Perceived quality - the impression of quality that a potential customer gets when first viewing a new vehicle - has long been a significant factor in the passenger car buying process. The keys to achieving high perceived quality are:

• control of variation from the outside in and determine the critical dimensions of the vehicle structure that effect PQ;
• full understanding for the ways in which different materials behave during manufacturing and final assembly.

aesthetica supports critical dimensional management and perceived quality reviews at all major phases of the digital product development process.

• Project approval:
  aesthetica enables designers to take variation into account. They can set and refine tolerance targets and refine the design to reduce or eliminate sensitivities, without compromising the aesthetic aspects of the design.
• Style freeze
  aesthetica enables development teams to carry out multiple iterations of locator analyses. They can determine which scheme has the least effect on perceived quality and validate targets alongside the manufacturing assembly process.
• Engineering release
  aesthetica enables design and manufacturing teams to communicate and collaborate more effectively. Conflicts between design aspirations and manufacturing reality are resolved more readily by visualising full design and detail - not just at selected measurement points.
• Product release
  aesthetica enables you to calibrate the audits and to visualise limits of acceptable variation on the 3D digital product model. This gives you the ability to create pictures of 'limit samples'.
• Production
  aesthetica enables you to review any remaining concerns and issues as you move to full production. Parameters for quality assurance can be set and fed back for use at the concept stage of the next product refresh or upgrade. Potential running changes can be assessed before being introduced, enabling you to investigate supplier quality issues and to help increase the number of successful builds.

Real, measurable benefits

aesthetica helps you cut development times through quicker decisions earlier in the development process, reduce costs through fewer physical prototypes and increase perceived quality for greater customer appeal.

The facts speak for themselves.

One major automotive manufacturer identified cost savings of over $875,000 on one vehicle programme alone. These savings came from less re-tooling, fewer physical models and a shorter development time-line.

Another realised immediate cost savings of over $100,000 per year on an existing vehicle through reduced scrap and rectification and significant labour cost savings. Thanks to aesthetica, they also discovered something that numerical analysis alone had not revealed: that over 20% of vehicles would have unacceptable gap conditions. Design changes could therefore be made to deliver improved perceived quality on future programmes.