“Our Customers’ Success is Our Success Too”

Developers are under great pressure. Shorter product cycles, more derivatives and digitization, or the growing data volumes associated with it, are some of the major challenges facing developers. Today, this makes it all the more important for them to have first-class development tools that provide room for creativity. On the occasion of IAV’s participation in Testing Expo in June, Utz-Jens Beister, IAV Senior Vice President for Product Solutions, explained in the automotion interview what makes IAV products different.

IAV is known as a reliable engineering partner. Are you now becoming a product supplier?

Beister: Needless to say, we will continue to be a development partner to manufacturers and component suppliers worldwide. Yet alongside this, we also want to strengthen our business with development tools, which is not completely new. IAV has been selling products for engineering for many years as a logical addition to our development services and testing facilities. This is why we presented the impressive range and quality of our products to a broader audience at Testing Expo in June.

What’s different about IAV products?

Beister: They are made by developers for developers. We have been working at the forefront of engineering for over 30 years, something which, of course, is above all due to our outstanding engineers – but also to the firstclass products they use in their everyday come directly from practice, are intuitive to use and have the knowledge of our top experts built into them. This makes it possible to cope with highly complex challenges – reliably, even for less experienced users. Human beings are being relieved of routine tasks and can concentrate entirely on what makes them who they are: their creativity. For me, that’s “typical IAV”.

Which applications and projects are IAV products suitable for?

Beister: We have our own development tools for a broad range of fields, such as simulation, design, measurement, calibration, testing and data analysis. Over the course of the years, IAV products have been developed wherever we have seen a gap in the development process. At the same time, it doesn’t matter whether users want to develop a single component or an entire powertrain because our products assist them throughout projects of any size. In recent years, our products have set new standards in the industry: IAV EasyDoE, soon with a new release under the name of IAV Kasai, drastically reduces the number of dynamometer tests and reliably guides the developer through calibration. IAV Mara is a product that organizes huge data volumes, analyzes them and, using block sets, can adapt analyses with ease. We presented both products at Testing Expo.

Which other products did you present there?

Beister: Equally tried and tested, one product is IAV FI2RE which, with a forthcoming technological advance, is being developed into IAV Kivu. This is a highly flexible engine control unit for test bench applications, making it possible to control engine components on the basis of crank angle and time work and which have largely been created at IAV. This means that IAV development tools Still relatively new on the market is IAV Macara, a tool that has been used for many years at IAV that provides the capability of dynamically comparing and editing calibration parameters, saving time and money. We are also presenting INCA-FLOW, a tool for guided calibration and knowledge management. Marketed and sold together with ETAS, it is increasingly gaining significance because even in complex calibration activities it provides the key to obtaining standardized development results quickly and, if necessary, automatically.

Can IAV products be used in combination with products of other firms?

Beister: Yes, of course, because this is the only way to guarantee world-class engineering. IAV development tools integrate seamlessly into the customer’s existing tool and IT landscape. This makes them compatible with the tools, test benches and development hardware of other manufacturers. INCA-FLOW mentioned earlier is a good example of this type of integration and work with other manufacturers. We support all common industrial standards. We even define some of them as part of committee work, such as ASAM CPX (Calibration Process Exchange Format) at ASAM.

The pace in automotive development is getting faster all the time. Can your products keep up with it?

Beister: Our products are always on the cutting edge of technology. There’s no wonder either: we work with them ourselves! They assist our engineers in their day-to-day work at the pinnacle of automotive engineering. We use them to get tomorrow’s mobility solutions ready for volume production. And what we learn in the process goes directly into the next releases and generations of our products. This produces a perfect cycle: our engineering and product development activities mutually reinforce one another.

Can you guarantee your customers a professional service?

Beister: For us, this is central: Our Customer Service is always available to answer questions and resolve problems, in some cases involving the developing engineers themselves. But for me, service also includes gearing our products to the specific needs of our customers when we are asked to. At IAV the focus is on tailor-made customer solutions that integrate perfectly into the customer’s existing IT and process landscape – not on the individual product.

Who uses IAV products?

Beister: They have already proven their worth at many manufacturers and component suppliers in numerous reference projects. Our customers use them to develop better solutions in a shorter time and at less cost. One good example is IAV Primero, our product for simulating faults in lambda probes. Almost all automobile manufacturers across the globe use it to provide verification that their vehicles meet the statutory requirements on exhaust gas aftertreatment.

Why do you make IAV’s wealth of experience available to everyone?

Beister: Quite simply: As a solutions provider, we know that our customers’ success is our success too.

Thank you for talking to us.