two kinds of checks have to be performed: virtual checks and physical checks. In virtual checks, the individual components are described by CAD/CAM files stored in the Product Data Management (PDM) system. These files then interact virtually by software that simulates their interaction (Digital Mock-Up, DMU). Virtual checks serve to check the feasibility and coherence of the designs early in the design process, either substituting for physical checks or complementing them. Note that the virtual prototype (Digitial Mock-Up, DMU) constitutes, over most of the development project, the reference point and the object on which development efforts focus. Physical checks are usually carried out late in the process and involve physical prototypes. In what follows we refer to activities carried out via DMU for the packaging of mechanics. As this section should have made clear, packaging is a paradigm example for a highly reciprocally interdependent task.
3.3. Procedures regarding the packaging task
Packaging activities are described comprehensively and thoroughly by a whole set of ‘procedures’ (which in this firm refer to how to organize tasks) and ‘norms’ (setting technical standards and parameters, such as threshold values). Amongst others, the following selection of ‘procedures’ and ‘norms’ are pertinent to packaging:
• Norm on the product development process.
• Procedure of vehicle packaging.
• Procedure on virtual checks via DMU.
• Check-lists of virtual check via DMU: chassis, mechanics, manufacturability, ergonomics.
• Procedure on use of knowledge management system and use ofCADin the product development process.
• Norm on the lay-out of drive-train and engine.
The list could be continued but illustrates that packaging is a highly ‘regulated’ activity in the sense that some very comprehensive and very precise instructions, some having close to 100 pages, exist for how to carry out packaging.
Briefly, to start the packaging process, the ‘raw material’ for the packaging calculations (we
focus on virtual packaging checks), the CAD files of all the car’s components, are developed
by development engineers grouped into 26 teams: chassis, drive-train, steering, and so on (see