Still More to Learn in Maximizing Flexible Vehicle-Platform Potential

The movement toward flexible, global vehicle architectures has been around for decades and a MIT Professional Education course that zeroes in on the subject matter is marking its 10^th year.

Set to begin July 25, the week-long Product Platform and Product Family Design: From Strategy to Implementation program teaches attendees to navigate the huge complexities of cost-saving, flexible vehicle architectures engineered to underpin a variety of models in multiple sizes and configurations, while meeting widely varying consumer, pricing and regulatory demands around the world.

If that sounds way more complicated than designing vehicles used to be, that’s because it is, Tim Simpson says in discussing the tenets of the course and the state of flexible-platform engineering in the automotive industry.

“The decisions (you) need to make, the tradeoffs that you’re making, are much longer-term in paying out, and there are broader implications than what a lot of companies are used to dealing with,” he tells WardsAuto in a phone interview.

Simpson, a guest lecturer for the MIT course, says attendees once skewed mainly toward automotive types, but so far this year no one from that industry group has signed up. He thinks they should.

Automakers were among the early pioneers of the flexible-platform concept, the Penn State engineering professor acknowledges, but as the industry pulled in its horns during the 2009 recession, other sectors took the initiative and moved forward.

“Now the auto industry really has a chance to learn from these other industries that took their work, advanced it, applied it to their own (processes) and figured out how to be a little more agile and nimble,” he contends.

Automakers have been steadily on the march toward turning over their lineups to mass-volume, flexible architectures designed to reuse as many parts and components from one product to the another, even as vehicle sizes, wheelbases, configurations and market requirements change from one model to the next.

But not all the bugs are worked out when it comes to developing a holistic game plan and then deftly managing that through to production, so even the most advanced automakers could stand to take a fresh look at their strategies and processes, Simpson says.

Volkswagen became the poster child for the latest and most expansive flexible-architecture trend when it began rolling out its MQB platform that underpins such cars as the VW Golf and Audi A4 and is expected to be the basis for some 39 different models with a variety of dimensions, powertrains and body styles. In all the MQB is expected to be the basis for more than 6 million vehicles built annually worldwide by 2019. Around the turn of the century, some automakers had as many as 40 different platforms.

VW is not alone, however. Renault has its Common Module Family architecture that is expected to support more than a dozen Nissan and Renault models. Toyota’s latest Prius hybrid sedan is the first car derived from its flexible TNGA platform that will spawn models in seven segments. General Motors is planning to cull its lineup to four core vehicle platforms by 2025, from more than a dozen today.

Most other automakers are headed in a similar direction.

Falling Short

But since the movement began, some realities have set in, and expectations subsequently reined in. Estimates by VW it would save 20% of the cost of a vehicle by proliferating its MQB architecture have been called into question by analysts. And other automakers have conceded achieving the enormous economies-of-scale savings once projected may not be possible.

Limiting factors include varying global safety and emissions standards and pricing requirements that restrict the amount of parts sharing around the world. There also are tooling and manufacturing limitations that mean economies of scale can be taken only so far.

Simpson says where it once was thought more than half of parts could be carried over from one vehicle to the next, 30% now is seen as a more realistic ballpark.

“Typical (targets set by automakers) would be 60% for reuse and commonality,” he says. “And most times (the reality) falls short of that.”

Managing the complexity may be the biggest stumbling block of all. Often an executive responsible for one region or product line resists any move that would mean taking on added cost for his or her slice of the business, even if doing so would save the company money overall.

Simpson recalls a former student who was put in charge of creating commonality among three different engines in development. He complained most of his time was spent negotiating with reluctant managers of the three product-development teams to accept compromises that would lead to cost-saving commonality.

Hearing that led Simpson to one conclusion: A more ruthless, dictatorial approach is needed if the flexible platform concept is to succeed.

Although creating a slightly different component with an exclusive part number may not be a big engineering hurdle, it can be costly, ranging from a couple thousand dollars to $20,000 for some companies, he says.

“There’s certainly always a tension between the marketing folks and design and engineering,” he says, when it comes to creating architectures with broad applications and the inherent compromises that go with it. “Companies that do it well from a platform-development standpoint figure out how to put in heavyweight managers that really have the control and authority to (require) commonality, rather than just coordinate it.”

Simpson sees opportunities to make gains beyond the 30% commonality level of today as electronics systems proliferate and more software-controlled devices – more easily customized and updated – are put into play.

“We’ve seen that in other industries as the balance between hardware and software shifts to a more software-centric product.”

Bigger savings also could come if automakers focus on ensuring manufacturing is more flexible, he says, pointing to a future maybe a decade or so away where 3-D printing (additive manufacturing) plays a role in vehicle production.

But figuring all this out is not getting any easier.

“That’s why 10 years later we’re still teaching the course and still fielding all sorts of questions,” Simpson says.

[email protected] @DavidZoia