With its products, the company offers customized solutions for a wide variety of applications in the commercial vehicle sector. Thanks to a wide range of ordering options, customers can configure a MAN vehicle that is perfectly suited to their needs.
“Such a wide variety of possible combinations poses a particular challenge for development,” says Dr. Christoph Baumberger, head of the Product Architecture Department. “By introducing a coherent and consistent product architecture, we are laying the groundwork for the cost-effective management of these complex vehicles.”
To achieve this, it was necessary to migrate the entire existing portfolio to the new architecture. To carry out this project successfully and efficiently, MAN brought 3DSE on board to provide external support with in-depth expertise in the field of modular product architectures. 3DSE’s assignment was to facilitate the introduction of the new product structure through goal-oriented workshops with the development departments.
In the first step, the existing component variance was analyzed and documented for each component of the jointly agreed-upon architecture. In the next step, the variants had to be linked to the sales-side customer ordering options and clearly distinguished from one another. During the workshops, the 3DSE consultants familiarized the developers with the new architecture and worked with them to develop a deep understanding of the holistic development approach.
In collaboration with the sales department, a customized catalog of ordering options was developed in parallel, enabling a consistent and non-overlapping configuration of the vehicles. Through structured, multi-stage variant planning, 3DSE was able to take the interests of all stakeholders into account at an early stage and reduce late-stage change cycles.
Systematic reporting provided management with comprehensive transparency into project progress and enabled the early identification of risks and the implementation of appropriate measures. Within a highly dynamic project environment, the constant adaptation of the approach and the flexible integration of planning results into the product architecture were the key factors for success.
“Thanks to 3DSE’s in-depth and structured consulting, we were able to ensure the successful implementation of a product architecture and enable efficient documentation of development scope at MAN,” reports Caspar Sunder-Plassmann, project manager for the rollout of the new product structure. In total, over a period of two years, four product lines—each with more than 1,200 components—were migrated to the new product architecture and documented within the system.
