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This paper is about the use of the Six Sigma Methodology, to solve variation problems in the manufacture area, at one of the Delphi Automotive Systems unit that manufacturer electrical harness. The DMAIC framework was followed, the improvements were done, eliminating the rots causes, and the use of Six Sigma methodology, was showed very efficient in solve problems. The methodology power, is in using a structured frame work, the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control), completing by quality quality tools (Pareto Chart, Five Why's, Cause and Effect Diagram) and statistical analyses, for example: variance analyses, hypotheses tests and Design of Experiments.

Side impact accounts for a significant source of societal harm, injury and death. To address this issue, Europe and US have introduced legislation to be met for the new vehicle certification. In an effort to meet these regulations and the market demand for safety, Automotive manufacturers have significantly improved vehicle side structure integrity and introduced side impact airbags are for added protection. Today, passenger vans, light truck and sport-utility type vehicles are all popular consumer choices in the US. These vehicles differ significantly from passenger cars in many respects and as such need special design considerations for side airbags. Here, MADYMO-3D model of a generic passenger van / Sport-Utility type vehicle is created and correlated to FMVSS-214 side impact crash test. This model is used to evaluate both door and seat mounted side airbag designs in different orientations at standard test impact condition and at a higher speed.

Many companies around the world have adopted the lean thinking as their strategy to operate, in a global market where changes happen all the time. One foundation for the success of lean manufacturing appliance is the continuous improvement approach which has been considered even on company statements, or it can be also considered as part of the genetic code of any enterprise. However, if in one side the continuous improvement thinking, set people mind to look for opportunities of improvement all the time, on other hand these improvements are incremental and they do not have significant impact on company performance on both short-term and medium-term and sometimes, the activities performed by the employees are not sustainable due to the lack of structure to manage and follow up these activities.

There are an increasing number of applications for resonant micromachines. Accelerometers, angular rate sensors, voltage controlled oscillators, pressure and chemical sensors have been demonstrated using this technology. Several of these devices are employed in vehicles. Vibrating devices have been made from silicon, quartz, GaAs, nickel and aluminum. Resonant microsystems are in constant motion and so present new challenges in the area of reliability for vehicular applications. The impact of temperature extremes, cyclic fatigue, stiction, thermal and mechanical shock on resonant device performance is covered.

Seat belts are the primary occupant-protection devices for vehicle crashes. Field statistics show that proper usage of seat belts substantially contributes to decreases in the fatality rate and injury level. To collect first-hand information regarding seat belt comfort and usability, a questionnaire survey was conducted. The most significant problems were found as belt trapping in the door, awkward negotiating with clothes, belt twisting, belt locking up, and difficulty to locate the buckle. The survey results indicated that drivers who are over 40 years old have more complaints than younger drivers. When the driver's age increases to 55 and above, belt pulling force and inappropriate and loose fitting of the belt on the body become major issues. Female drivers have more complaints than male drivers. Short statured drivers need both hands to pull and guide the retracting of the belt.

In this study, US and UK accident data were analyzed to identify parameters that may influence rollover propensity to analyze driver injury rate. The US data was obtained from the weighted National Automotive Sampling System (NASS-CDS), calendar years 1992 to 1996. The UK pre-roll data was obtained from the national STATS 19 database for 1996, while the injury information was collected from the Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) database. In the US and UK databases, rollovers accounted for about 10% of all crashes with known crash directions. In the US and UK databases, most rollovers occurred when the vehicle was either going straight ahead or turning. The propensity for a rollover was more than 3 times higher when going around a bend than a non-rollover. In the UK, 74% of rollovers occurred on clear days with no high winds and 14% on rainy days with no high winds. In the US, 83% of rollovers took place in non-adverse weather conditions and 10% with rain.

In this study, U.S. accident data was analyzed to determine interior contacts and injuries for front-seated occupants in rollovers. The injury distribution for belted and unbelted, non-ejected drivers and right front passengers (RFP) was assessed for single-event accidents where the leading side of the vehicle rollover was either on the driver or passenger door. Drivers in a roll-left and RFP in roll-right rollovers were defined as near-side occupants, while drivers in roll-right and RFP in roll-left rollovers were defined as far-side occupants. Serious injuries (AIS 3+) were most common to the head and thorax for both the near and far-side occupants. However, serious spinal injuries were more frequent for the far-side occupants, where the source was most often coded as roof, windshield and interior.

Although the Six Sigma [1] concept has become very popular in industrial sectors, very little is said about how to start a successful implementation in a Corporation, or when it should be initiated, and the most important, who should be addressed to lead this task. Its methodologies are widely observed by different sectors of the automotive market, typically focusing in projects with a potential financial impact, following the DMAIC sequence. More than just financial return, this sophisticated tool, has a direct impact on Quality in different levels for both non-productive process and manufacturing process, that eventually would also affect some organizational structures that ultimately can be understood as reengineering.

In recent years, the desire for improved vehicle performance, reliability and safety have increased the electrical content and its complexity in vehicles. Advanced automotive systems integrate sensors, controllers, actuators and communication networks. To maintain safety and reliability, a comprehensive system of diagnostics and physical and analytic redundancy are used. In some cases, diagnostic strategies based on analytical redundancy can provide detection, as well as fault-tolerance, and may provide benefits in cost, packaging, flexibility and reusability. This paper discusses a range of diagnostic methods and their applicability to advanced automotive systems such as X-by-Wire. It will also show the reduction to practice of an advanced analytical technique for an automotive application.

Miniaturization is an important trend in many technology segments, once it can enable innovative applications generating new markets. This trend was begun in electronics industry after World War II and has spawned changes into automotive sector also. For Automotive Wiring Harness, miniaturization is clearly presented in most of the components, mainly because of its benefits like the potential of mass reduction, cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Furthermore the main voice of customer points to cable gauge reduction that represents a considerable challenge for connection manufacturing process due to quality control limitations presented by conventional crimp process for 0,35 [mm₂] cables and smaller. According to that, the scope of this article is to present, in details, a manufacturing process optimization for an alternative and more robust technology of joining copper stranded cables to tin brass terminals used on automotive wiring harness, Resistance Welding.

A finite element model of a folded airbag with the module cover and steering wheel system was developed to estimate the injury numbers of a 5th percentile female dummy in an out-of-position (OOP) situation. The airbag model was correlated with static airbag deployments and standard force plate tests. The 5th percentile finite element dummy model developed by First Technology Safety Systems (FTSS) was used in the simulation. The following two OOP tests were simulated with the airbag model including a validated steering wheel finite element model: 1. Chest on air bag module for maximum chest interaction from pressure loading (MS6-D) and 2. Neck on air bag module for maximum neck interaction from membrane loading (MS8-D). These two simulations were then compared to the test results. Satisfactory correlation was found in both the cases.

Automotive occupant safety continues to evolve. At present this area has gathered a strong consumer interest which the vehicle manufacturers are tapping into with the introduction of many new safety technologies. Initially, individual passive devices and features such as seatbelts, knee- bolsters, structural crush zones, airbags etc., were developed for to help save lives and minimize injuries in accidents. Over the years, preventive measures such as improving visibility, headlights, windshield wipers, tire traction etc., were deployed to help reduce the probability of getting into an accident. With tremendous new research and improvements in electronics, we are at the stage of helping to actively avoid accidents in certain situations as well as providing increased protection to vehicle occupants and pedestrians.

In May 2000 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued the final rule for the Advanced Air Bag regulations effective MY 2004 for vehicles to be sold in the United States. These regulations are in response to the air bag-induced injuries seen in the field, especially to children and short women. Advanced air bags require a vehicle manufacturer to design air bags for a broad array of occupants: 12-month-old, 3-year-old and 6-year-old children, and 5th percentile adult females, as well as 50th percentile adult males with new and more stringent injury criteria. Requirements for minimizing air bag risks include automatically turning off the air bag in the presence of young children or deploying the air bag in a manner much less likely to cause serious or fatal injury to out-of-position occupants. Technologies that disable the air bag in the presence of young children or adults in out-of-position are termed as "suppression technologies.'

The industry strategy for automotive safety systems has been evolving over the last 20 years. Initially, individual passive devices and features such as seatbelts, airbags, knee bolsters, crush zones, etc. were developed for saving lives and minimizing injuries when an accident occurs. Later, preventive measures such as improving visibility, headlights, windshield wipers, tire traction, etc. were deployed to reduce the probability of getting into an accident. Now we are at the stage of actively avoiding accidents as well as providing maximum protection to the vehicle occupants and even pedestrians. Systems that are on the threshold of being deployed or under intense development include collision detection / warning / intervention systems, lane departure warning, drowsy driver detection, and advanced safety interiors.

The electric power required in automotive systems is quickly reaching a level that significantly impacts costs and fuel consumption. This drives the need to reconsider an electric energy management function. Fast evolving factors such as increasing power usage, and stricter engine management and reliability requirements necessitate a global vehicle approach to energy management. Innovations such as new powernet concepts (42 volt or dual voltage systems), new component technologies (high-performance energy storage, high efficiency and controllable generators), and global electronic and software architecture concepts will enable this new energy management concept. This paper describes key issues to maximize energy availability with reasonable components.

The four major discriminators for products in the market place are Technology, Quality,1 Cost and Delivery. Effective measurement systems and initial design quality have the largest impact on delivered field quality, program development cost and timing, as well as customer enthusiasm. System-level reliability testing methods have a major impact on the business health of any product. The implementation of laboratory forced failure testing in simultaneously applied energy environments has the largest influence for "designing in" field reliability and lowering development cost. Clearly a policy change from success based testing to forced failure testing has had the largest impact on results for the consumer.

Thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) instrument panel skins are in demand in Europe and Asia as a solution to final product disposition environmental concerns. In North America TPO is valued for its durability characteristics (particularly heat and UV aging) and capability for deployment of seamless airbags at cold temperatures. Desiring to have an environmentally “green” system to create the “green” product, Delphi designed a manufacturing process with in-plant closed loop recycling of 100% offal directly back into the skin and the use of waterbased coating system for combating concerns with solvents. Delphi's development of recyclable TPO skin for instrument panels was introduced on 1997 production of Mercedes-Benz M-class. The paper will describe how the systems approach was used in overcoming the challenges involved in closed loop recycling of engineered offal during sheet manufacturing and thermoforming processes and the implementation of waterbased primer and topcoat systems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate occupant injuries which may be sustained during a single-event crash with known roll mechanism. The data was obtained from the weighted National Automotive Sampling System/ Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS) for calendar years 1992 to 1996. The effect of number of rollover turns, roll direction, ejection and belt usage on driver injury responses was analyzed in single-event trip-overs. Trip-overs were chosen for the analysis because they account for over 50% of rollover crashes. The number of rollovers was divided in 3 categories: ¼ to ½ turn, ¾ to 1 turn and above 1 turn. Roll direction was either roll-left or a rollright along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. Roll-left represents a roll with the driver side leading, while a roll right is with the right front passenger side leading. In the database used in this study, there were three times more belted drivers than unbelted.

Bond wires are used in automotive electronic modules to carry current from external harness to components where flexibility under thermal cyclic loading is very essential between PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and connectors. They are very thin wires (few μm) made up of gold, aluminum or copper and have to undergo mechanical reliability to withstand extreme mechanical and thermal loads during different vehicle operation scenarios. Thermal reliability of bond wire is to make sure that it can withstand prescribed electric current under given boundary conditions without fusing thereby retaining electronic module's functionality. While carrying current, bond wire by virtue of its nature resists electric current flow and generates heat also called as joule heating. Joule heating is proportional to current flow and electrical resistance and if not handled properly can lead to thermal run away conditions.

This study compares the effect of US and European airbag deployments on injury outcomes for belted drivers in frontal crashes. Driver weight, height and seat track position was also examined in relation to those outcomes. This information may help to prioritize and guide the logic for “Smart” airbags. For the study, only airbag-equipped cars were considered. Two accident databases were used: 1) the weighted and unweighted National Accident Sampling System (NASS-CDS) from the US, calendar years 1995 to 1996, and 2) the unweighted Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) from the UK, calendar years 1992 to 1998. The parameters investigated were Injury Severity Score (ISS), Equivalent Test Speed (ETS), occupant weight, occupant height and seat location. For US drivers, the injury rate and occurrence were calculated using weighted data, while for UK drivers, the rate and occurrence were obtained using unweighted data.