Automotive powertrain systems have always been a key element of customer satisfaction, delivering the prestige of technology advancement as well as power and performance to meet the desired driving experience. Reducing the environmental impact of a vehicle compels manufacturers to reduce emissions even while increasing propulsion, with an eye on energy efficiency and material disposal at the vehicle’s end-of-life. Powertrain engineers need an integrated, end-to-end lifecycle solution that can enable them to make smarter decisions resulting in better products to meet these market needs.

Siemens PLM Software’s collaborative decision support platform enables systems-driven product development by bringing together cross-domain vehicle knowledge into a single, logical location that is accessible to authorized users — no matter where they are in the organization or located in the world.

Siemens facilitates automotive powertrain systems design from planning and development through manufacturing and support by providing comprehensive solution suites for digital product development, lifecycle management and digital manufacturing. Our automotive powertrain design solutions include best-in-class, integrated functionality for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE) and product data management (PDM) for all of your initiatives. To reduce development time, powertrain engineers can re-use knowledge templates that capture best practices in all areas of the process. They can digitally mock-up the vehicle compartment and create design studies to evaluate possible powertrain design options, as well as define, maintain, and apply engine and transmission configurations in vehicle. Powertrain engineers can effectively mesh, analyze, and manage complex powertrain structures to validate the design’s integrity virtually as well as physically through effective test lab data and results management.

These solutions help you to establish a single source of product, process and manufacturing information for your enterprise, even though that information is often captured in disparate authoring systems. With the ability to manage material, mechanical, electrical, electronics and software systems in the product lifecycle management (PLM) environment, powertrain engineers have an integrated source of information for the powertrain, transmission, driveline and controls.

Users across your entire value chain can access this single knowledge resource to quickly find the information they need within the context of their role in the vehicle lifecycle. Powerful end-to-end PLM applications leverage the environment’s workflow and information management capabilities, thereby enabling your entire value chain to collaborate and share knowledge throughout the lifecycle. Changes can be effectively evaluated for product, tooling, manufacturing and serviceability impact; managed through implementation with status reported; and tracked consistent with the overall development timing.

This approach allows automotive OEMs and suppliers to respond much more quickly to changing market demands, function effectively while being geographically dispersed, and collaborate much more successfully in the automotive powertrain systems design process.