Modern cars consist of various electrical and electronic (E/E) components, e.g. sensors, actuators, and electronic control units (ECUs). During the development of a car, these components are modeled and maintained by different actors using specific and complex IT systems. Furthermore, concurrent engineering leads to numerous interconnected component variants and versions used in continuously evolving releases. Unfortunately, contemporary Product Data Management
(PDM) Systems only deal with the management of E/E product data on a technical level, while not providing higher level of abstractions; e.g., PDM systems maintain technical information about E/E components or geometrical information (i.e., information about the location of the wiring harness). Besides this drawback, the partly overlapping data models of the involved IT systems complicate maintaining consistency of the various E/E components and also prevent a holistic view. In this presentation we will introduce the PROCEED project and discuss its specific challenges. In particular, we will present typical E/E components one can find in the automotive domain, show how they are interconnected, and discuss how related data is maintained nowadays.
Finally, we will discuss how a holistic view of E/E components may contribute to automotive engineering and to increased product maturity.