Cost Optimization Solution&Testing Strategy for HMI (Human Machine Interface) Products

Abstract: The automotive sector has been the most happening industry in terms of development ever since its creation. With markets emerging across the globe in the automotive sector there are newer challenges in terms of providing new products at lesser cost but without compromising on quality. Testing cost of electromechanical components (HMI) is high and which in turn has a direct impact on the final price of the product, which they are selling it to their customers. One way to counter this issue is to outsource. The aim of this thesis is to actually provide business intelligence where by the midsize segmented automotive suppliers are benefited and the cost of testing can be reduced. The product in focus here is an electromechanical component (HMI) for commercial vehicles. The main contribution in this thesis has been the analysis & implementation of the outsourcing strategy. There were two approaches one being a theoretical approach where a market research was done to get an overview of the current trend and studying the demands of different customer for testing. The second half has been practicality implementing this data collected. Here no assumptions have been taken and the data collected has been obtained purely based on interaction with various test vendors across Europe. Cost optimization analysis was further done in order to arrive at a conclusion of preferred suppliers. Also another strategy used was by investigating possibilities for making some test in house and defining standardized test plan procedures for them. Thereby providing an overall strategy for testing with cost optimization as the main focus also leading to an edge over their competitors and increasing their market share.