P2-Opti

Initial Situation

The P2-Opti project represents a product and production optimization under consideration of the entire powertrain life cycle. Due to the strong trend towards global production networks, more and more parts of the value chain are being relocated to non-European countries. With P2-Opti, the attractiveness of Europe as a production location should be increased through applications of Industry 4.0 in the automotive industry. The approach of digitalizing the entire life cycle ranges from the development through the production to the operating phase. The contributions of the IIM Institute focus on the two work packages “Combined Systems and Cost Engineering” and “Improvement of Product and Production Agility”.

Goal

The three main goals of the P2-Opti project are:

• Reduction of time to market (TTC) and total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Improvement of the quality of the automotive powertrain
• Refinement of the interfaces between development, production and operation, taking into account the requirements of the legislator, the manufacturer and the end customer

Procedure

Based on shortened product life cycles, an increasing number of customized products and variants, and other causes, the automotive industry is currently experiencing a phase of extreme uncertainty. Especially in the early development phase, this makes it difficult to estimate relevant factors such as TCO for a meaningful evaluation of different concepts. Approaches of Systems Engineering, which provides methods for the break-down of vehicle targets into system and component targets, support design decisions to best meet the identified requirements. In this context, the work package "Combined Systems and Cost Engineering" deals with the development of a method for a holistic analysis and evaluation of function-oriented powertrain configurations in the early development phase. The aim is to reduce TCO through appropriate design decisions and to increase its prediction accuracy.

Nowadays, many products are influenced by uncertainties during their entire life cycle (development, production, operation, end of life). Coping with the resulting changes can only be guaranteed by the right product design. Therefore, the work package "Improvement of Product and Production Agility" deals with the development of a design guideline for technical products in the automotive industry to enable successfully coping with uncertainties during the entire life cycle. A main focus lies on agile manufacturing, which describes the capability of companies to proactively prepare for uncertainties and thus, to react quickly to changes. Considering the entire value chain, this approach makes it possible to exploit opportunities and avoid risks in order to improve the economic situation of the whole company. To adapt to fluctuations in market demand, agility levers are used in various areas of the company. This should shorten the reaction time of companies to adapt production to changes in demand or product design. For more information about agility we refer to the book "Erfolgsfaktor Agilität – Chancen für Unternehmen in einem volatilen Marktumfeld" by Prof. Ramsauer, Dr. Detlef Kayer and Dr. Christoph Schmitz.

Project period: May 2017 – April 2021

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Publications

Lukas A., Moerth-Teo O., Schwarz L., Schnöll H. P., Wolf M., Ramsauer C. (2021): Agile Powertrain Development: Considerations to Incorporate Agile Principles, MDPI – Designs 5(4), Pages 1-19, doi.org/10.3390/designs5040060
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Moerth-Teo O., Weger F., Ramsauer C. (2021): Design for Agile Manufacturing: Product Design Principles that Enhance Agile Manufacturing of Powertrain Systems, Journal of Industrial and Intelligent Information 9(1), Pages 7-14, doi.org/10.18178/jiii.9.1.7-14
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Röhrenbacher S., Mörth-Teo O., Schwarz L., Schnöll H. P., Ramsauer C. (2021): Product Cost Estimation in the early Development Phases – The Case of Powertrain Systems and Battery Packs, Resource Efficient Vehicles Conference, Pages 1-8
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Mörth-Teo O., Schwarz L., Ramsauer C. (2020): Design for Lifecycle-Flexibility: Design objectives that enhance coping with uncertainties throughout product lifecycles, Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services, Pages 1-8, dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3717706

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Mörth O., Hulla M., Ramsauer C. (2020): Erfolgsfaktor Agilität in der digitalen Transformation, Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb 115 (1-2), Pages 40-43, doi.org/10.3139/104.112208