Once, it could take as long as six to eight years to bring a new car or truck from the concept stage to the showroom. Today, thanks to computer-aided design (CAD) and computer component testing, a new vehicle can move rapidly through the design stage. The vehicle can have its various component prototypes not only designed and assembled with an eye toward weight, efficiency and serviceability, but also have these tested by the computer. These systems have made it possible to eliminate months of actual component design and hundreds of thousands of miles of on-road prototype testing.

Using digital computers to design components allows designers and engineers to see how parts will look (the design software permits a three-dimensional look at a part before it ever exists) and how they will be used in conjunction with other parts to make a subassembly. There are obvious time efficiencies in such a process, but even more important is an engineer's consequent ability to try design variations and select the absolute best for ultimate use.

"Paperless" Cars
One example of prototype testing and computer-aided design has resulted in the first "paperless" cars. The 1998 Dodge Intrepid and Chrysler Concorde were completely redesigned, and all body, power train and suspension components were developed on computers without the use of conventional blueprints. That would be remarkable enough, but Chrysler's accomplishment is even more impressive when you consider that the new products were completed in only 31 months.

A consortium of manufacturers that includes Audi, BMW, Ford, Renault and Volvo is working with Mechanical Dynamics to produce a software system called ADAMS/Car, a specialized vehicle simulation environment that will allow automotive engineers to accurately simulate the real-world behavior of their designs for entire vehicles, including assemblies such as suspensions, power trains, engines and steering mechanisms. Simulations can also include traction control, antilock braking and other control systems.

"Users can exercise ADAMS/Car models under various road conditions, performing every maneuver normally run on a test track," explains Michael Guttilla of Mechanical Dynamics. "They can accurately predict handling characteristics, ride quality, vehicle safety and performance parameters — all on the computer, and all before building a single hardware prototype."

Thus can an engineering team quickly examine hundreds or thousands of design variations, testing and refining the design until they optimize system performance. This can help reduce the number of costly physical prototypes, improve design quality and significantly shorten product-development cycles.

Manufacturers are concerned about the length of time it takes to get a new concept into the marketplace because a company that has the ability to do so quickly can respond to changing marketplace conditions and consumer buying trends. Toyota recently created a new compact minivan, the Ipsum, for its home market in 19 months from concept approval to showroom.

It is sometimes risky to compare development times because each automaker, here and abroad, defines "project approval" differently. When the public starting gun is fired on a new car, one company may have already completed significantly more design work than another. In any event, most manufacturers seem to believe that a 24-month time frame is possible and are working toward achieving it.

Ride and Handling
The way a car feels when you are behind the wheel, and the way it reacts under changes of speed or direction (handling) are less difficult to engineer than they used to be. The desired characteristics of ride and handling can be translated into computer data and fed into systems that create an optimized vehicle. This means that the desired ride and handling will, in effect, be built in when a new vehicle reaches the running prototype stage. Small adjustments will be necessary, but the overall feel and driving characteristics will be close to what the engineers wanted. This is why every BMW and Mercedes-Benz, to name two automakers who use this system, feels as if it was cut from the same bolt of cloth — or carved from the same block of metal — as its smaller or larger siblings.

The next step in design innovation will likely involve virtual reality — simulators that will give engineers and designers the actual sensory feel of a product that does not yet exist. The type of situations and testing that can thus be "experienced" in the laboratory will be limited only by the imagination of the designers and engineers.

Supplier Contributions
One of the ways that the automotive industry makes progress on the innovation front is by working in tandem with supplier companies that make many of the components and subassemblies used in manufacturing a car. By making suppliers a part of the team, and sharing with them the long-term product and manufacturing goals, an automaker can draw on the design, engineering and manufacturing expertise of companies that work and think independently of the corporate structure. Suppliers build everything from headlight assemblies to rack-and-pinion steering systems. Some build even larger components: GM's Hydra-matic division builds transmissions for Rolls-Royces, which in turn are powered by engines built by BMW.

Dana Corporation, for example, provides complete packages of drivetrain and structural components. It can supply individual parts — such as coil springs or shock absorbers — for a front-end subassembly, or it can provide the entire subassembly, which might include a subframe, the front suspension components, brakes and steering.

Once, automakers handed suppliers a blueprint and instructed them to build what they saw. Today, suppliers and automakers work together to create what's on that blueprint — which might well be contained on a computer disk.