Industry Requirements for an Assistant System Supporting Energy-Efficient Product Development in the Automotive Supply Industry

Today the development of energy-efficient products throughout their entire lifecycle is more than a major issue for environmental and economic concerns, it also represents a high business potential for companies.

Unfortunately, a complete integration of energy-efficiency aspects into industrial product development practice has not been achieved yet. This is partly due to a lack of simple methods and tools for the evaluation of energy-efficiency and costs of design alternatives, as well as checking their compliance with regulatory constraints. A possible solution to this problem is an assistant system adapted to the designer’s working environment. This paper describes the main requirements in the automotive supply industry for such an IT support.

The requirements list was first obtained from an analysis of industrial and research publications and the most relevant regulations related to the energy-efficiency of products. This list was then weighted, extended, and validated through interviews with design experts from the industry.