CHRYSLER ADOPTING WORLD VIEW\Global teams fashion autos in cyberspace.

Byline: Mike Brennan Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

A few years ago, Charles Streetman would sit at his Chrysler Corp. drafting table, pencil in hand, drawing parts for a car that designers had etched from clay.

Today, from the Chrysler Tech Center in Auburn Hills, Mich., Streetman designs transmissions in three dimensions at a computer terminal linked to thousands of other engineers worldwide.

"I'd sure hate to go back the other way now," he said.

No chance of that.

The world's automakers are pouring tens of billions of dollars into developing what they've dubbed global engineering.

That is, they're working fervently to create design studios in cyberspace where engineers from Michigan to Germany, Japan to Brazil work together to create computer prototypes of the next generation of cars and trucks.

The promises of global engineering are many and varied:

Because they literally put everybody on the same page, computer networks of far-flung engineers and designers make it easier to design cars that can be sold in many different countries.

Creating test vehicles - or prototypes - made of computer code rather than of metal helps automakers get new vehicles to market faster.

It sets the stage for major corporate culture changes by making it easier for employees from throughout the company, suppliers and even customers to help design new cars and trucks.

Global engineering, once confined to the world of science fiction, was a hot topic last week during the Society of Automotive Engineers International Congress & Exposition in Detroit.

Thousands of auto engineers convened in Detroit to compare notes on how far the computer design and assembly revolution has come and, perhaps more importantly, how far it has to go.

The first halting steps toward tapping this global engineering consciousness started for most automakers earlier this decade, when companies such as Ford Motor Co. linked their global operations through electronic mail.

Trouble was, e-mail let engineers communicate with each other only through written text. Graphics, pictures and video - which can be manipulated by engineers around the world working simultaneously on a design - only now have been added to the mix.

Ford got serious about global engineering - which includes virtual prototyping, so dubbed because it allows engineers to build test prototypes on computers - about 18 months ago, when it started thinking about how to harmonize computer systems and engineering standards, said Paul Blumberg, Ford's product development systems director. It will take years to get these changes accepted throughout the company.

Still, Ford has gone far in a short time, said Jim Price, marketing vice president for Mechanical Dynamics, an Ann Arbor, Mich., software maker that writes programs allowing engineers to see designs of parts on a computer screen before metal is cut.

"During the last two to four years, there's been a very dramatic acceleration in the use of virtual prototyping in the product-development process," Price said. "It's not so much just the money savings, but executives are saying, 'If this can help me get to market earlier, my gosh, think of the market share and profit equation and how that changes for the better.' "

Price said his company has worked with the world's top carmakers, giving him insight into how well the Big Three are doing.

"Ford is furthest along, but GM and Chrysler also are embracing this technology," Price said. "Ford, particularly in their truck operations, has had some visionary engineering management that have pushed the equation.

"Chrysler has been innovative with the software in its Jeep and truck operations," he said. "In all three cases, these changes have permeated passenger car developments as well."

While the Big Three have similar goals - creating a worldwide design system that is fast, flexible and efficient - the tools they choose aren't generic. Rather, they reflect each company's background and needs, notes Joe Dinucci, design vice president for Silicon Graphics, a California maker of engineering-design computers the automakers use.

Chrysler's approach, for example, uses a computer system and production model based on the system Boeing used to make its latest jetliner, the 777. Boeing took a page from Japanese manufacturers and pulled together teams embracing everything from design to assembly. Before that, everyone simply did his or her part and tossed the design to the next link in the production chain. Interaction was minimal.

The idea is to lock in the design well before metal is cut or tools are built - a tremendous cost- and timesaving measure that translates into lower customer costs. Before, designs were refined on the fly, often with many expensive prototypes that never were used on the production lines.

Chrysler was so impressed with what it saw at Boeing that it recently signed a technology-sharing agreement with the airplane maker, said Larry Olson, Boeing's 777 computer manager.

Chrysler engineers, though, admit they still have a long way to go, said Robert Tracapelli, an engineer in Chrysler's Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing department.

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PHOTO

Art Anderson works on a car model in the digital mode assembly room at the Chrysler Tech Center. Knight-Ridder Tribune