Abstract
ABSTRACT:
LOGAN, the 5000 Euros so-called car, launched by Renault, is a modern, good-performance, reliable and affordable vehicle.
What are the key conditions of its successful development?
To reach the target price has required deep modifications of the usual way of designing both the product and the manufacturing process.
1) The product engineering basically stands on simple and just necessary technical solutions; the principle and guidelines are: what the customer is expecting at the price he agrees to pay. That is the Design to cost.
2) The use of existing components or subassemblies from others Renault range cars,
whose design is already done and checked permits significant savings for development and also production costs. That is the Carry-over.
3) The strong use of CAD and whole numerical design.
It enables to create models of the parts or the main functions of the car, to make sure
they comply with the technical requirements, to check their interfaces, and very easily and quickly to modify their definition.
The need of physical parts or assemblies for testing and validating the design is greatly reduced. As a benefit, an usual lot of full prototypes has been cancelled for the Logan program, so greatly cutting down the costs.
The CAD has now reached with the Logan development an unprecented overpower level.