In-House Development with Model-Based Design: Q&A with Weichai Power

“With Model-Based Design, we completed development of a production ECU from scratch in 36 months—40% faster than we had planned.”

Challenge

Build a production engine control and embedded software team, establish in-house development capability, and complete the first production program in 36 months

Solution

Use Model-Based Design to design, implement, and test control strategies and ECU software for a common-rail diesel engine while working with MathWorks consultants to develop the team’s software development skills and expertise

Results

  • Development time cut by 40%
  • Integration testing time halved
  • 60% of design reused

Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Weifang, China, Weichai Power designs and manufactures diesel engines for automotive, marine, and power generation applications.

What led you to look for a new way of working?

We had significant expertise in engine control research and prototyping, but relied on suppliers for production ECU software development. This approach proved costly and inflexible. We decided to create an in-house team to develop ECUs for our high-pressure common-rail diesel engines, and needed a methodology and development tools to support this strategic shift.

Why Model-Based Design?

We wanted to implement the new approach before China’s National Emission Standard IV went into effect, and needed the learning curve for new tools to be as short as possible. We knew that Model-Based Design is an industry-proven method. With graphical design and automatic code generation, it not only reduces the difficulty of ECU software development, it also reduces software defects and enables reuse of core design elements.

What results have you seen so far?

Generating MISRA®-compliant code from our models helped us complete development of the ECU about 40% faster than we had planned. We reused approximately 60% of our initial project’s design for a new engine, reducing development time for that engine’s ECU by half. Model-Based Design enabled us to build an in-house control strategy development team within the shortest possible time, and dramatically reduced the cost of team building and development.