Analytical Prototype Model Development - Continuous Model Build Approach

Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) has been widely utilized as an essential component of the product development phase in the automotive industry. Every successful automotive company has established its own design and development approach in order to build competitive, better and safer cars, in a more cost-effective manner. In an ever demanding automotive sector, every key player wants its products to be hitting the roads at shorter intervals but also develop them to be highly competitive. Ford product development processes define the multiple phases of the product development progression and timeline. For each of the phases, Vehicle CAE models are built to assess Vehicle NVH / Durability/ Safety/ Thermal & Aero and other performances. The design level of the input data and the data availability timings, to build the Vehicle CAE models, play a significant role in determining the quality and timing of the product development progression. Much attention is focused on making Ford product development timings competitive and best in the Industry. “Continuous Model Build Process” is one such approach which delivers the demand for time reduction and quality improvement in the Ford Product Development cycle. This paper presents how the Continuous model build approach will help to reduce the cycle time for product design and improve the design optimization efficiency. The outcome of this approach is to reduce the turnaround timing and improve the CAE model build quality. This process has been deployed successfully and integrated within the CAE model build process.