AUTOMOTIVE FEATURE

Vehicle Designers and the Move to Standard Products and Platforms

Steve Clark, the Director of Arrow Design Solutions in the UK, and Patrik Westman, Arrow Nordic’s Sales Manager for automotive, highlight the growing opportunities to support vehicle electronics design and implementation.

A number of the supplier stories featured in this issue of Arrow Innovation have a distinct automotive theme, which reflects the growing importance of the automotive sector to both manufacturers and distributors of electronic components in recent years.

The growth of the electronic content in modern vehicles continues unabated, as designers not only seek to implement new applications, but also to replace conventional, mechanical systems with modern solid-state alternatives. As a result, electronic components are a fundamental element of everything from ‘X-by-wire’ systems to solid state dashboards, and from vehicle safety systems to infotainment applications that bring together driver information and in-vehicle multimedia solutions.

However, all of these new and emerging designs must be delivered in a commercial environment in which manufacturers are looking to constantly drive down system cost. Because of this, vehicle manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers to the automotive industry are looking, wherever possible, to use standard or modified standard solutions rather than custom parts. These parts must be capable of delivering the requisite performance at the same time as meeting the specific operating requirements of the automotive environment.

This situation has lead to a number of manufacturers developing and extending their product ranges with versions that meet automotive requirements without incurring significant premiums over similar products destined for less demanding applications. At the same time, many OEMs are also looking to standardise on product platforms that allow cost-effective re-use across a number of vehicle applications and models.

This shift away from fully custom solutions means that automotive designers are increasingly finding that their component requirements can be met through the distribution channel. However, it is not enough for a distributor to simply stock a specific range of parts. In order to derive true value from the distributor relationship, it is important for automotive designers to carefully evaluate their choice of partner.

At Arrow, for instance, not only do we carry one of the broadest range of automotive semiconductor, passive, electromechanical and connector product ranges, but we also offer design and engineering teams dedicated to the automotive sector. These teams support customers at every stage of the design, product selection, application development, prototyping and implementation cycle.

Our support for the automotive sector also encompasses sophisticated supply chain solutions that can be tailored to the exact needs of the individual OEM, while our global reach and value added commercial services can significantly simplify the implementation of effective supply chains, independent of design and manufacturing locations.