Integration of product, process, and resource in car body engineering

摘要

The automotive industry is now facing keenest competition due to increasing globalization of its business processes. In addition, the rapid evolution and the influence of information technology has had an innovative impact on engineering processes in the automotive industry. This impact is concerned not only with steady enhancements of traditional processes but also with crucial transformation of engineering processes into completely new concepts. The true integration of entire manufacturing processes is being achieved, from the early product concept to the finest-grained specifications through the extension of the capabilities of digital product models to offer all the necessary technological and management information for design and manufacturing. Furthermore the availability and flexibility of digital process models accommodate the engineering processes throughout the product lifecycle. And targeting higher profitability or a stronger positioning in the market means relying on efficient technologies for designing and managing the overall manufacturing processes through maximum reuse of available resources. This paper reviews current trends in the integration of product, process, and resources in the area of car body engineering using an integrated data model and suitable technology and goes on to discuss future trends of implementing cooperative engineering methods in the automotive industry in order to improve competitiveness by offering attractive products.