Interview with Harald Walter, TRW / Germany
0 likes1,567 views
Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter discusses the challenges of automotive variant management, emphasizing the need for modular product design to support global OEM platform strategies. He highlights the balance between standardization and flexibility, aiming to develop standardized components while minimizing individual customizations. The conversation also explores the importance of recycling in design and the collaborative nature of the automotive sector's development efforts.
Interview with Harald Walter, TRW / Germany
- 1. InterviewTRW Automotive Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter, Senior Chief Engineer, Global Core Development Linkage & Suspension on modular product design Prior to the Smart Automotive Variantcon 2013, we.CONECT spoke with Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter, Senior Chief Engineer, Global Core Development Linkage & Suspension, TRW Automotive GmbH / Germany we.CONECT: In your opinion - what are the main current challenges and trends regarding automotive variant management? Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: Future global OEM platform strategies require the use of chassis components in a modular system. Typical mass production platforms combine B- and C-segment vehicles from 800 kg to 1400 kg front axle loads. Vehicle derivates with different kinematics and technical requirements (e.g. weight, stiffness) are based on one platform. A modular product design should provide a simple component change to define the technical-cost-optimum in each platform derivate. Flexible automatic production lines should be able to assemble modular products without (or with less) change of tooling. we.CONECT: How is your company reacting to these challenges? What future potential do you see? Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: The change of product design solves the conflict of standardization vs. modularity and flexibility. Targets are to develop as much as possible standardized components and process steps and to introduce as late as possible individual components or individual steps in the manufacturing line we.CONECT: What projects are you currently working at regarding variant management? What particularity do they possess? Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: TRW Linkage & Suspension developed ball joint and chassis component designs regarding the increase of load capacity of wear sensitive components (combined B- and C-segment). Moreover, we are working on the modularity of material and components to define technical-cost- optimum in each platform derivate. we.CONECT: Please describe in brief the presentation you will be holding on the Smart Automotive Variantcon 2013: Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: In recent years, the market share decreased for conventional steel welded stabilizer links. Reasons were the OEM strategies of enlarged modular platforms, the change in product requirements regarding reduction of vehicle weight (fuel consumption, electrical vehicles) and global environmental conditions. Global market and competitive situation increased cost pressure to stabilizer link business. The conflict could only be solved by calling everything into question and leaded to the new design strategy of “Simplifying” and “Modularly standardization”. The presentation shows the development work from target definition to the serial product: The new TRW Aluminum Stabilizer Link. we.CONECT: What are the key challenges of your project? Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: Product requirements and competitive price level lead to the conflict of increase in safety level, modular kinematics, low and high loaded platform vehicles, global environmental conditions and long life robustness vs. standardization, cost and weight efficiency. The key challenge was to solve this conflict by a new design strategy. we.CONECT: What is your theory about peer networks? What can they do? Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: Major development steps, e.g. electric vehicles, driver assistance systems, metal substitution by composites etc., can only be achieved by a partnership of interested parties. Cluster development will increase in the future. we.CONECT: What do you like most about your job? What progress do you see in the industry development? Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: I like to cooperate close together with customer and development partners, to take up market requirements and to define challenging tasks to a team of creative development engineers. The preservation of natural resources, the reduction of energy consumption and environmental pollution will be the main topic for all industry developments. we.CONECT: What expectations do you have regarding the Smart Automotive Variantcon 2013? Which outcome and benefit do you expect from the exchange with participating companies? Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: All participating companies have got the same boundary condition, individualization of vehicles vs. global platform standardization, and the same target to solve it by a smart variant management. The first goal will be sharing the primarily information like picking up requirements from the market, learning from other solutions and presenting own smart variant opportunities. The second benefit will be the interface dialogue. we.CONECT: Which question would you like us to ask you – and what´s your potential answer in it?
- 2. Dr.-Ing. Harald Walter: Which future challenge should be solved by automotive variant design and management? One of the main challenges will be the full recycling or reprocessing of automotive components. Variant design has to consider the re-usability and recyclability by separation of all materials, maybe by re-using of components, to minimize the consumption of energy and natural resources in the automotive manufacturing. we.CONECT: Thanks a lot for this interview! Interview Partner: Nicole Steuer and Dr.- Ing. Harald Walter. Harald Walter received in 1997 his diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He continued working at the Institute of Mechatronics and System Dynamics at the University of Duisburg as scientific assistant for continuum mechanics. In 2003, he obtained his PhD and started working as development engineer at TWR Automotive GmbH. Since then, he held several positions within the company, working in the department of Product and Core Development. His current position is Senior Chief Engineer, Head of Development in Linkage & Suspension. Smart Automotive Variantcon 2013 is a global automotive conference that discusses current challenges, brand new approaches and future trends about variant management and the simplification of complexity in the automotive engineering sector. Information about the event and about we.CONECT can be found at: http://auto-variant-management.we- conect.com Contact: Dr. Klaudia Malowitz Senior Product Manager Phone: +49 (0)30 52 10 70 3 – 48 Fax: +49 (0)30 52 10 70 3 – 30 Email: klaudia.malowitz@we.conect.com we.CONECT Global Leaders GmbH Gertraudenstr. 10-12 10178 Berlin, Germany www.we-conect.com