Aston Martin is a well-known name in Formula One racing. Its racing team knows that speed is the name of the game, and the team is using data to increase vehicle performance.

In fact, it’s now using the IFS Cloud to increase the speed of data capture, according to Sioned Edwards (pictured, left), IT business partner for the Aston Martin F1 team.

“A Formula One car that drives out of the garage is made up of 13,000 car parts, 50% of which we’ve made in house, so we have to track that all the way through from the smallest metallic component all the way up to the most complex assembly,” Edwards pointed out. “Time is our currency, and if we go quicker in designing and manufacturing, which IFS supports, ultimately the car is quicker, so speed is everything.”

Edwards and Christian Pedersen (pictured, right), chief product officer of IFS AB, spoke with theCUBE industry analyst Lisa Martin at IFS Unleashed, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio.  They discussed how Aston Martin uses IFS Cloud to gain a competitive edge in Formula One, where speed is paramount. (* Disclosure below.)

How to manage 10,000 sensors housed in an F1 car

By bringing together traditional software categories, such as employee assistance programs, field service management and enterprise asset management solutions, IFS Cloud is transformational, according to Pedersen. As a result, it is able to seamlessly capture data from more than 10,000 sensors found in an F1 car.

“It’s fascinating with Formula One; it’s really just any other business on steroids,” he stated. “Over 10,000 sensors that streams maybe at 50 hertz or 50 readings, so every lap you just get this mountain of data, which is really IoT. So, I always say F1 did IoT before anybody invented the term. You know, F1 did machine learning and AI before anybody thought about it in terms of pattern recognition and things like that with the data.”

IFS has played an instrumental role in enabling Aston Martin to track car parts, Edwards pointed out. It was previously quite challenging based on the lack of an ERP system.

“Aston Martin didn’t have an ERP system pre-IFS or a legacy system that wasn’t working for them, and the team couldn’t rely upon it. So what we did was bring IFS in,” she said. “We’ve implemented a fully ERP solution to manage the production control and the material traceability all the way through from design until delivery to track. And we’ve most recently implemented a warehouse solution at trackside as well.”

There is no moving deadline in Formula One because not getting it right means the car does not hit the track, Edwards pointed out. As a result, Aston Martin is eyeing a smart factory as it quadruples its footprint.

“In terms of the smart factory, it’s not built yet,” she noted. “We’re supposed to move next year. What we’re going to start looking at is using the technology, so enabling 5G to springboard our IFS implementations going forward with the likes of internet of things to connect our 15 brand new CMC machines, but also things like mRFID.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IFS Unleashed event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the IFS Unleashed event. Neither IFS AB, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE