Customised vehicles
IntWertL - Intelligent value creation networks for low-volume lightweight vehicles
Whether it's a sales van for a bakery or a special vehicle for a municipal building yard, anyone who needs a small number of customised last-mile vehicles for a very specific purpose has had to dig deep into their pockets and wait a long time for delivery. This is because the few companies that have the infrastructure to fulfil such requests have to find the right suppliers for each order and win them over for the project.
Together with Fraunhofer IPA and other partners from science and industry, the Institute of Vehicle Concepts is working on a digital value creation network. The aim is to enable small and medium-sized companies to bring customised vehicles to market in small quantities - faster and more cost-effectively than before.
In order to speed up this lengthy and complex process and reduce costs, representatives from science and industry want to develop a digital development and production platform for small and medium-sized companies in the research project "Intelligent value creation networks for low-volume lightweight vehicles" (IntWertL). On this platform, manufacturing companies and development service providers, as well as law firms, banks and insurance companies, are to join together in changing constellations to form value-adding alliances - depending on which vehicle is currently being developed and launched on the market.
The institute is working on the process and requirements analysis, in which the functional processes in the ordering and configuration process for individualised commercial vehicles in small quantities are defined. In addition, the institute is involved in the development of the engineering platform, on which a partner network is developing various components based on use cases, exchanging data and working together. DLR is creating (partially) automated development tools for the optimisation of components in terms of lightweight construction and production methods, which can also be used by people with a non-scientific background.
