Abstract
Keywords: Virtual Product Development, Chassis, Strategy, CAD, Efficiency
In this paper a strategy developed by BMW's driving dynamics department is presented. The "Advanced Chassis Engineering" (ACE) strategy aims to increase efficiency in the product development process with virtual development tools. The final goal is to create a so called "virtual chassis-construction-kit", containing sophisticated knowledge-based CAD models. These models can be rapidly tailored to different car projects, allowing questions arising from trade-off studies between package, function and commonality of parts across different car projects to be analysed extensively. Industrial-construction-kits, created by suppliers, are integrated for a swift feasibility assessment of standardised components between OEMs. Synthesis of the process and tool based requirements is of major importance in order to gain an improved efficiency throughout the product development process, particularly in the early concept phase. A set of real world examples are given to further demonstrate the effectiveness of BMW's "Advanced Chassis Engineering" strategy.