One of the pressing challenges facing the German automotive sector nowadays is the time-consuming development process of road vehicles, particularly in comparison to other automotive manufacturers. Traditional approaches, i.e., the sequential design process of road vehicles can lead to tedious data exchange and delayed decision-making. The automation of the development process to reduce development time, while taking into consideration the collaboration between the involved multidisciplinary engineering teams and their tools, can be crucial for the German automotive industry to regain its competitive edge. To address this objective, this paper presents an approach that makes use of the Collaborative Vehicle Configuration Schema (CVeCS) and multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization (MDA(O)) techniques. To be more specific, a unified design process is presented that encompasses the conceptual design phase as well as the initial stages of the subsequent detailed development. The potential of this approach to enhance competitiveness of the German automotive sector is demonstrated based on the MDA(O) workflow of the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle named Interurban Vehicle (IUV). The IUV is a research road vehicle designed at the German Aerospace Center. In general, within the context of this paper, the first steps towards automating the entire development process are taken. Overall, this paper concludes that this approach enables a shift from a sequential development process to a simultaneous one providing a unified, modular and agile design process that contributes to enhancing the decision-making process and facilitating interdisciplinary analyses.
Mallah et al. (Wed,) studied this question.