Passenger Car Low Cost Development Process Optimization Study

Chinese Auto industry is developing with high speed which make consumer of cars more considerable. On one hand, new products launched continuously, which raise higher requirement for OEM. After China entry into WTO, competition of OEM trend to severely. It is required that new vehicle should have good performance, fashion styling and reliable quality with affordable price. Low cost is very important for medium and low end segment product, and is key factor for customers'decision. The segment of A0 with 50,000RMB to 70,000RMB grows very quickly. The biggest challenge to OEM is how to develop low cost vehicle with qualified performance and reliability. Facing the changeful market, OEM have to develop better product quicker. Local brand OEM chery and Geely have got great benefit from lost cost product. SAE/Dupont study shows that cost is first priority of OEM to consider for product development. During vehicle development, program management process is more important for low cost development of vehicle. Currently how to study low cost vehicle development is very necessary.This paper study low cost development process combined with actual an all new passenger car development program. Through the study of A class segment of Chinese auto segment, to finish program marketing position, and set up program vehicle performance target. It is the first time to introduce global DCS process to control component cost of one program, develop process to set up component cost target by component design engineer, buyer and finance analyst to realize vehicle cost target which work well during sourcing process, set up NCR process to control vehicle cost during component development and validation process, set up program development organization by using Concurrent Engineering concept to make sure low cost design proposal and technology implement. In parallel, it reduced vehicle amortization cost cased by part tooling modification because of design issues. At last through analysis of cost control process effect, it is demonstrated that low cost development process is feasible and effective.