Benchmarking

BENCHMARKING

Before any vehicle introduced into the market, it will go through so many considerations and strategic analysis for a duration of years. A group of engineers works together to give the best product to the market which satisfies the customer requirements and also increase the company's wealth.

During a vehicle development process, it involves main four steps which are

• Predesign and development
• Design engineering
• Development engineering
• SOP and Vehicle market

Benchmarking in the automobile industry involves a structured comparison between similar products, services or processes on some dimensions of performance.

Benchmarking is involved in two stages, Benchmarking-I and Benchmarking-II, which comes under predesign and development. In benchmarking I, comparison is made between the competitors who were producing similar segment automobiles. In this stage, price, specifications and features are also compared. While in benchmarking II, component level comparison is made between the similar vehicles of same segment. The part level comparison helps in reducing weight of the part, thereby improving the performance of the vehicle.

The benchmarking report is mainly created depending on the performance, safety and reliability of the vehicle. Apart from that, the following attributes are taken into account, such as

• Performance
• Drivability
• Advanced Driver Assistance system (ADAS)
• Sound / Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH)
• Real Driving Emissions (RDE) : CO2 / Real life fuel consumption
• Pollutant emissions
• Friction
• Thermal, energy management
• Vehicle dynamics, handling
• Ride comfort

Creating benchmarking report as per customer voice :

Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii requirements -

• Rapid usage for local (going to office in Bangalore city) and long journeys (going to Madurai which is 500 km away monthly)
• A car having 5 seater capacity (for his family including him)
• Budget 8L to 10L
• He is fond of big cars

Some of the cars that having 5 seater capacity are Renault kiger, Hyundai Aura, Maruti Suzuki Baleno, Tata Altroz, Swift, Magnite, Ertiga, Amaze, Eco sport, Ford Figo, i10 nios, 120, Punch, Tata Harrier, Hyundai Creta, Seltos, etc. Among all these, some cars are not considered, depending upon the budget available. The following cars are selected which falls between the price range of the 8L to 10L and also looks like big cars. Here, the priority is given to the cars which may provide high-end passenger safety. They are

• Nissan Maginte
• Renault Kiger
• TATA Altroz
• Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza

The main specifications and safety features of the following cars are shown below

Now compare the all these cars depending on the main attributes.

Conclusion :

By comparing these four cars, we conclude that Tata Altroz is had good mileage followed by Renault kiger, Nissan Magnite and Vitara Brezza. Since, the customer did not mention the fuel efficiency, we keep this point aside.

Coming to the other requirements, all four cars having 5 seater capacity and all are comes under the budget between 8L and 10L.

Among all these cars, Tata Altroz having 5 star riding safety from ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club) and NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) followed by remaining cars.

Because the customer is fond of the big cars, All four cars are having similar dimensions. But Maruti Suzuki vitara brezza having the legroom 790 mm which is greater than the all other cars. Also having the headroom 1000 mm, shoulder room 1390 mm and backrest height 560 mm.

So I recommend the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza car for the Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii because it's having beast look from outer and having great finish at interior with good space. Also, it has 4-star rating from the NCAP which provide safe riding.