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Since the vehicle development time becomes shorter and shorter every year in automobile industry, it is becoming more important for automotive engineers to be able to analyze each part going into a vehicle in early stage of development. Noise and Vibration (NV) engineers are often required to evaluate the performance of sound proof materials and quickly choose which one should be used in a vehicle being developed in the early stage. In a typical automobile development, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and trim suppliers often communicate via flat sample performance, Insertion Loss and Absorption Coefficient, to decide which parts should be used for a vehicle. Flat sample data is valuable, since it shows the inherit characteristics of the layered product but should not be used as the only metric to decide which product goes into the automobile. The final metric for NV performance should be the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) suppression performance.

The Noise and Vibration (NV) development for interior quietness as related to air-borne noise of a new automobile typically undergoes several stages where each stage can consist of various prototypes. Along with these development stages, all the performance at various level such as Completely Built-Up (CBU) level to parts level need to be appropriately evaluated in order to satisfy the both demands of NV performance and weight reduction. Additionally, since the development time is limited, the performance progression through the development needs to be tracked and can be easily compared for an efficient development. Performance Design Tool (PDT) is a comprehensive vehicle development management system that allows NV engineers to establish a systematic process to make sound design decisions by creating a platform where the vehicle model performance is easily managed and analyzed.