From: RobertB 

In article ,
 "Rich Gauszka"  wrote:

> from the assembly line to the office staff -
>
> http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/12/19/miniford/index.php
> If you've driven a Ford lately, chances are a Mac mini deserves some of the
> credit. Ford Motor's contractor has installed the Apple-made computers in
> two of the automaker's northern Indiana factories as part of a sequencing
> solution to boost assembly line efficiency.
>
> "Mac minis are cost effective and they are reliable
machines," said Jonathan
> Schalliol, vice president of business development and chief financial
> officer of Information in Place. The Bloomington, Ind.-based company is
> responsible for the development and installation of the Mac minis in Ford's
> plants. "We did a lot of research and determined they were the
best deal."
>
> ...
>
> A total of 14 Mac minis running on Intel Core Solo chips have been
> operational at the plants since early November, helping Ford assemble 800
> cars a day. So far, everything is working perfectly, according to Schalliol.
>
> As a result of the testing to put this project together, Schalliol said most
> of the people at his company, including the office staff, are now using
> Macs. For those that need Windows, the company has purchased the Parallels
> Desktop for Mac virtualization software.
>
> Ford is not the only company to benefit from the research and development
> that Information in Place has done. Schalliol said his company plans to
> bring the hardware/software combination to other outfits in the next year.

I wonder what they're using them for (at Ford, that is)? I would have
thought they used PLCs on the assembly line.

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