Emerging markets aren’t yet at the stage where the big automakers compete with their latest wares but OEMs in India are quickly getting their act right before that inevitability. The days of Indian OEMs following decade-old practices in designing their products are long gone, says MathWorks, developer of mathematical computing software.

According to Wensi Jin, automotive industry manager at MathWorks, Indian OEMs are getting a headstart by getting into rapid prototyping using the latest-generation model-based design software. As a manufacturer moves from prototyping to production, the use of model-based design software like Matlab improves design capability.

Jin states that as a general thumb rule, “The industry as a whole is moving towards production. They start project by project. They take one feature and prototype it, take that as the control feature, and then move to production,” and this applies to Indian OEMs too. “The auto industry likes to use simulation software as a proving ground, but engineers like to see their concepts. They quickly move from the simulating stage to the prototyping stage,” he adds.

Growing maturity of Indian OEMs

Jin also says that they are seeing the maturity of Indian OEMs expand quickly. “They are constantly asking us how to improve their production code generation processes,” he adds. Production code generation converts models into production code for electronic control units (ECUs) in seconds or minutes instead of weeks or months, thereby cutting down development time hugely.

“Since this is a model-based design process, apart from the time saved, there are process benefits too,” Jin comments. In order to aid OEMs and as a learning tool for themselves, MathWorks has teams of engineers that act as consultant engineering outfits.

“Even within the models,” Jin says, “There are multiple paths to take in order to get what you want.” The consultant outfits provides OEMs with constant support. “Customers face the challenge of what model, what library or what database to access for verification. We have the expertise in tools and our customers have the expertise in engine development,” says Jin.

On the other hand, he remarks that the various teams at MathWorks constantly work on expanding these databases. “Our goal is to broaden these libraries to help engineers build their models quickly,” he adds. Asked if its Indian customers are directing any particular queries to MathWorks' technical teams, Jin says, “Customers want to improve how they architect. The models are getting bigger and more important with each project.” The Bangalore-based company also recently expanded its technical team to New Delhi and Pune in order to help its customers based out of those automotive hubs.