Evaluating In-house versus Outsourced Electronic Development in Automotive Industry

Introduction

A diploma work is an excellent way to get closer to Scania and build relationships for the future. Many of today's employees began their Scania career with their diploma project. The subject reflects Scania’s need for development and the results are always highly appreciated.

Location

Scania EEPCU, Electronic Control Unit Design, Scania Technical Center, Södertälje. 20 minutes from Stockholm Central with regional trains (Mälartåg, SJ).

About the Scania group

The EEPCU group at Scania is responsible for development of electronic control units (ECUs) and smart sensors as radar and lidar and cameras. The responsibility includes writing of a requirements specification document for an ECU or  a smart sensor, nominate a supplier and follow up the project until the serial production of the ECU or smart sensor is started.

Background and Description

Commercial vehicles may have up to around 100 ECUs and advanced sensors assembled. It started with ECUs for sensing buttons and levers, and activation of actuators like lamps and valves and pumps, etc. Now a days, there is ECUs for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and soon ECUs as robot for autonomous vehicles. ECUs and sensors and actuators are using smart protocols for communication. The communications protocols have evolved from LIN (Local Interconnect Network) to CAN (Controller Area Network) to CAN-FD (CAN with Flexible Data-Rate) to Automotive Ethernet to GMSL (Gigabit Multimedia Serial Link).

With higher communications speed and higher MCUs (Micro Controller Units) and GPUs (Graphical Processing Units) performance, the electronics of ECUs have become significantly more advanced and more challenging to design over time.

Typically, the development and production of an ECU consists of following steps:

Requirements specification documentation Electronic schematic design PCB layout design PCB bare board production PCB assembly production ECU box building production

Different industries have chosen different level of integration for electronic development and production. Certain industries or companies are writing a requirements specification document, that is the first step only, and are outsourcing remaining steps. Certain are performing all steps in-house. Other are having an approach in between these scenarios.

Objective

The purpose of this thesis work is to examine the advantages and disadvantages of the different levels of integration in the development and production of electronics.

It is interesting to investigate why a certain industry have chosen certain level of integration?

Regarding the various steps, it is worth investigating whether the diametrical positions in-house or outsourced are most effective, perhaps a close collaboration between client and supplier is best?

Job description Literature study of the field. Interviews of internal and external experts. Report writing and presentations. The project can be a collaboration with other internal groups at Scania or external stakeholders. Education/program/focus

Indicated education, program, or focus area: BSc/MSc Industrial Engineering and Management or similar education program.

Number of students: 1 or 2

Start date for the thesis work: In agreement with the student.

Estimated time: 10-20 weeks (the academic institution determines the length)

Contact persons and supervisor

Melek Mentes, supervisor, +46 8 553 80493, melek.mentes@scania.com

Jon Lindholm, group manager, +46 8 553 89136, jon.lindholm@scania.com

Application

Your application must include a CV, personal letter and transcript of grades.

A background check might be conducted for this position. We are conducting interviews continuously and may close the recruitment earlier than the date specified