Automotive Product Development

This book is about how to develop future automotive products by applying the latest methodologies based on a systems engineering approach and by taking into account many issues facing the auto industry such as meeting government safety, emissions and fuel economy regulations, incorporating advances in new technology applications in structural materials, power trains, vehicle lighting systems, displays and telematics, and satisfying the very demanding customer. It is financially disastrous for any automotive company to create a vehicle that very few people want. To design an automotive product that will be successful in the marketplace requires carefully orchestrated teamwork of experts from many disciplines, substantial amount of resources, and application of proven techniques at the right time during the product development process. Automotive Product Development: A Systems Engineering Implementation is intended for company management personnel and graduate students in engineering, business management and other disciplines associated with the development of automotive and other complex products.

Motivated by Toyota's product development capabilities, Daniel Sörensen examines the question of how much to invest in pursuing parallel design alternatives. A real option to switch is modeled accounting for interproject correlations. Based upon economic theory, five principles for value-maximizing the product development process are presented.

The global crisis the automotive industry has slipped into over the second half of 2008 has set a fierce spotlight not only on which cars are the right ones to bring to the market but also on how these cars are developed. Be it OEMs developing new models, suppliers integerating themselves deeper into the development processes of different OEMs, analysts estimating economical risks and opportunities of automotive investments, or even governments creating and evaluating scenarios for financial aid for suffering automotive companies: At the end of the day, it is absolutely indispensable to comprehensively understand the processes of auto- tive development – the core subject of this book. Let’s face it: More than a century after Carl Benz, Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler developed and produced their first motor vehicles, the overall concept of passenger cars has not changed much. Even though components have been considerably optimized since then, motor cars in the 21st century are still driven by combustion engines that transmit their propulsive power to the road s- face via gearboxes, transmission shafts and wheels, which together with spri- damper units allow driving stability and ride comfort. Vehicles are still navigated by means of a steering wheel that turns the front wheels, and the required control elements are still located on a dashboard in front of the driver who operates the car sitting in a seat.

Software-Hardware Integration in Automotive Product Development brings together a must-read set of technical papers on one the most talked-about subjects among industry experts The carefully selected content of this book demonstrates how leading companies, universities, and organizations have developed methodologies, tools, and technologies to integrate, verify, and validate hardware and software systems. The automotive industry is no different, with the future of its product development lying in the timely integration of these chiefly electronic and mechanical systems. The integration activities cross both product type and engineering discipline boundaries to include chip-, embedded board-, and network/vehicle-level systems. Integration, verification, and validation of each of these three domains are examined in depth, attesting to the difficulties of this phase of the automotive hardware and software system life cycle. The current state of the art is to integrate, verify, validate, and test automotive hardware and software with a complement of physical hardware and virtual software prototyping tools. The growth of sophisticated software tools, sometimes combined with hardware-in-the-loop devices, has allowed the automotive industry to meet shrinking time-to-market, decreasing costs, and increasing safety demands. It is also why most of the papers in this book focus on virtual systems, prototypes, and models to emulate and simulate both hardware and software. Further, such tools and techniques are the way that hardware and software systems can be “co-verified” and tested in a concurrent fashion. The goal of this compilation of expert articles is to reveal the similarities and differences between the integration, verification, and validation (IVV) of hardware and software at the chip, board, and network levels. This comparative study will reveal the common IVV thread among the different, but ultimately related, implementations of hardware and software systems. In so doing, it supports the larger systems engineering approach for the vertically integrated automobile—namely, that of model-driven development.

The automotive industry faces constant pressure to reduce development costs and time while still increasing vehicle quality. To meet this challenge, engineers and researchers in both science and industry are developing effective strategies and flexible tools by enhancing and further integrating powerful, computer-aided design technology. This book provides a valuable overview of the development tools and methods of today and tomorrow. It is targeted not only towards professional project and design engineers, but also to students and to anyone who is interested in state-of-the-art computer-aided development. The book begins with an overview of automotive development processes and the principles of virtual product development. Focusing on computer-aided design, a comprehensive outline of the fundamentals of geometry representation provides a deeper insight into the mathematical techniques used to describe and model geometrical elements. The book then explores the link between the demands of integrated design processes and efficient data management. Within automotive development, the management of knowledge and engineering data plays a crucial role. Some selected representative applications provide insight into the complex interactions between computer-aided design, knowledge-based engineering and data management and highlight some of the important methods currently emerging in the field.

The ability to bring new and innovative products to market rapidly is the prime critical competence for any successful consumer-driven company. All industries, especially automotive, are slashing product development lead times in the current hyper-competitive marketplace. This book is the first to thoroughly examine and analyze the truly effective product development methodology that has made Toyota the most forward-thinking company in the automotive industry. Winner of the 2007 Shingo Prize For Excellence In Manufacturing Research! In The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process, and Technology, James Morgan and Jeffrey Liker compare and contrast the world-class product development process of Toyota with that of a U.S. competitor. They use extensive examples from Toyota and the U.S. competitor to demonstrate value stream mapping as an extraordinarily powerful tool for continuous improvement. Through examples and case studies, this book illustrates specific techniques and proven practices for dealing with challenges associated with product development, such as synchronizing multiple disciplines, multiple function workload leveling, compound process variation, effective technology integration, and knowledge management. Readers of this book can focus on optimizing the entire product development value stream rather than focus on a specific tool or technology for local improvements.

This book is the culmination of six years of research conducted at the Harvard Business School on how different manufacturing firms around the world approach the development of new products. Its principal focus is the impact of strategy, organization, and management on this critical component of business strategy.

The evolution and execution of automotive manufacturing are explored in this fundamental manual. It is an excellent reference for entry level manufacturing engineers and also serves as a training guide for nonmanufacturing professionals. The book covers the major areas of vehicle assembly manufacturing and addresses common approaches and procedures of the development process. Having held positions as both a University Professor and as a Lead Engineering Specialist in industry, the author draws on his experience in both theory and application to fill the gap between academic research and industrial practices. This concisely written, comprehensive review discusses the sophisticated principles and concepts of automotive manufacturing from development to applications and includes: 250 illustrations and 90 tables. End-of-chapter review questions. Research topics for in-depth case studies, literature reviews, and/or course projects. Analytical problems for additional practice. Directly extracted and summarized from automotive manufacturing practices, this book serves as an essential manual. The subject is complemented by the author’s first book, Automotive Vehicle Assembly Processes and Operations Management, which provides even greater depth to the complex endeavor of modern automotive manufacturing.