extends the traditional focus of a manufacturer from aspects that
have an instant relation to business performance, e.g. manufacturing
costs or the fulfillment of external requirements. Life
cycle engineering (LCE) describes engineering activities to operationalize
this perspective towards supporting an informed
decision-making [6]. A key success factor for LCE-oriented
decision support is its integration into the product development
processes and the companys organization [7]. One main aspect
of LCE is the identification of improvement measures and
the development of targeted innovations [3]. The presented research
focuses on the environmental perspective of car body
components throughout their life cycle. Thus, LCE methods
are observed that integrate life cycle thinking into product development
to foster environmentally conscious product designs
[6]. Following the foundational dilemma in product development,
a gap between determination and emergence of product
impacts can be observed between early and later stages of product
development [8]. Early stages cover the development before
the product specification is set when most decisions regarding
the product are still due. One core finding is that a decision
support should be done as early as possible to ensure a lever
that actually affects the products environmental performance.
Nevertheless, it is observed that the availability and quality of
relevant data is low in early stages [9]. In contrast, in the later
stages the detail of engineering is very high and foundational
product specifications are set. Thus changes that significantly
influence the environmental performance of the product and its
components are unlikely to occur [10]. When regarding automotive
product development, the automotive value chain needs
to be considered which is organized in several levels, so called
tiers. The car manufacturer (OEM - original equipment manufacturer)
stands on the superordinate level. OEMs typically
hold the responsibility for the entire vehicle, its series development
and final manufacturing, usually including press shop, car
body shop, paint shop and final assembly. On the supplier level
are developers and producers of modules (tier 1), systems (tier
2) and parts (tier 3) with the current research focusing on the
first tiers. Tier 1 suppliers may also provide the module integration
in the car as a service. Suppliers can also act as development
partners in the series development of cars. In this case
they either develop modules on their own or develop modules
in the mandate of the OEM. In addition, a combination of the
engineering service and the contract manufacturing by suppliers
becomes increasingly common (Figure 1) [11]. There have
been similar approaches to analyze product development in the
light of life cycle engineering. For example, Bhamra et. al. and
Poole et. al. focused on environmental aspects of the product
development process of companies in the electronic and electrical
industry in Europe and the USA [9][10]. Therefore, a
survey among 30 companies was conducted. A selection of the
key findings is listed in Table 1.
These insights give indications and fundamental understandings
that need to be validated or adapted for the analyzed setting
this of automotive car body design. Differences regarding the
company position in the value chain and the specifics of their
decision processes are only briefly discussed. Other approaches
consider these differences, but do not cover the challenges of an
environmentally conscious product design. In this field, Grochowski
et. al. proposed a multi-layered product development
process to individually consider the different product development
process specifics [12]. The focus of the analysis lies on