23rd International Conference "Engine & Environment"
Cheap is cool – Saving money in development?
Authors
Dr. Wolfgang Reik, LuK Group, Schaeffer Group Automotive
Year
2011
Summary
This case deals with the question of what level of preliminary development work is advisable during an earlier phase of the production development process in order to ensure the required outcome during subsequent volume production. With high-volume production, even minor improvements can generate significant savings, which makes the additional development work worthwhile. However, the numerous optimisation and rationalisation measures are not the only important factors for achieving this result. The direction taken at the start of a development project can also be crucial, where engineering work conducted solely on a solid “textbook“ basis is simply not sufficient. This phase calls for the ultimate in engineering art, in order to produce a conceptually agreeable and high-quality product from a combination of original and creative ideas.
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