A New Holistic Approach for System-Level Development of Seat Features

System engineering-based approach is now ubiquitous in the automotive industry. It is a disciplined approach that ensures that targets are clearly defined and met through a structured and holistic approach. In this paper, we report an application of a systems engineering-based methodology for developing seating system features. It starts with a Business Requirement Document (BRD), which enlists the business requirements of a feature. We then developed a Logical Architecture Diagram (LAD) on a Simulink environment, which is an initial proposal for designing the logic to realize the desired functionality. As a next step, we perform Functional Failure Analysis (FFA) on the LAD to identify potential failure modes. We propose a few ways to mitigate the identified failures or modify the design so that these failures are rendered inconsequential to the end user. Based on the updated LAD, a System Requirement Document (SRD) is created, which contains all the requirements corresponding to the logic present in the LAD. Once the SRD has been prepared, the system-level test cases are created to validate each requirement on the system-level test rig, i.e., Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) rig. These test cases are authored using Keyword Driven Testing (KDT) methodology. The test cases are exhaustive to ensure that all the business requirements in the BRD are met. This approach offers multiple benefits, including a considerable reduction in failures at the test stage, re-usability of test cases across the vehicle programs, reduced development time, and satisfying the needs of all internal stakeholders.