell it to?" The primary limitation on their thinking was the requirement that they not create a "science project" or concept car that would never see real consumers or impact Company-wide activities. From the beginning, Piquette was intended to have real-world results that could be integrated into the Company's daily business.
The Piquette team explored opportunities for making a completely closed-loop vehicle, made entirely from renewable, recyclable, recycled and reusable materials and components. They explored new ways to power vehicles that would be completely renewable and result in no polluting emissions. And they explored entirely new business models for providing personal mobility, including new approaches to product development, manufacturing and product ownership.
The project has been a great success in building key relationships across the Company that will foster the implementation of sustainable product opportunities more quickly and effectively. And after two years of intensive work, the Piquette ideas and philosophy are being integrated into Company-wide activities. For example, the team succeeded in accelerating work on closed-loop materials, allowing us to implement many new applications of recycled, recyclable and renewable materials in production vehicles in the near future. In addition, a global team of engineers, designers and advanced product planners are working on developing rigorous sustainable product metrics that can be implemented across Ford's global operations. Realizing that what gets measured gets done, the Piquette team identified this as a key enabler to developing more sustainable products. Also, the Piquette ideas are feeding into our emerging markets strategy, including our new approach to creating mobility products and services for developing-market consumers.
