Service engineering for prospective vehicle service processes

Garages are - concerning the vehicle service - faced with growing complexity in automotive mechatronics and on-board bus communication technology. Because of the necessity of profound technical knowledge and smart as well as cost efficient diagnostic tools for garages, Bayreuth University and Fraunhofer IPA pick up the challenge and develop innovative service-processes for future requirements by the project "Kfz-Service Engineering 2020". In order to improve established service-processes and develop new service processes a wide variety of service cases had been inspected in garages. The ten most relevant service cases are selected by using an analytical hierarchy process. Future service cases of vehicles amongst others are in the context of electronic diagnostics, control units, electro mobility and automotive lightweight construction. To be able to find and analyze electronic faults, for example, new diagnostic tools have to be developed. New and innovative service processes have been developed for those purposes, which will be published for the first time in this paper. They include the development of test benches, diagnostic and repair tools as well as the installation of highly specialized service centres and remanufacturing companies, to ensure cost efficient vehicle services. The overall aim of the project "Kfz-Service Engineering 2020" is to enable garages to repair and to service modern vehicles as well as to remanufacture expensive automotive subsystems.