|
The automotive market is extremely competitive in all vehicle segments and the industry
uses Consumer Reports and JD Power for competitive reviews. In both reviews, the
answers are subjective. Consumer Reports uses a ride process and JD Power uses
only those who purchased the vehicle. Answers from those who did not purchase the
vehicle are not available.
ERL uses human body models to represent the population of owners/operators. The
response is objective, independent and mathematical. The body must fit the seat and the
vehicle interior and any interference with comfort is mathematically defined. Thus,
ERL represents those who did and those who did not purchase the vehicle.
To achieve this analytical result, ERL measures the interior with a CMM, scans the seat
with a laser, and measures seat stiffness with a proprietary load displacement machine.
All of this math data is used as input for the ERL software that "fits" the
occupant to the constrained interior geometry. A comfort score (correlation of
0.8 with actual driver comments and scores) is calculated for each occupant and the
weighted average of the occupants. This score can be compared along with the math
data for the new vehicle or a benchmark vehicle.
The result provides a database that has a mathematical basis for economic decisions
regarding competition, cost to meet or beat. This methodology advances the state of
the art provided by Consumer Reports and JD Power.
ERLRUN_BR1 for Benchmarking Seat Evaluation
1. Measure package and scan seat
2. Measure seat stiffness, travel and stowage
3. Calculate comfort score
4. Evaluate seat and vehicle controls reach
5. Static test of FMVSS 202a
6. Evaluate package for market population
|
