Electronics may be responsible for about 90 per cent of innovation in automobiles, but they also provide vehicle makers with their biggest challenge 3 keeping up with innovation in consumer electronics. The success of Apple’s iPod was one such challenge. Customers were asking how they could connect these tiny digital music players to their cars’ audio systems.

Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems have been standard for years, but the latest developments in digital technology are revolutionising motor vehicle design, manufacture, retailing and capabilities in ways that could only be hinted at by earlier, simpler systems.

The most popular CAD and CAM systems are now well established and have become critical elements of product life-cycle management software. PLM software includes CAD and CAM, tool design and manufacture, digital manufacturing, supply chain management and workflow management. Primary manufacturers and component suppliers are modelling products in three dimensions using software before building physical prototypes. The ideal is to have a single digital mock-up of the vehicle to be used as the ‘blueprint’ by all suppliers. ‘If you have many subcontractors and they are all producing prototype parts for your vehicle and you change an important part, how many will be affected and have to go back and re-engineer their part’, he asks. ‘If you can minimise that by using the digital model at the prototyping stage you can reduce costs. As soon as you go to hard prototyping, things slow down and costs rise.’

John Deere, the US maker of agricultural and other heavy equipment, is experimenting, in conjunction with the Iowa State University, with haptics, a technology that enables a user to ‘feel’ the experience of assembling and disassembling heavy components. Users hold a kind of motor-driven stylus, made by SensAble Technologies of Woburn, Massachusetts, in each hand while looking at 3D images of the components on a computer screen. When the two parts are put together, the user ‘feels’ the collision through the stylii.

The modern manufacturing line itself is significantly more flexible than in the past, turning out a cabriolet one moment, a van the next. This leads to complex logistics issues, as supplies of doors, wheels and other components have to be ready to be fitted to the correct vehicle. Barcoded adhesive labels are currently used to identify components but these can become dirty or scratched. Instead, Powerlase, a UK company, uses solid state lasers to engrave barcodes directly on to aluminium, and galvanised and stainless steel.

QUESTIONS

1. How would you categorise the key benefits of using electronic-related innovations in car manufacturing?

2. Considering each of the categories in turn, investigate further some of the developments described in this case study. To what extent does each development benefit

(a) the manufacturer and

(b) the manufacturer’s suppliers, and

(c) the end customer.