Lanner’s and Ford’s Digital Twin Successes Cemented with Industry Recognition Award

Lanner’s and Ford’s digital twin successes cemented with industry recognition 'Top 100 Influencer' title for Ford’s Michael Higgins

Ground-breaking work delivered through a pioneering partnership between predictive simulation specialists, Lanner, and leading automotive manufacturer, Ford, has led to yet another success.

Lanner have helped Ford achieve multi-million pound savings, thanks to its pioneering WITNESS digital twin software, for almost four decades.

And last week, all of the achievements that have been delivered so far were further recognised, when Michael Higgins, Ford’s simulation technical expert, was named as one of  The Manufacturer’s Top 100 influencers.

Since joining Ford, Michael has successfully extended simulation capabilities across 8 plants around the world, creating and delivering a change programme including training, mentoring and support. By sharing his knowledge and techniques, Michael continues to drive the adoption of simulation technology via ensuring best practise techniques are employed while measuring the success of the applications. Within a UK plant, his approach has led to a 4% increase in production and an impressive 9% in South Africa.

Michael is also committed to helping others, collaborating with University students, bridging the gap between academia and commercial businesses, mentoring them through their projects, inspiring the future of UK manufacturing.

The Manufacturer Top 100 publicly recognises the heroes of UK manufacturing, those who stand out for their contribution to changing the face of industry; finding new markets; making a marked investment in people, processes, technology and customers, or for making an impact disproportionate to their years.

Michael says: “Software underpinned by Lanner’s WITNESS predictive simulation software, and a talented team, have enabled us to cover more ground and develop a bigger and more detailed picture of actions and consequences than ever before. Advanced modelling, as well as simulation question-and-answers, now work hand-in-hand, allowing us to generate significant cost savings.”

“I’m delighted to have been recognised as part of The Manufacturer Top 100 and am immensely proud of the simulation capability we now have. The fact it’s driven multi-million-pound savings in production programs across the world, is testament to the software capability and how we’ve used it.”

Lanner CEO David Jones said: “Michael is a real credit to Ford’s PTME team; his drive and ambition to continue to push the boundaries and achieve greater efficiencies through even more innovative and game-changing uses of predictive digital twins is truly admirable. We’re delighted to have played a part in Ford’s simulation successes so far and are looking forward to further building on them over many more decades to come.” 

Ford's Michael Higgins and John Labrook.present at Lanner's 2018 Predictive Simulation Conference