The funny part was that GM had a similar idea with the HEI module in the distributor, while Denso/Hitachi/NEC/Hitachi who supplied the Japanese either mounted the igniter to the coil or also integrated it to the distributor(Toyota and Honda I4s had the distributor, coil and igniter all in one).Ford, when they hired Team TFI engineers who figured a bunch of thin, laminated layers responsible for ignition and mounted in a hot area was a great idea.
Ford even managed to garner a lawsuit over the extraordinary design. I'm sure they were very proud of this accomplishment.
But the Ford modules tended to die sooner than the Delco or Denso/Hitachi/NEC ones.