Development of a Methodology for Joining Technology Selection based on Cost Information in the Preliminary Automotive Body-in-White Product Development Process

摘要

The substantial demand of the customer for the conservation of natural resources and ofthe environment puts pressure on the automotive industry to reduce fuel consumptionand emissions. One response to this challenge is to reduce car body weight. Hence carbody development has shown an increase in the use of light weight materials thatdemand new production methods and joining technologies. Accordingly car bodyengineers have progressively less time to assess the manufacturing cost of an increasingnumber of new design concepts with new material and corresponding joiningtechniques.A review of the pertinent literature shows that there is no established methodologyenabling automotive body engineers to make a rough manufacturing cost estimate ofdifferent new design concepts in the early phase of the Product Development Process.The aim of the present thesis is to provide car body engineers with a cost estimatingmethodology that makes it possible for them in the preliminary phase of the designprocess to estimate the manufacturing cost of new design concepts more systematically,hence more reliably, thus enhancing cost reduction.The methodology is based on the notion of Standardised Working Contents, which, asfundamental units of work, enable designers to compare the financial requirements ofvarious new design options with greater facility and greater accuracy. Furthermore themethodology identifies the most cost efficient Joining Technique combination with ahigh degree of reliability.Economical and technical data required for the methodology are gathered from anindustrial survey in collaboration with the design, planning, finance and manufacturingdepartments of a leading automotive company.Dynamic Programming taken from the area of Operations Research is employed toprovide the optimal Joining Technique combination in terms of manufacturing cost ofthe car body design concept under scrutiny.Results obtained from an automotive industrial case study confirm the effectiveness ofthe methodology while pointing out its limitations and possibilities.