Adding Value Through Predictive Analysis 2000-01-0318

Cost and time to market drive emerging technologies in vehicle development, as noted in current thrusts in the instrument panel systems design arena.

The current technology for performance evaluation is to bench mark, or tear down, a commercial vehicle. From this study, desired architecture and systems definition are determined. Variants in design which have potential cost or performance benefits are often developed and tested. These benchmarks, although required to determine the system performance of potential future designs, are costly. A more effective method to develop the lowest cost instrument panel system is found in the use of predictive analysis. These performance simulations comprehend functional and structural response to inputs as well as the aged systems performance. Once the model has been correlated to system test protocols, variations in design can be made in the computer and may be reviewed for the performance trends with a high degree of confidence. This eliminates the costly cut, paste, and test method of instrument panel systems development.