Making Innovations Customer-Focused
In early 2006, Bill Ford challenged the Company to deliver innovations in three key areas: design, safety and sustainability. These three pillars of innovation are intended to guide the work of Ford's researchers and engineers in areas that make our customers' lives better, make our products more successful and improve our business and our world. Since then, Ford has announced major technology innovations that will be available on new vehicles in the near term. These announcements are only a small portion of the development work that is underway to deliver innovations that improve our customers' lives.
In the area of design, Ford has reinvigorated its execution of "bold American design," as illustrated by the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers, and the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ sedans. In addition, we are actively pursuing design and information technology breakthroughs that will bring new levels of customer enjoyment and functionality. For example, at the 2007 North American International Auto Show in January, Ford announced a partnership with Microsoft to deliver a whole new level of in-car connectivity, efficiency and functionality. Called "Sync," this factory-installed communications and entertainment system will allow drivers to integrate digital music players and cell phones into their vehicles and operate them through voice activation and the radio and steering wheel controls. Perhaps most important, in this time of rapid innovation, Sync technology can be upgraded as cell phone and music-player technology advances. Sync will be launched in the fall of 2007 on 12 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models: the 2008 Edge, Explorer, Five Hundred, Focus, Freestyle, Fusion, Milan, MKX, MKZ, Montego, Mountaineer and SportTrac.
In the area of sustainability, the innovation pillars guide researchers and engineers to improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions, increase the use of recycled, renewable and recyclable materials, improve in-vehicle air quality, and generally reduce the environmental footprint of our vehicles. We are working to advance our sustainable product metrics to require vehicle program teams to meet even more specific and strict environmental performance requirements at every milestone in vehicle development. In addition, sustainability issues are an important consideration in our new product development process. Every year, we perform an "external factors review" as part of our process for deciding what products we will make and what new technologies we will introduce. For the past four years, we have included an in-depth review of environmental technologies, competitor actions and trends in consumer demand for environmentally and socially responsible products as a key part of this process. This is one more way in which we are driving sustainability into our innovation process and the development of all our new products. For other innovations in product sustainability, please see the Sustainable Mobility Technologies section.
