Research On The Value Engineering Of Passenger Car

Under the stress from the heated marketing competition and resources- environment, Chinese automobile manufacturers must continuously develop new products, improve products quality, reduce products costs and increase enterprise profits. By doing so, the enterprise can remain invincible among the competitions. In order to achieve such a target, the application of Value Engineering is the most effective"function-cost"optimization technology during the products development and localization.The fundament of VE is: V=F/C. The V in the formula is Value, F is function, C is cost. If V=1, it is considered that the function of the products and the cost is harmonious. It can be improved. If V>1, it is regarded as the function is surplus or cost is too low. It might be an object needs to be improved. If V<1, it is accounted as the function is insufficient or the cost is too high. It is also likely to be an object needs to be improved. VE theory came into being in 1947. It was firstly widely in practice in developed countries and gained enormous economic benefits.Till now, there are still some imperfect sides in VE theory, such as"function judges method; VE object chooses method"and so on. Problems like unscientific are existing in the VE application and organization and management during the VE implementation. From a certain circumstance, these problems have hindered the wide application of VE.The saloon car is driving machine combining the traditional technology and high & new technologies. There are a lot of models. The structure is quite complex. It is made of more than 10000 single parts. It requires high technology and the processing course is very complicated. The development of electronics technology, new materials and new energies will bring a revolution for the car manufacturing. There are 16 main characteristics in passenger car products technology; 4 important breakthroughs during tackling the blocks of new technologies; 5 trends in world passenger car research & development. All these have greatly stimulated the improvements of the quality of the passenger cars. All car manufacturers should face such environment, seize the opportunity, be ready for the challenges, build"high performance, green, economized"passenger cars. In the new situation of world car development, under the requirement of developing the "high performance, green, economized" cars, to study VE application in the car industry, to develop " Value Engineering on the passenger car ", during the car development & improvement process, offer a kind of "function–cost"optimizing technology, become inevitable.The basic frame of"passenger car VE"includes: the general business process of passenger car VE activity; the object choose process of passenger car VE; passenger car parts VE choose process; parts improvement research & development process; passenger car function, cost analyses method; parts function; calculation method of function, cost evaluation value; calculation method of value coefficient; method of passenger car VE object & parts VE object choose.There are 3 steps to calculate the passenger car function evaluation value (evaluation coefficient): 1st step is to build"passenger car– function"matrix. The vertical row of the matrix is"every model of cars", whereas the horizontal line are the functions of the cars like safety, dynamics, fuel consumption, noise, comfort, exhaustion and service"; 2nd step is to use"relativity exponent method'to calculate the fraction of every function. The calculation module is: f_ib' = f_ib /f_ia In the format: the function fraction between certain functions of f_i'b model and a certain model; f ib model function exponent; f ia model function exponent. 3rd step is to calculate the fraction of every function. The calculation module is F_i ' =∑f_i'. 4th step is to calculate the car function evaluation value (evaluation coefficient). The module is: F_i = F_i /∑f_i'The function evaluation of spare parts is basically the same as the above-mentioned calculation. The calculation module of car & spare parts cost evaluation value (evaluation coefficient): In the formula, Ci model (parts) cost evaluation value (coefficient); C_i' model (spare parts) cost, n– car (spare parts) VE object number for selection.There are 3 steps to select car VE object: 1st step, to make"car selective main factors"matrix table. The vertical row of the matrix is the models for selection. The horizontal line is to select 3 main factors. The enterprise value coefficient Vi , marketing value coefficient V_i', sales volume N_i. 2nd step, fill in V_i,V_i',N_i after the calculation of all the models into the matrix table. Afterwards, the combinations among the 3 main factors should be compared. 3rd step is to make the evaluation on the combinations among the 3 factors. The combination with the best economic result will be selected as VE car. Generally speaking, the combination of"V_小,V_大',N_大"main factors is the combination with the best effectiveness. If this combination is unavailable, the closest one will be the comparatively acceptable. It also can be selected as VE object. V_小means the highest cost. The room for cost reduction is big. V_大' means the marketing price is relatively low. It has the increasing potential. N_大means marketing demand is high. There is market for sales.Once the cars for the VE actions are decided, the VE parts shall be selected, the progress is followed: first step, using ABC method to select higher cost parts as the VE object. when the parts is much more after the first selection, then the second selection should be made, select 10 kinds of parts as the VE object. Second step, analyzing and evaluating on the VE parts, calculating the function value f_i. The third step, analyzing and evaluating on the VE parts, calculating the cost value c_i . The fourth step, using V=F/C, calculating all VE objectVi. The fifth step, making the"parts-selecting element", the vertical line is VE parts, and the horizontal line is the function value f_i,cost value c_i , value V_i and output N_i .The sixth step, put the result F,c,V,N into the matrix, and compare the four elements. The seventh step, taking the"guarantee function, reduce the cost"as the principle, decide the VE object parts, after that, restudy should start, that includes: 1) analyze the structure of the parts which needs. 2) Analyze the function and quality of the parts. 3) Analyze the cost. 4) Improve & design. 5) techniques design 6) feasibility analyzing 7) trial-produce 8) appraisalFeasibility analyzing is mainly analyze the techniques feasibility and the economic feasibility. Analyzing the economic feasibility need to calculate the saving cost, and the calculation model: , in which the C saving cost value, the C+0 VE object original cost; C 'cost after VE object improved; N -the estimated output of VE object, C_VEaction cost. IfΔC >0, it is feasible from the economic side, and of course the bigger, the better. Therefore, when VE parts select, it could select several to improve, when analyzing the feasibility, selectΔC biggest parts, second biggest parts and the third biggest parts as the final improved object to produce.The course of the passenger car VE activity is a complicated systematic project, to complete it must have lots of people and many departments cooperate. The organization of this VE activity take the matrix format, use the VE object as the project, use the project as the target, research department leading, related department involving and composing the research organization. This organization is temporary one, when the project finished, it will be dismissed. All the staff of this organization has full-time job and definite works, they fulfill their own tasks in the part-time. To secure the operation, the corresponding system must be built up and have a check & stimulation.FAW-VW has developed the Value Engineering activity since the year 2003, which make a great achievement, with saving 3.5 billion RMB material costs in totally. The application of"passenger Car Value Engineering"in FAW-VW, which produce the passenger car VE object– Magotan"and the"VE parts"are the same with the actual result of FAW-VW VE activity. It shows that the"Saloon car value project"designed in this text is scientific and feasible.