| Reducing manufacturing costs is a challenge
at the best of times, but even more so when you’re involved in safety
systems. James Griffiths looks at ways to tackle the
issue
A radio that develops a fault is a nuisance. A safety system that fails
is an entirely different matter – customers trust manufacturers
with their life and wellbeing. Safety scares can destroy a company’s
reputation, but to remain competitive, OEMs must reduce costs everywhere
in the vehicle.
 One
way to do this is to integrate more electronic components together into
a single package. Clustering sensors that share information with several
systems is one option, and could extend to merging entire systems such
as anti-lock braking and electronic stability control (ESC).
The risk for OEMs doing this, however, is that they may become dependent
on a single supplier. “If you integrate everything you save money,
but the complexity of the part will mean you rely on the single supplier
able to produce it,” says Delphi’s chief engineer for safety
electronics Andreas Teurner.
OEMs tend to dislike this for two reasons. A highly integrated system
can be more difficult to adapt, and reliance on one supplier can make
it harder to take advantage of other opportunities to save cost, such
as when a new supplier wants to enter the market with lower prices.
Suppliers may also have issues with certain highly integrated approaches,
such as the single box solution that collaborative project Autosar is
working towards.
“The trend is in this direction,” says Teurner. “But
it requires a totally different business model. They’ll only be
developing the software – that’s a more difficult sell.”
This area will have to be addressed in the future, but are there are ways
to save cost that can be agreed on for the moment. Increased use of plastics
is one area where parts supplier Quadrant believes more can be done.
“Carbuilders have a steel-can-do-it-all mentality,” says Quadrant
CEO Peter van Damme. “It’s a safe option, but limits design
brings in more weight and metal prices are rising much faster than plastic.”
Van Damme says metal will always be needed for certain safety applications,
such as in the steering wheel where there is limited space to fit an airbag.
“But the number of areas where plastic can be used is growing, and
it also offers better flexibility for integration,” says van Damme.
“A snap clip for a steering wheel airbag costs nothing more once
you have the moulding tool, but in metal you have to bolt it in or weld
it on.”
Besides integrating parts, reducing weight and using cheaper materials,
reducing the number of parts used in a system can also produce important
savings – perhaps more so in terms of safety systems than any other
area.
This is because many safety systems are “secured” –
the main system, such as an occupant sensing system for the passenger
seat, will be backed up with additional failsafes. This is vital when
a system is introduced for the first time to market.
“This is unique to the field of safety,” says Teurner. “OEMs
and suppliers are very hesitant to go with ‘lean’ systems
into the market; they will make sure that the main system is backed up
by other sensors or signal processing units to make sure the systems operate
under all conditions in the right way.”
But if a new system has been on the market for a sustained period of time
and has proved its reliability, these extra sensors can be considered
for elimination.
When the systems mature, the result can be huge savings – one Euro
on a car that sells several million vehicles is significant. “But,”
says Teurner, “safety always comes first before you talk about cost.”
© Automotive Engineer, 2007 |
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