Ford Accelerates Engineering Efficiency with Aqira for Road Load Data Management

Ford uses Aqira, a cloud-ready platform that streamlines workflows, boosts traceability, and automates processes for major efficiency gains.

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Ford sought to modernize its long-serving Corporate Road Loads system to meet evolving IT security standards and engineering demands for flexibility, faster data access, and richer insights - while managing over 8 terabytes of critical global test data.

Aqira delivers a cloud-ready, configurable platform for test data management. It streamlines search, enriches metadata, and enables engineers to customize workflows and integrate analysis directly within the system - reducing manual steps and improving adaptability for future needs

Ford anticipates major efficiency gains: faster data retrieval, improved traceability, and automation of routine processes. Aqira’s engineer-focused design empowers teams to mold the system to their needs, reducing reliance on IT and accelerating decision-making globally.

Addressing the Challenge of Accurate Testing for Autonomous EV Components

Ford’s Corporate Road Loads (CORL) system, based on nCode Automation, had supported engineering teams for over 20 years but could not meet future cloud technology and security requirements and was reaching end of life. While functional, it lacked flexibility for new data types such as CAN signals and made navigation difficult within a vast data store (over 8 terabytes) especially for users who didn’t know exactly what they were looking for. Aqira addresses these limitations by delivering a streamlined, customizable search experience and enriched metadata, allowing engineers to efficiently locate and retrieve data in meaningful formats. This positions Ford to unlock greater insights and efficiencies as part of its next-generation engineering workflows

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Configurable Test Data Management Using Aqira

HBK worked with Ford to automatically index existing data into Aqira, applying metadata tags to enable powerful downstream searching. Engineers can create their own analysis apps and standardize processes to convert measured time-series data into actionable metrics - such as cycle counting and frequency analysis. Aqira’s flexible architecture allows Ford’s teams to customize how data is retrieved and presented, and to integrate analysis workflows directly within the platform, eliminating time-consuming downloads and manual steps. HBK also supported production deployment by resolving technical requirements such as user authentication, Python repositories, and mounted data storage.

Empowering Ford’s Engineers to Maximize Value of Measured Data

While Aqira is in the final stages of production deployment, early feedback highlights its potential to significantly enhance metadata richness per test job, enabling powerful search, filtering, and automation capabilities. Looking ahead, Ford expects Aqira to deliver:

Dramatically improved search functionality for fast, intuitive data access.
Enhanced quality and traceability through richer metadata and configurable processes.
Time savings and process efficiencies by automating routine analysis tasks.
Flexible data output formats to meet diverse team and customer needs.
Simplifying upfront data work and reducing reliance on IT

Aqira has been an extremely positive experience for our engineering teams. It’s a solution built by engineers, for engineers, allowing us to shape the system to fit our workflows and reducing our reliance on IT support.

Dan Clatterbuck CAE/TEST Engineer at Ford Motor Company

With the proliferation of new vehicle platforms and model variations, the need for smarter testing through intelligent use of measured data has never been greater. Aqira is helping Ford deliver greater efficiencies and insights through data management intelligence.