Hitting Design Targets Up-Front
Global automotive manufacturers face increasing pressure from government regulations and consumers to improve the efficiency of their products and reduce particulate and greenhouse gas emissions. This is driving the need for diesel, electric, and hybrid power trains, continuous improvement in aerodynamic efficiency, and reductions in vehicle weight. Consumers demand improved quality and durability — without any compromise to innovative and emotionally expressive designs. Manufacturers must offer a broader array of vehicles for different niche customer segments and geographies with wider ranges of operating conditions, on a faster design refresh schedule than in the past.
These goals often conflict, requiring automotive manufacturers to make careful trade-offs of competing values. Thus, the automotive designer’s task is not to create the most attractive, fastest, quietest, or fuel-efficient car, but rather a car that sufficiently satisfies the design preferences, and functional and quality expectations of its target customer; offers fuel efficiency within a desired target range; and can be brought to market on time at an acceptable profit. This need to optimize the balance of industrial design, performance factors, cost, and process efficiencies is a continual challenge for the automotive industry.