Towards a robust process for integrating innovations into vehicle projects

G. Buet (1) , T. Gidel (2, 1) , D. Millet (1)

1 Renault SAS
2 COSTECH - Connaissance Organisation et Systèmes TECHniques

No matter which carmaker is observed, it appears that very few innovations actually find their way into vehicle development projects, compared to the number ideas originally imagined. Although it is normal practice to filter out many innovations, it is essential to maintain a certain number within the vehicle development projects. Otherwise there is a risk of not being able to keep up with market expectations or of being out of step with the competitors' market offerings. This difficulty of transforming good ideas into innovations that find their place in vehicle development projects may be attributed to the difficulty in converging innovation development with vehicle development, a process that we shall refer to in the rest of this article as the "touch-down" process (Buet et al., 2008). This term stems from an analogy that may be made with an aircraft (innovation projects) landing on an aircraft-carrier (vehicle development projects). While landing, it is essential to specify all the conditions required, to apply all defined processes, but also to know how to react to events in order to make a successful "touch-down". In order to keep abreast of the market, motor manufacturers are faced with coordinating innovations that have not always achieved a sufficient degree of maturity with the vehicle development projects that are likely to be their platform. The notion of "touch-down" is typified by the integration such innovations in vehicle development projects. 'The integration process itself is proving problematical in that new technology fields, organizations and timescales differ considerably from those applicable to vehicle development projects. […] It is a complex process to successfully converge new technology developments (available at the right moment and at the right level of maturity) with product development projects.' (Buet et al., 2008)

Mots clés: Electric Vehicle; Quality Function Deployment; Innovation Project; Technical Constraint; Target Vehicle

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

G. Buet, T. Gidel, D. Millet. Towards a robust process for integrating innovations into vehicle projects. Modelling and Management of Engineering Processes, Springer London, pp.201-212, 2010, 978-1-84996-198-1. ⟨10.1007/978-1-84996-199-8_17⟩. ⟨hal-02902435⟩