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Remember that classic nineties movie Sneakers, where Robert Redford and friends are paid to break into banks and corporate headquarters to test company security? Well, this is that but with cars. Ford has a special so-called 'Gremlin Team' in place at its factory in Valencia which is tasked with making deliberate mistakes so that quality issues can be dealt with.
Xabier Garciandia's working day involves literally trying to put a spanner into the works of one of the world's most advanced auto plants - by making sure wrong parts and faulty components are secretly placed on the assembly line.
Ford's industry-first Vision System photographs, checks and tracks every single part of each of the 400,000 cars and vans assembled, and 330,000 engines built at the Ford Valencia plant each year. "Gremlin Tests" are an innovative way of ensuring that each process is working correctly.
"The Vision System is crucial to ensuring every single part of each vehicle is just right," said Garciandia, technical specialist, Valencia Engine Vision System, Ford of Europe. "The 'Gremlin Test' means we can ensure the system is working perfectly. It is a game with a very serious point; we are making them harder to spot all the time."
The factory builds the Mondeo, S-Max, Galaxy, Kuga and Transit Connect, so it's a critical plant for Ford. The camera system takes as many as one-billion images every two weeks (equivalent to the whole of Instagram, but with fewer photos of food) and these images can be closely compared to as to make sure that the right parts are reaching the right parts of the 34-stage assembly process.
"The way in which we all use digital cameras has totally changed the way we record our daily way of life, and is now transforming the way we build engines and cars," said Garciandia. "But we also have to test the tests, and we are doing this in a way that is very simple, but which we believe is unique in the auto industry."