DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes-Benz has increased the number of electronics engineers it employs, acquired more test equipment and increased the pressure on suppliers to durability test to the same level as the car manufacturer, the brand’s top manufacturing executive said.
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Hans-Heinrich Weingarten, executive vice president of Mercedes car group production, also told just-auto that research and development engineers at the three DaimlerChrysler car making companies – Mercedes, Chrysler group and Mitsubishi – will continue to work separately on electronic systems for their respective products with the Germans taking the lead on innovations.
In a frank discussion on the sidelines of the international press launch for the new Mercedes SLK roadster on the Spanish island of Majorca, Weingarten acknowledged that Mercedes has had reliability problems with new electronic features on its cars, such as the COMAND sat-nav, audio and phone system, and keyless entry and starting.
The brand was recently rated below US manufacturers in the latest Consumer Reports reliability survey and the company’s models have suffered from electronic gremlins in the hands of influential motoring critics and, more importantly, customers.
“We’ve made substantial investments in new test equipment,” Weingarten said. “The problem is to simulate all the different possibilities” under which the electronics on the car have to work.
“There are millions of inputs on the electronics” such as radiated signals from mobile phones and other devices and it is difficult to consider every possibility and test for its effect, the manufacturing chief added.
“To test body and paint, now that is easy. Electronics are much harder,” he said, adding that the development department had now had teams working in the Mercedes manufacturing plants for several years.
“We’ve build up our test systems to test for the effects of such things as temperature and stray emitted signals from other devices and we can simulate these in our development centre.
“Our suppliers are under some pressure to test their systems and try to bring their procedures to the same level as ours.”
“If there is a problem, our testing must show it up before production.”
Weingarten said he had noted reports last week that rival BMW – whose models, in particular the 7-series which pioneered the controversial I-Drive controller, have also suffered from electronics glitches – was adding 300-500 electronics engineers.
“We have increased the number of engineers employed in development engineering and now have about 1,000 working on electronics, we’ve added 300 there.”
It was suggested that Mercedes may benefit from pooling its development resources, testing around the clock by using engineers from all three companies, but Weingarten dismissed this.
“It’s not our idea to mix the brands,” he said. “We have Mercedes R&D, Chrysler R&D and Mistubishi R&D. It’s too complicated to bring different development engineers from different companies together to develop electronic systems.
We start to develop the innovative systems at Mercedes. If Chrysler and Mitsubishi like them, they can have them later. Over all brands, Mercedes is the electronics pioneer.”
Weingarten said the new SLK is the first Mercedes to be ‘virtually developed’ with most of the early work done by computer. He said this reduced the time to Job 1 by about a fifth.
A new production process, for which Mercedes claims a global first, involves an innovative two-section outer skin for the boot lid. To shape the centre area and emphasise the horizontal line of the spoiler lip, the outer skin of the boot lid was divided in two.
The section containing the license plate recess is attached to the other panels on the boot lid using a laser brazing process which is so precise that the resultant brazed seam has the appearance of a design line continued sideways into the tail lamps.
“It’s a superb process,” said Weingarten. “The laser brazing doesn’t require any finishing or reworking. You do it and it’s done, ready for painting.”
