2004 Finalists

2004

1. Delphi Electronics & Safety Winner!

   Delphi Forewarn ® Back-up Aid and Side Alert

   Website:
   Forewarn® is a radar-based system which detects anything significant in its path: children, pets, trash cans, mailboxes, hydrants, shopping carts, and so on. It improves safety. The most obvious early adoptions are for vehicles frequently maneuvering in crowded areas, such as school buses and delivery vans, or every day risks encountered by passenger cars in driveways and parking lots.
   This radar-based warning unit can be retrofitted to almost any vehicle. Rear-mounted it’s a back up aid, detecting obstacles to a distance of thirty feet; side-mounted, the same device is a side alert. As a back up aid, beep intervals shorten into a continuous tone at about eighteen inches, so a driver can back to a wall without looking.
   Priced to sell in the consumer market, Forewarn® outperforms ultrasound and radar-based competitors, and does so at lower cost. It has longer range and superior target detection, which is not stopped by rain, snow, or mud spatters on the unit. It can be installed in the open or behind a fascia within an hour, and usually much less. The unit pays for itself if just one body dent is avoided, and pays incalculably if just one traumatic back up accident to a child or family pet is avoided.
   To accomplish this, Delphi Delco Electronics has in ten years time transformed aerospace radar into a consumer product through great simplification of design, and by optimizing the entire related supply chain using lean manufacturing principles. In addition, in 2003 Delphi broke with its traditional business model as exclusively a supplier of original equipment, offering this Forewarn® unit in the aftermarket, beginning with commercial trucks. Those aftermarket sales are already beginning to accelerate, because demand comes from experiencing the unit, not reading the literature. Demand is expected to build for these units, and eventually to be retrofitted to consumer vehicles in significant numbers.

   Booklet:
   Trucks and recreational vehicles have big blind spots, but such vehicles often must back into tight spaces or make difficult lane changes. Delphi’s new system uses short range, 17-gigahertz radar to help drivers avoid rear collisions or lane-change collisions with vehicles in the blind spot. The radar detects objects as much as 16.4 feet away, three times as far as current ultrasound systems. The system sounds a tone that changes from slow beeps to a continuous tone as the obstacle gets closer. Radar units can be mounted permanently on a large vehicle’s back or sides, or temporarily on a trailer hitch receiver for smaller vehicles.

2. Denso Corporation Winner!

   Very High Pressure Solenoid Fuel Injection System

   Website:
   When American drivers think of diesel passenger cars, few would imagine the quiet and clean performance enabled by Denso Corporation’s Very High Pressure Solenoid Fuel Injection System. Denso combined vision, mechanical engineering, materials science, and software to build a sophisticated system capable of delivering the fuel economy of diesel, while meeting stringent emissions regulations and delivering the performance, drivability and NVH of a gas powered vehicle.

   Denso, one of the pioneers in diesel common rail technology, set out to expand the market for diesel passenger vehicles that would be acceptable to very large numbers of negatively biased consumers, for example, drivers in the United States. Their vision was to use the benefits of very high pressure injection together with more economical “old technology” solenoid injectors. Thus Denso was able to meet OEM needs for a lower cost diesel system which is also emissions compliant. Denso’s ability to provide multiple injection events per cycle, along with precision atomization, effectively doubled the number of vehicles that can now pass the Euro-IV emissions test without the use of expensive diesel particulate filters.

   In solving the challenges of managing 1800-bar pressures, Denso achieved their low cost objectives by using less expensive solenoid injection control, and by engineering a modular pump architecture that allows a high degree of commonality between 4, 6, and 8 cylinder applications, thus reducing incremental engineering effort. One element that especially impressed the PACE Judges was Denso’s use of computer technology to test each injector, store the results in a high density 2D bar-code, and “teach” the engine controller to use these data to optimize the performance of the total system – by compensating for injector-to-injector variation.

   Denso’s Very High Pressure Solenoid Fuel Injection System can be seen on Mazda, Toyota, and Isuzu vehicles, and John Deere farm implements, with additional installations planned for the future.

   Booklet:
   In diesel engines, high fuel pressures give greater control over noise, emissions, power and fuel economy. Denso’s second-generation system uses a new lightweight supply pump that generates pressure of more than 26,000 psi. The injectors that squirt fuel into the cylinders are fed from a single tube – the “common rail”- and can deliver 0.0004second bursts rapidly enough to allow up to five injection pulses per cylinder per cycle. That brings precise control of fuel burning and quiets a diesel engine’s typical rattle. The system is in place on the Mazda MPV and Mazda 6 in Europe.

3. Dura Automotive Systems, Inc.

   RackliftTM

   Instead of making side window lifts out of heavy steel or cables that can fail or slip out of adjustment, Dura has introduced an all-plastic lift with dual rack-and-pinion gears. In this system, a motor is not anchored inside the door but travels with the glass. No lubrication is needed on the proprietary plastic tracks and gears, and the two-point-mounted component only moves the glass up and down, without any chance of bank-and-forth jamming.

4. Johnson Controls, Inc. Automotive Group Winner!

   Overhead Rail Vehicle Personalization System

   Website:
   Given the critical space issues in vehicle interiors, it is quite a challenge to find new and creative means for accommodating useful customer personal items and accessories. Johnson Controls Automotive Systems Group found a way to do just that, while offering a way to personalize a vehicle so equipped.
   The solution is the Overhead Rail System, consisting of metal rails that attach to the inside headliner of the vehicle. These rails are engineered to hold easily-accessible modules that securely attach to (and detach from) the rails, quickly and without tools. This system is standard equipment on the new 2004 Ford F-150 high-end models and will be featured on a number of minivans later this year.
   These modules are designed to accommodate a wide array of featured life-style items, including entertainment systems for movies or video games, tools, first aid kits, locked secured storage for CD’s, personal electronics and other items. Johnson Controls has established partnerships with consumer brand leaders, such as Black and Decker, Case Logic and Dow, to give consumers an unprecedented array of flexible modules, to equip their vehicle to suit their individual lifestyles. Because of the system’s universal design and interchangeable modules, automotive OEM’s will be able to offer many different consumer products and electronics within a relatively short period of time.
   The Overhead Rail System originated as a concept by Johnson Controls New Product Strategy Group, Holland Michigan, responding to unmistakable customer trends toward personalization or “mass customization” of vehicle interiors. The idea was to design in features that follow changes in consumer lifestyles and their changes in needs over time. Products for use in the Overhead rail system can emulate the quicker development cycles of consumer products. Additional module capability and electronic features are on-going, and will be introduced as consumer demands are recognized.

   Booklet:
   People familiar with track lighting in buildings will recognize Johnson Controls’ overhead rail concept in cars. The vehicle system allows manufacturers, dealers or customers to snap in specially designed accessory modules along the vehicle headliner. Manufacturers get ease of assembly at the plant, but dealers and consumers reap benefits, too. If new consumer electronic products make older ones obsolete, car owners can remove the old module and put in a new one without spoiling the integrated look of the interior. The Ford F-150 and Chrysler’s 2005 Town & Country minivan each carry the system, as well GM’s new generation of minivans arriving this fall.

5. Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector

   The three-dimensional (3D) electric field (e-field) imaging IC, MC33794

   Motorola has created a single electronic chip integrated circuit (IC) that detects a low-level electric field and integrates with a microcontroller to interpret the data in three dimensions. The device began as a research tool to amplify cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s bowing technique and next powered a “sensor chair” for magicians Penn & Teller. Today the device is being used to detect people in car seats and activate or deactivate airbags to keep children, small adults and out-of-position occupants safe. It works by sending out a weak electrical field, then interpreting the results that come back from antennas mounted in seat cushions. The device is fast, doesn’t interfere with other electronic signals, and does not need line-of-sight contact to detect objects. The device is used on some Honda and Acura vehicles with side airbags and the Elesys SeatSentry system.

6. Solutia Automotive

   VancevaTM Quiet

   Windshield glass is hard, and wind striking the glass causes panel noise just as wind striking the rest of the car does. Adding a sound-absorbing layer is tough to do while maintaining clear vision. Vanceva Quiet is a viscous film that separates layers of windshield glass, decoupling outer windshield vibrations from the inner layer. Vehicles that use an acoustic windshield, such as the 2004 Buick Rainier, have wind and road noise cut by up to six decibels, a noticeable level.

7. TechForm Products Limited

   Tailgate Assist

   Pickup truck tailgates are heavy, and closing them requires strength. TechForm has put a torque rod into the tailgate that stores some opening energy to help close it later. Operating force is reduced by 60 percent – a significant reduction, since more trucks are being bought and used by women. The rod, in use on the 2004 Ford F-150 pickup, still allows tailgate removal and requires only modest hinge modifications.

8. Visteon Corporation

   Long Life Filtration Systems Winner!

   Website:
   The Visteon Long Life Filtration System is a breakthrough in automotive filtration technology. Visteon Corporation has created the industry’s first and only zero maintenance air filter. Thus Visteon has effectively eliminated the need for an owner or service facility to change an engine’s air filter, for the expected life of the vehicle.
   First appearing on the 2003 Ford Focus PZEV, this innovative filter is sealed for life. Utilizing a new and proprietary multi-layer foam and activated carbon design, this filter actually improves particulate capture over conventional paper based air filters, without ever needing servicing. From the consumer’s point of view, this innovation directly reduces lifetime ownership costs and maintenance associated with periodic filter replacement.
   From the OEM’s point of view, however, since the air filter never needs servicing, that is, to be inspected, cleaned, or replaced, Visteon has eliminated the design constraints associated with locating traditional filters where they are readily serviceable. In turn, this enables the automotive manufacturer’s designers and engineers to locate the filter wherever in the vehicle there is vacant real estate (under an adjacent wheel well, for example), saving very valuable space within the seemingly ever-shrinking engine compartment where space is at a premium. Further, the shape and dimensions of the Visteon filtration system are relatively flexible, and it’s fully recyclable.
   In addition, superior filtration capabilities are expected to reduce engine wear caused by dirt and dust, and thus lower lifetime warranty costs. Cleaner engines in terms of pollution are also expected.
   Today, Visteon’s competitors are only working on extended mileage filters or cleanable filter media that utilize messy and time-consuming techniques to clean them. Visteon’s Long Life Filtration System has changed the rules of the game and added to the company’s leadership in this important area of automotive air induction. For Visteon, this has strategic importance to attracting new OEM customers who may not have considered Visteon in the past.

   Booklet:
   Filtering harmful matter out of the air before it reaches the engine has been managed for decades with replaceable filter cartridges. But Visteon has created a multilayer filter made of different types of treated open cell foam that will last at least 150,000 miles. The foam has a variety of dust-trapping characteristics to assure even air flow, and the system is sealed for life. Because there is no need for frequent filter replacements – or easy access – designers can place the filter and air induction system wherever space is available.

9. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

   The Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3

   Goodyear has developed a tire that offers high-performance features for passenger cars. The tire tread includes a continuous centerline rib for handling precision, and tread design creates a bigger area of contact with the road. Specialized grooves move water out of the way fast for wet traction and also reduce tire noise by minimizing trapped air. Special multipolymer tread compounds increase both wet and dry traction.

10. TRW Automotive, Inc. Winner!

    Active Control Retractor (ACR)

    Website:
    Everyone who makes or uses automobiles puts a high premium on active safety measures that can economically be deployed to intervene and so minimize or prevent injuries in a crash. Up until now, safety measures have been passive, or begin to be activated and come into play once a crash event is under way, that is at time T = zero plus some increment of time until deployment.
    TRW’s innovation, designed and commercialized by TRW Automotive in Alfdorf, Germany, is to have come up with an innovative active safety measure that begins to work at T minus an increment, that is, to start to take effect before the actual crash event actually begins. This points the way to entirely new ways of thinking about active safety measures.
    TRW’s Active Control Reactor (ACR) is a seat belt pretensioner that really is a pre-tensioner, that is, it begins working before the crash has begun. Reading data from a vehicle’s braking and stability control sensors, it reacts by snugging up the driver and passenger seatbelts, so the occupants are positioned correctly between seat-back bolsters in advance of an impending crash. In approximately two thirds of crashes, the actual event is preceded by hard braking, sliding, and skidding. Car occupants – even wearing seatbelts – are out of position a very large percentage of the time, and this can contribute materially to injuries directly, or indirectly, by rendering other restraints and safety measures less effective. The only events for which this device cannot make a contribution are ones from the rear or side, if they are totally unanticipated by the driver. For that reason, the ACR may be supplemented by more usual pyrotechnic “pretensioners, “which activate in a way that is similar to airbags, once the crash is initiated. The ACR has electrical activation, by contrast, which in turn activates electronic motors located at the bottom of the B pillars, reeling in three point belts. And unlike pyrotechnic activation devices, the ACR may be activated and automatically reset and activated again any number of times.
    TRW’s ACR makes its first appearance as standard equipment in the European Mercedes-Benz S-Class for 2003. TRW has other signed contracts for ACR units, and competition is beginning to react to this innovation.

    Booklet:
    Safety in a crash is greatest when humans are in the correct position in their seats. TRW’s European developers created an active seat belt that uses chassis stability and braking sensors to know when a crash is happening, and tightens the belts in anticipation, holding occupants in the right position before impact occurs. The system, installed in the Mercedes-Benz S class, uses a computer controlled electric motor to act in milliseconds. If no crash happens, the belts ease off after 10 seconds, ready for re-use.

11. Valeo Systemes Electriques

    Achieving Start-Stop with 14v Reversible Starter-Alternator

    Stopping and restarting the engine when a vehicle comes to a temporary halt in city driving can save fuel and reduce emissions. Valeo has developed a start-stop alternator that uses standard parts and works within the existing voltage structure of cars. The air-cooled system uses a 2.5 kilowatt voltage inverter placed between the battery and the belt driven “claw-pole’ alternator/motor. The inverter converts direct current to alternating current to drive the motor in silent starts, or AC to DC current to charge the battery. The system will be included on some PSA Peugeot-Citroen products this year.

12. BASF Coatings Winner!

    ColorCARE

    Website:
    During the 1990’s BASF and Audi jointly developed the theory of how to compare mathematically the colors of automotive base coat/clear coat, including, significantly, popular modern paint types which contain metal or mica flakes, based upon spectroscopic analysis. They validated that their physics-based approach would yield results comparable to but more precise than human perception of color. Thus, they developed a methodology to compare two painted surfaces and determine, using spectroscopic analysis, whether a human (someone approving a new batch of paint, or accepting prepainted hang-on parts, or, a customer) would conclude that the colors matched. That work has led to a German industry DIN standard (issued March, 2001)
    Based upon that joint work, BASF went on to develop a powerful and complex software program and related procedures for controlling and comparing paint color at both the final assembly plant and at the plants of each of the suppliers of painted parts. The program uses inputs from hand held spectroscopes made by a variety of suppliers. This provides the paint shop manager with both the data base and the analytical tools to make possible the consistent, objective control of color throughout a model’s entire production run. It is as applicable to analysis of successive new batches of paint as it is to the color match between body panels and painted parts coming from outside suppliers. The program, which is licensed by BASF to automotive OEM’s, suppliers, and other paint vendors, is called ColorCARE. It is now fully installed world-wide by Audi.
    ColorCARE has eliminated most problems of color matching. Suppliers using ColorCARE can consistently and objectively control the color of their painted parts. The suppliers can ensure that the color of their parts is within standard and will be perceived as matching the painted body before the parts ever leave the suppliers’ plants. The result has been a significant reduction in rejections of paint or painted parts, and an end to all arguments regarding color match.

    Booklet:
    People are sensitive to minor color differences. With more and more modular parts being made and painted far from final assembly areas, vehicles can emerge with noticeable clashes between different parts painted in the same hue. Even in the same plant, the paint on hoods, door panels and fenders may differ. BASF’s software establishes a color-tolerance model that lets manufacturers match the exact hue being produced by OEM paint shops, or lets OEM paint shops match hues between assembly lines. Color problems can be identified by measurements and fixed before a production batch of parts or vehicles is damaged. ColorCARE also makes paint shop arguments a thing of the past.

13. DuPont Automotive Coatings Winner!

    The Wet on Wet Two Tone Products

    Website:
    DuPont’s TuTone Wet-on-Wet paint system allowed Ford to meet market demand for its highest margin pickup trucks. Previously, having two finish colors required running a vehicle through paint booths a second time, or using expensive plastic cladding. DuPont’s innovative primer and basecoat system allows two-color painting with just one pass through the paint shop. In practice this eliminates a major bottleneck: last year Ford was able to produce 39,000 additional two-tone super-duty pickups, one of their most profitable and sought-after products.
    DuPont achieved this with a wet accent color basecoat applied over a wet primer. The vehicle thus enters the initial primer bake with one color already in place. The second (main) basecoat and clearcoat are applied in the normal manner, with only limited masking and demasking. The finished product has a higher intrinsic quality and fewer defects than previous two-tone processes, yet requires less labor and less paint.
    Key to this innovation was a large-scale, cooperative team effort between DuPont, Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP) and Ford Global Vehicle Operations in Dearborn. Two-tone trucks were in high demand, so speed was of the essence. Furthermore, KTP is Ford’s largest plant, has its highest line speed at 40 feet per minute, and operates at capacity. For the innovation to be viable it had to be validated by Ford quickly, and implemented without shutting down the paint line. Cooperation allowed that to happen. The team went from initial brainstorming, to DuPont’s application of its polymer chemistry expertise to developing a process, to the devising of a validation methodology and fine-tuning of the process, to installation, all in 18 months. Thanks to extraordinarily close teamwork among multiple sections of Ford and DuPont, Wet-on-Wet TuTone was implemented ahead of schedule and with immediate ramp-up to full production.

    Booklet:
    DuPont’s process lets automakers put two enamel colors onto a vehicle in one pass without any mixing of the two wet paints. The process relies on an advanced primer that lets the color accent coat be applied over the wet primer. The process speeds production and boosts quality by eliminating a bake cycle previously used to dry the paint. It is being used on Ford F-250 and F-350 pickups.

14. Filter Specialists, Incorporated Winner!

    FERRX 5000

    Website:
    One of the most vexing problems in the production of automobiles and trucks is the contamination by ferrous particles of the initial, e-coat, prior to the application of base coat paint. These particles adhere to the body surface after welding, grinding and shaping operations. The larger particles, “weld balls,” if not removed, are potential time bombs that with time may erupt through the paint surface and leave the surface vulnerable to further corrosion, as well as unsightly. The smaller particles, at a minimum, preclude a less than perfect appearance to the final paint finish. Removal of ferrous material imperfections in a paint finish has involved sanding and repainting, a very costly labor-intensive process.
    Heretofore there have been several means to remove ferrous particles. These include mesh or screen filters of various sorts, magnets, and centrifuges. Each of these requires frequent cleaning and generally does not remove a high percentage of the particles. While this cleaning is in progress the e-coat application must be suspended.
    The FERRX 5000 magnetic separation device avoids these disadvantages with its self-cleaning, highly effective approach to removing ferrous particles. It accomplishes this by positioning powerful, rare earth magnets in the stream of effluent from the cleaning/rinsing tank. As the effluent follows a twisting path around the magnets, the suspended ferrous particles are caught and held. At the end of a cleaning cycle the unit automatically purges the contaminants. These functions are performed automatically, without shutting down the e-coat line and without any disassembly or the direct involvement of plant personnel. At flow rates of up to 300 gallons per minute, the FERRX 5000 has demonstrated removal of over 98 percent of all ferrous particulate that passes through it. A single unit in the deluge stage of a phosphate tank has been shown to reduce defects in the cured e-coat surface by over 50 percent.
    With minimal effect on paint shop operation, the FERRX 5000, a fully programmable, automated and self-cleaning device, dramatically increases first-time-through ferrous contaminant removal capability. The result is hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for the assembly plant through reduction of rework. The vehicle buyer also benefits from a more durable and higher quality paint finish.

    Booklet:
    Car bodies must be cleaned before they are painted. But baths of phosphate cleaning solution can pick up tiny metal bits called “weld balls” from one car and leave them on the next one in line. The weld balls cause paint defects and costly recoating repairs. Filter Specialists has developed a spiral magnetic separator that yanks the weld balls from the cleaning solution, holding them until an automatic purging cycle removes them from the equipment safely. Paint shop staff don’t need to monitor the equipment constantly, and better filtration leads to fewer paint repairs.

15. Intertec Systems

    HPI –High Performance Integration

    AN instrument panel traditionally has been a complex assembly of hard plastic and plastic-over-foam parts. Intertec has created a process that molds everything together, creating a soft upper instrument panel and a hard lower panel with molded-in color. Components that ordinarily must be assembled instead can be molded in one process. These include windshield defroster grilles, center trim bezels and end panels. The process also reduces waste that comes from trimming overhanging soft plastic skin and foam. The system was used to create the Mazda 6 instrument panel.

16. LexaMar / Decoma

    URSA Minor for AS 4700

    Plastic exterior trim on vehicles is popular because of cost, design and application advantages. But compared with metal trim, plastic is soft and subject to weathering. Decoma and General Electric have developed a machine and a process to make plastic trim surfaces durable. The machinery uses ultrasonic surface cleaning in a multistage process, computer-controlled solvent and resin baths, and a special oven to relax the plastic’s polymer structure. The coatings are specially developed silicones that include an ultraviolet-absorbing molecule to prevent weathering in the base coat. As a result, the top coat stays tough and remains strongly bonded to the plastic trim. The trim appliques have appeared on the Saturn Vue lifegate, the Lincoln Navigator C-pillar and all Chrysler group minivan C-pillars.

17. Metaldyne Corporation

    Flexible Manufacturing Process for the International Front Engine Cover with Complete Sychronized 2-spindle Machines Controlled by Single Channel

    Machining of metal castings typically has been done in stages, with a casting moving from one machine to another. But time is lost and errors can occur as parts are transferred or machines are adjusted. Metaldyne has developed machining with two separate and independent work spindles that can drive a library of robotically selected tools. The machines are self-adjusting, so they maintain tight tolerances while compensating for tool wear and tool heating. Each machine works on two parts simultaneously, increasing productivity while reducing the amount of factory floor space needed. One person can control a six=machine line.

18. Motoman, Inc.

    Multiple Robot Control and Autonomous Robot Cell – A.R.C.®

    Robotic assembly has improved quality while speeding production lines, but Motoman has gone further, creating cells of robots that work together to build complex parts. Multiple Robot Control lets groups of robots be configured and reprogrammed easily. Autonomous Robot Cell refers to the use of one robot to load or unload parts and, in some cases, to hold a part that other robots work on. One human operator can oversee many robots while using just one controller. The system will allow carmakers to pursue programs with a short production run by reconfiguring robot cells for different tasks to create unique vehicles, rather than by investing in expensive dedicated production lines.

19. AutoForm Winner!

    AutoForm-DieDesigner®

    Website:
    AutoForm’s DieDesigner® is software used by die designers and others to design pre-production or prototype draw dies used in sheet metal stamping. DieDesigner® automates a number of die design processes and reduces significantly the time needed to complete a die design. When used with the simulation tools previously developed by AutoForm, DieDesigner® allows many iterations of a design in a relatively short time, permitting rapid exploration and then optimization of the design.
    DieDesigner® is a powerful tool that can be used to evaluate the manufacturability of sheet metal parts, to suggest modifications to the parts which will enable or enhance manufacturability, to test alternate die designs quickly, to optimize die designs prior to fabrication. and to complete the design of prototype dies with the data being exported directly to CNC milling machines.
    In the evaluation of manufacturability and the suggestion of modifications of part design, DieDesigner® changes what was an art to a science. In the testing of alternate die designs, DieDesigner® is so fast and powerful that it permits exploration of multiple alternatives to an extent that was not possible before. In the completion and optimization of designs, DieDesigner® reduces the work of days to hours and the work of weeks to days.
    When a die design has been optimized using DieDesigner®, the dies can typically produce parts from the first hit with no major problems and minimal rework. DieDesigner® significantly reduces die tryout time and has earned the confidence of the die designers.
    Although simulation programs for die design and die design programs using CAD have existed before, this software takes a new approach based upon the toolmaker’s point of view using unique algorithms. It has a power and speed several orders of magnitude better than anything seen before and is viewed in some tool and die shops as “indispensable” and “the most important software we have”.

    Booklet:
    Stamping metal parts accurately requires more than just the correct stamping die. Every part of the process, from the way the metal is fed to how the blank is held, must be exact. High-end computer-aided design programs can do wonderful die design but require lots of time to tweak each part of the process. AutoForm has created a design process that uses data parameters to build complete three-dimensional die designs that include complex blank-holder geometry, as well as all the features of the metal itself including its flanges, trim lines and how it will stretch or compress in forming. By preparing a data model, the user can see graphically how the entire process will run and can change the die, the part or the process to achieve targets in just a few hours instead hundreds.

20. Delphi Corporation Saginaw Steering Systems Winner!

    Horizontal Modeling and Digital Process Design for CAD/CAM

    Website:
    Despite many advances in three dimensional CAD/CAM software packages, designers have struggled with model complexity and difficulty changing product design features without unwanted effects everywhere else. Most design features cannot be edited in isolation. The resulting complex iterative process is tedious and a source of errors. These problems also hamper creativity by limiting the number of design iterations one can make.
    Delphi’s “Horizontal Modeling” is an entirely new, patented methodology for using existing 3D CAD software which enables design features to be treated independently. This allows changing, deleting or replicating features without adversely affecting the rest of an existing model. The designer is able to construct a model without the complexities of linked dependencies, and this is revolutionary.
    Horizontal Modeling increases designer productivity by 75%, and changes in a part’s design can automatically trigger new process sheets. Using Digital Process Design yields labor savings around 50% for file creation and over 90% for editing process drawings. Other processes, such as tooling and fixture design, assembly simulation, and process analysis are also improved.
    The methodology is being adopted throughout all divisions of Delphi, with estimated savings of $4 million in 2005 and much more in future. Delphi has over fifteen patents pending for Horizontal modeling and Digital Process Design. With the assistance of third party training companies, Delphi is offering a training and certification program to designers from other companies and industries.
    Through the rapid change capability of Horizontal Modeling and Digital Process Design, designers can focus more on innovation and creativity than mechanics of software. And, developing product design and manufacturing processes simultaneously has becomes a practical reality.
    Booklet:
    Computer-aided design and manufacturing are used widely but can have drawbacks. You can’t change one product design feature without unwanted effects that forced further changes everywhere else. Delphi’s “Horizontal Modeling” is a new patented methodology for using existing 3-D CAD software that enables design features to be treated independently. The result is labor savings of around 50 percent for file creating and more than 90 percent in editing process drawings. The designer now is able to construct a model without the complexities of linked dependencies .That means more focus on innovation and creativity and less on the mechanics of the software.

21. i2 Technologies, Inc.

    i2 Service Parts Management – Muti-Echelon Inventory Optimization for Service Parts

    It is vital for a vendor to have a part on hand when a customer needs it. But keeping factories moving to build inventory stored in warehouses or on shelves is wasteful and expensive. Dealing with parts turned in for remanufacturing also is difficult. But by integrating software systems, i2’s technology can tell a service parts vendor whether to send a new part from the factory, transfer a part from a warehouse, move a part from one retailer’s shelves to another’s, buy a part from another company or substitute a similar part. The system also can plan the best repair and rebuilding choices for “core” parts turned in at the counter. Manufacturing makes only the parts that are needed, when they are needed. That turns every piece of work into a sale.

22. Motorola, Inc. Winner!

    VIAMOTOTm

    Website:
    Drivers wanting navigation systems have had to choose between expensive in-vehicle systems or stand-alone portable systems. Both require significant initial investment and rely on maps that can easily become obsolete, and reflect nothing of current conditions, such as traffic or construction. GM’s OnStar represents a third option, combining a voice connection to a call center-based “concierge” and a GPS-based in-vehicle component, but this also requires a significant up-front investment for the in-vehicle GPS and communication components. Leveraging their experience in cellular technology and the governmental mandates for GPS based E-911 capabilities, Motorola’s Viamoto transforms an inexpensive personal cellular telephone into a powerful navigation system complete with local information and personal assistance tools.
    Initially launched as “Avis Assist,” Viamoto enables Avis renters to receive spoken turn-by-turn driving directions on a standard GPS enabled Motorola phone connected to the Nextel cellular network. ViaMoto is continuously updated with map data and is integrated with point-of-interest databases to provide users with the most accurate and up-to-date navigation services possible.
    By leveraging existing cellular networks, Viamoto provides both the technology and commercial infrastructure for delivering navigation services on a pay-as-you-go basis, without the need for up-front investment. Because Viamoto is cellular based, it can use continuously updated map and location data to respond to requests for the closest ATM, gas station, or hotel. Using cellular connections to a central call center allows Motorola to offer customers the option of using the cell-phone keypad, a PC/Web connection, or a voice call for accessing Viamoto.
    Viamoto provides consumers with a more accurate, more portable, more flexible, and less costly tool compared to existing navigation systems, which are permanently installed in the car. In addition, Viamoto® is not limited to only navigational use, as local information, traffic and construction updates, and entertainment and retail information can all be provided on the same device – your personal cellular phone. Viamoto is available to Nextel subscribers, as well as Avis renters. About to be announced as of the date of the 2004 Automotive News PACE Awards is a major partnership and adoption, which will provide the logical next step in the application of Viamoto.

    Booklet:
    Motorola’s concept is simple: A cell phone or personal digital assistant should have the capability to become a navigation system that can give turn-by-turn directions. The achievement: putting together the software details of the client-server computing system. Motorola’s concept treats each vehicle or user as a wireless client that communicates with powerful server computers to get detailed and up-to-the-minute navigation data. Viamoto stores computing resources such as maps and directions at service centers, waiting for customers to connect using a cell phone with a global positioning system. The system then can give voice-based direction and continuously updated advice and can monitor a vehicle’s location to make sure a wrong turn hasn’t been made. The system is being used in Avis rental vehicles.

23. Schneider Logistics Inc.

    SUMIT CVNTM (Collaborative Visibility Network)

    If senders, shippers and receivers could see into boxes of parts, even while they were in transit, the world of logistics would be smoother and simpler. Schneider’s collaborative visibility software allows just that. Suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, packaging facilities and cross-dock locations can track materials all the way through the supply cycle. That lets users reduce so-called “safety stocks” of inventory and know exactly where key parts are and when they will arrive. The system was used first by GM’s Service Parts Operations and also has been used by Ford’s Customer Service Division.