Reinventing Safety Systems: Roadblocks; Organizational Structure, Data Analysis Bias, and Systems Integration 2006-21-0061

The automotive environment, within which original equipment manufacturers (OEM's) design, develop, and produce safety initiatives is fluid in light of regulatory and non-regulatory safety initiatives, and other competitive market realities.

As current passive safety systems are being refined and expanded to include the general population, active safety systems covering accident avoidance are presenting a “new frontier” for engineers to explore. Other competitive hurdles include cost, weight, quality, and customer acceptance criteria.

To effectively address this complexity, OEM's must completely reinvent safety system design and development processes. Specifically this paper outlines safety system design and development roadblocks encountered due to organizational structure, data analysis bias, and the need for component system integration. Finally, this paper summarizes methods by which organizations can manage and balance differing requirements in light of regulatory and competitive market realities.