Streamlining Simulation Reporting in Automotive Industry: A Case Study of MAHLE and Altair

• Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
• Sensors - Gas Sensors

• Automotive
• Equipment & Machinery

• Product Research & Development
• Sales & Marketing

• Time Sensitive Networking
• Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing

• Testing & Certification

MAHLE, a leading automotive systems supplier, faced a challenge in making their simulation results reporting consistent, thorough, and simpler to perform. The company conducts simulations for pistons, connecting rods, and pins, with pistons representing the majority of the group's work. The complexity of pistons, which must withstand high temperatures and huge inertia loads, introduces many variables into the design process. Six different engineers were creating slightly different reports, leading to variations in how the simulation story was being told to customers. The main question to be answered by the simulation is whether the piston will survive the engine test. These tests are quite expensive, and a pre-production piston needs to be tested before it is put into the engine to save physical testing costs and to enable more design iterations. The complexity of the evaluation is further increased by factors such as lightweight pistons, high-efficiency engines, highly-loaded four-cylinder engines, more variability, and different materials.

MAHLE is a Tier 1 automotive systems supplier based in Stuttgart, Germany, with over 64,000 employees globally expected to generate sales of over $13 billion in 2014. The company maintains 10 different research and development (R&D) centers around the world, including locations in China, Japan, Brazil, England, India, and the United States. In North America, MAHLE generated sales of over $2.6 billion in 2013, boasting 29 locations and more than 10,000 employees. All of MAHLE’s business units are represented in the region, Engine Systems and Components, Filtration and Engine Peripherals, as well as Thermal Management. All light vehicle and truck OEMs with production operations in North America are supplied by MAHLE. The company serves the independent spare parts market though its Aftermarket business unit. In addition, MAHLE services motorsports customers in the region.

Altair ProductDesign’s team suggested an implementation of Automated Reporting Director (ARD) to help MAHLE streamline reporting activity. ARD is a configurable and customizable reporting solution which is embedded in HyperView and loops over all defined groups and load cases, creating a single report page for each combination. ARD automates the detection of result maxima or hot spots, best view selection, creation of notes and legends, and highlights the most interesting results in an interactive tab. The tool is also flexible, allowing the analyst to step through each page before exporting it into PowerPoint or another desired format. Through an intuitive user interface, ARD allows the analyst to post-process results with given criteria, generate interactive overview result tables highlighting critical results, compare results between model iterations, and export results using preferred, customizable reporting templates.

• The implementation of Altair's Automated Reporting Director (ARD) has significantly improved MAHLE's day-to-day CAE workflow. The entire team of CAE analysts at MAHLE's North American R&D center is now using the same layout of the same report, with the same legend. This consistency has enhanced collaboration between engineers and improved relations with customers, as there is less confusion evaluating the reports. The automated reporting solution has also reduced the time spent on non-engineering tasks, enabling CAE analysts to better utilize their time as engineers - yielding more analysis and better design. The use of the tool has sparked interest from other simulation groups within the firm. Looking forward, the capabilities of the tool are increasing every day, and as processing speed and high-performance computing power and accessibility continue to increase, using bigger, more detailed models will no longer pose a problem.

• Time saved is the main benefit of ARD; the team has cut down four to five hours of cropping and adjusting to 20 to 30 minutes for a big model.
• Use of ARD has cut reporting time by several hours, freeing up engineers to do more analysis.
• Simulation in general has cut down time to market.