Automotive development has always been a challenging task due to the wide range of technologies and safety requirements. However, the challenge has grown multifold due to new trends in the automotive world: Large numbers of required launches in short timeframes demand significant a reduction in development cycle; the increasing dependence on electronics for comfort and safety is posing a need for complex but reliable systems; and interfacing demand with consumer electronics requires flexibility with easy upgradability.

In a complex development environment where preserving know-how was already a tough challenge due to high skill requirements, an unstable work force and increasingly stringent needs made it out of scope for conventional methods. The concepts of architectural scalability and building complex systems with reusable blocks via appropriate modularity are becoming prerequisite for successful deployment. In this presentation, we discuss the possible solutions using efficient modeling and simulation techniques to support lean product development.