Analyzing the Impact of Technological Change on Ford Motor Company

This project analyzes the impact of technological advancements on Ford Motor Company's success. The research focuses on the role of information and communication technology in the automobile industry, evaluating technologies such as Ford Freedom Fabrication Technology (F3T), Oculus Rift headset technology, VR technology, and CAD. The study investigates their influence on staff productivity, economies of scale, competitive strength, and market share. The research utilizes secondary data from sources like Ford's website, industry reports, and academic journals to assess the benefits and challenges of technological implementation, including high costs and a skilled workforce shortage. The key question is whether technological advancements contribute to sustainable growth for Ford in the US automotive industry. The project also mentions the use of search terms in Google Scholar to select relevant literature from 2008 onwards.

IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE ON ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS

(A) In the competitive world, businesses are really facing immense competition from the rivalries and information technology plays an important role in promoting business success. Investment in new equipment, latest
technologies, IT processes helps automobile companies to maximize operational efficiency and contributes towards goal achievement. The proposed research aims to evaluate the role of technological advancement as
Ford Freedom Fabrication Technology (F3T), Oculus Rift headset technology, VR (Virtual Reality) technology, CAD (Computer aided design) applied by Australian automobile company, Ford Motor Corporation for
strengthening their competitive position & gain success.
(B) Flick (2015). The sources of secondary data for the chosen research field include http://www.ford.com/, https://corporate.ford.com/company.html,
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2013/07/03/ford-develops-advanced-technology-to-revolutionize-prototyping--.html and US Council for Automotive Research (USCAR)’s website of
http://www.uscar.org/guest/about that provides essential information about the auto industry to strengthen their technology base. Magazine, report published on Australian automotive industry by Federal Chambers of
Automotive Industries (FCAI) (https://www.fcai.com.au/library/publication/fcai6049_full_version_final_(2).pdf) will be accessed as publicly available secondary data set for deeply examining the research issue.
(C) The key goal of the research is to examine the impact of technological advancement on Ford Motor Company. To address the aim, the study will explore the role of Information & Communication Technology in
the automobile industry and evaluate the technological changes employed by Ford Motor Company in their operations. Besides this, study will investigate the impact of technologies i.e. Freedom Fabrication
Technology (F3T), Oculus Rift headset technology, VR (Virtual Reality) technology, CAD (Computer aided design on staff productivity, economies of scale, competitive strength, market share and other factors which
contributes in success. The study will also emphasizes upon the various difficulties that Ford Motor Corporation faces in technological implementation such as high cost, lack of talented pool in the firm. Thus, the key
question of the paper is to assess whether technological advancement in the US automotive industry contributes towards gaining sustainable growth by Ford Motor Company.
(D) The search terms that scholar will use in Google Scholar to select literature includes the terminology ”technological advancement”, “technological role”, “US automotive industry”, “ Virtual Reality technology”,
“Ford Freedom Fabrication Technology (F3T)” “Oculus Rift headset technology”, “Computer aided design” and others. In order to use latest data, scholar will only use all the secondary sources to 2008 onwards.
(E) Rothaermel (2016) and Gopal & Thakkar (2016) investigated that US manufacturing industry had faced tough times in the last few decades and technological changes made significant contribution in the
resurgence by maximizing staff productivity, boosting total output and promote saving through providing the benefits of economies of scale, in contrast, West (2016), argued that such changes do not help community
by job enlargement in the society by stating that during 2010 to 2016, in Australia, manufacturing industry has reported 10% to 20% growth in output, however increase in job were reported to 2%-5% only. Developer
(2015), US automotive companies started adopting newer technologies to address environmental concerns and promote efficiencies. For instance, replacement of internal combustion engine by electric vehicle is a
leading example of it, however, on the critical note, Otsuka & Natsuda (. 2016) and Luthra & et.al. (2014) commented that high cost and unavailability of competent professional, experienced and expert workforce
pose threat for the technological implementation.
REFERENCES
Books and journals
Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research project. Sage.
Gopal, P. R. C., & Thakkar, J. (2016). Sustainable supply chain practices: an empirical investigation on Indian automobile industry. Production Planning & Control, 27(1), 49-64.
Luthra, S., & et.al. (2014). Identification of critical success factors to achieve high green supply chain management performances in Indian automobile industry. International Journal of Logistics Systems and
Management, 18(2), pp.170-199.
Otsuka, K., & Natsuda, K. (2016). The Determinants of Total Factor Productivity in the Malaysian Automotive Industry: Are Government Policies Upgrading Technological Capacity?. The Singapore Economic
Review, 61(04), 1550046.
Rothaermel, F. T. (2016). Competitive Advantage in Technology Intensive Industries. In Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 14(3), pp. 233-256.
Schwab, K. (2017). The fourth industrial revolution. Crown Business.
Online
Developer, I. (2015). New Technology Impacting the Automotive Industry. [Online]. Available through: http://www.optalert.com/news/new-technology-impacting-the-automotive-industry. [Accessed on 3rd August
2017].
West, M. D. (2016). [Online]. Available through: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/06/02/how-technology-is-changing-manufacturing/. [Accessed on 3rd August 2017].
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