It was a letter to all Ford production suppliers from an Executive Director at Ford. It was an attachment to an email that was sent in their usual "bulletin" manner. By that I mean, if you are the contact person for, say, Engineering, you receive XYZ bulletins or if you use ABC application you automatically receive bulletin notifications via email on anything ABC related. The bulletins are also on their portal where you view your metrics and you must read them and check a box stating you've read them. I checked one of them (their have been a few) and none appear "controlled". Then we received a direct email from a Ford employee with the title: Battery-Powered Electric Vehicle (BEV) Strategy Lead Hololenses Gatekeeper Industry 4.0 asking if we'd fulfilled the requirement yet. In his email he states: Just as a reminder, iphone is not allowed or not considered as XR or VR. There is a list (Please see PDF from initial mail).
I don't know if it was my title or which application I use that got me this email bulletin. Presumably because it's my name as the submitter of the MSA. But I'm guessing other titles and applications are included.
So, the bulletin didn't specify you can't use the phone, but it did say it must be on the list (and phones are not). The MSA requirement details state the device must be approved by Ford. Plus, when we asked for a waiver, we did say we have laptop, phone, etc. capability so they'd still be able to have remote / virtual access to our facility. In the MSA you need to provide evidence that you're meeting the requirement. If I responded that we plan or are meeting the requirement via a mobile phone, they would reject the response based on the fact that those are not on the approved hardware/software list.
So, yeah, we've tried the route you're suggesting. Doesn't appear to be any way around it. Either we comply as they want us to or it's considered not complying. But they can't or won't or don't explain why it HAS to be a HoloLens or equivalent. (We've asked repeatedly.) Just that it does.
I don't know if it was my title or which application I use that got me this email bulletin. Presumably because it's my name as the submitter of the MSA. But I'm guessing other titles and applications are included.
So, the bulletin didn't specify you can't use the phone, but it did say it must be on the list (and phones are not). The MSA requirement details state the device must be approved by Ford. Plus, when we asked for a waiver, we did say we have laptop, phone, etc. capability so they'd still be able to have remote / virtual access to our facility. In the MSA you need to provide evidence that you're meeting the requirement. If I responded that we plan or are meeting the requirement via a mobile phone, they would reject the response based on the fact that those are not on the approved hardware/software list.
So, yeah, we've tried the route you're suggesting. Doesn't appear to be any way around it. Either we comply as they want us to or it's considered not complying. But they can't or won't or don't explain why it HAS to be a HoloLens or equivalent. (We've asked repeatedly.) Just that it does.