Technology-Based Lifecycle Assessment of Software Components in Automotive Product Planning

Abstract

Digitalization in combination with shorter product life cycles, driven by constantly changing customer demands, results in an increasing innovation pressure on automobile manufacturers (original equipment manufacturers, OEMs). The OEM’s R&D department is in charge of integrating innovative software for a variety of components and functions in the digital car of the future. In order to assess the value of software components in car design and development, new evaluation approaches for software technologies are needed, as traditional planning methods for physical parts cannot easily be transferred to immaterial goods like software. A new model is introduced, which follows a value-oriented approach, based on the technology attractiveness of software. It helps to determine the added value structure of technologies incorporated in software components over the whole lifecycle and, thereby, to increase the sustainability of software in the planning process of a new car.