Two Industrial Giants, One Modular Challenge
Ford and Johnson Controls operate in very different arenas – automotive and building technologies – but they are wrestling with the same underlying challenge. Both must decarbonize, cut costs and respond faster to volatile demand, without losing control of complexity. Both are now betting on modular systems as the backbone of that change.
When large incumbents rebuild platforms, products and factories around modularity, it stops being an abstract architecture debate. It becomes a strategic bet that can either unlock reuse and speed – or lock in a new generation of complexity.
Defining a “Good” Modular System: Scope, Lifespan, Effort
What is then important is to define what actually makes a modular system good. In practice, a good modular system is one that balances three factors over time: scope, lifespan and effort.
- Scope – how much of the portfolio the system truly covers, across products, variants, plants and markets.
- Lifespan – how long the architecture stays relevant as technologies, customer needs and regulations change, without requiring fundamental rework.
- Effort – the real cost and complexity of creating and maintaining the system, visible in part numbers, interfaces, engineering hours and project lead times.
A modular system earns its place when broad scope and long life clearly outweigh the effort it takes to build, operate and evolve it.
With that definition in mind, it becomes easier to see how different companies are using modularity as a strategic lever. Two current examples – Ford in electric vehicles and Johnson Controls in cold-chain and building systems – illustrate how scope, lifespan and effort play out in practice, and where the real architectural bets are being made.
Ford’s Universal EV Bet: One Platform, Many Vehicles
Cutting Parts, Rebuilding the Factory
Ford’s electric-vehicle business has struggled to reach sustainable profitability. In response, the company has announced a Universal EV Platform and Universal EV Production System as the foundation for a new midsize electric pickup and a family of affordable EVs.
The scope ambition is clear: one battery-electric platform to support multiple body styles, using common underpinnings and software-defined features to reduce variation in engineering and materials.
On the effort side, Ford is not just changing the car – it is changing the factory. The Universal EV Production System moves from a traditional linear line to an “assembly tree” with three sub-lines building large front, rear and center modules in parallel before marrying them to a structural battery pack. The goal is significantly fewer parts and fasteners, fewer workstations and a meaningful reduction in assembly time per vehicle.
Heavy investments in key plants and battery facilities turn this into a lifespan bet. The economics only work if the platform carries several generations of vehicles and battery technology, not a single model wave. [1] [2]
Johnson Controls and the Modular Cold Chain
Long-Life Hardware, Fast-Changing Rules
Johnson Controls, a Fortune 500 leader in smart buildings and industrial refrigeration, is applying similar thinking in food and beverage manufacturing.
Here, scope means covering the entire cold chain – blast freezers, process cooling, cold rooms and logistics hubs – with a configurable kit of compressor packages, heat exchangers and skid-based systems instead of bespoke one-offs at every site. Common control concepts and templates allow multi-site food producers to roll out proven configurations at scale.
The lifespan challenge looks different but is just as sharp. Refrigeration assets often run for decades while refrigerant rules, energy prices and food-safety standards change much faster. By combining long-life mechanical modules with a digital control and analytics layer that can be updated independently, Johnson Controls is designing for regulatory and technology change without constantly rebuilding plants.
Prefabricated skids and standardized control strategies directly address effort: less project-specific engineering, faster commissioning and a smaller universe of parts and interfaces to manage across a network of factories.[3] [4] [5]
What Good Modular Systems Demand from Leaders
Seen through the lens of scope, lifespan and effort, Ford and Johnson Controls illustrate what “good modular” demands from leadership:
- Design for real scope – one platform for many products, not a platform that silently shrinks with every exception.
- Protect lifespan by isolating change – put fast-moving elements like software, batteries and refrigerants in modules that can evolve without rewriting the whole system.
- Measure effort and complexity over time – track part numbers, interfaces and engineering hours across the life of the system, not just the first launch.
Organizations that take these questions seriously turn modularity into a structural advantage. Those that do not risk creating the next complexity trap, just in a more modern package.
Want to Go Deeper? Rethink Your Own Modular System
To explore these ideas in more detail – including how to quantify scope, lifespan and effort for your own portfolios – see “What is a Good Modular System?”, which unpacks the framework and outlines how to design modular systems that actually earn their keep over time.
References
[1] "Ford Wants to Beat China With Its Universal EV Platform" https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2025/ford-reinvents-vehicle-assembly-new-production-system-platform?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://insideevs.com/news/768591/ford-universal-ev-platform-explained
[2] "Ford is Reinventing Vehicle Assembly and Why America Should Care" https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2025/ford-reinvents-vehicle-assembly-new-production-system-platform
[3] "JOHNSON CONTROLS TO SHOWCASE SMART AND SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR FOOD & BEVERAGE SECTOR AT GULFOOD MANUFACTURING 2025"
https://www.manufacturingtomorrow.com/news/2025/10/27/johnson-controls-to-showcase-smart-and-sustainable-solutions-for-food-beverage-sector-at-gulfood-manufacturing-2025/26342/
[4] "Frick by Johnson Controls"
https://www.johnsoncontrols.com/industrial-refrigeration/frick
[5] "Johnson Controls Earns Spot on Fortune’s 2025 Change the World List for Breakthrough in Data Centre Thermal Tech"
https://www.johnsoncontrols.co.uk/insights/2025/feature-story/change-the-world
