Case Studies

Customer Solutions

Renault Automotive Uses NI DIAdem for Report Generation and Statistical Analysis from Engine Production Databases

Author(s):

Luca Pasquini, Eurins srl

Industry:

Automotive

Product:

DIAdem

The Challenge:

Generating customized reports from the data archived in engine production tests and performing real-time mathematical and statistical analysis of information.

The Solution:

Developing the Smart Report application using National Instruments DIAdem technical data management software to query an Oracle database; dynamically create and handle graphs, charts, and tables; and manage complex SQL queries.

The ambitious goal of this application was to realize a general purpose data inspection and report generation environment for the engine test benches built and installed by API Com srl in Renault production plants in France and Spain.

The large amount of data acquired during engine production tests indeed requires a highly efficient storage architecture to permit subsequent processing and statistical evaluation, malfunction inspection, and defect prevention. A fairly complex post-production mathematical analysis is often needed to run in parallel with the inspection. In synergy with API Com, Eurins srl has developed the Smart Report application, entirely based on NI DIAdem, specifically to meet the rigorous reporting and analysis needs of Renault.

System Requirements

During engine production tests, automobile manufacturers record data from several sources, including bench sensors, engine sensors, and ECU measurement channels. They also collect time-domain and frequency-domain data from noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) analysis systems. It is mandatory to monitor and analyze the largest possible data throughput for a new engine when it is sent to production. This is the best solution to help engineers optimize the engine test cycle because it is the only way to achieve a thorough description of a statistical ensemble from which to create test parameter limits. Furthermore, fast and complete traceability of the production process is critical to improve overall product quality. For this reason, the Smart Report application has to retrieve every field from all database tables by using SQL queries, be versatile in data processing and organization, offer graphical inspection capabilities and tabular summarizing forms, conduct statistical analysis, and display the information in a high-level and user-friendly graphical interface.

Software Design

We chose DIAdem because it incorporates all the necessary capabilities. In addition to automatically creating reports from a menu developed on the customer’s specification, advanced users have the freedom to carry out their own data analyses with DIAdem. We designed the application graphical user interface in the DIAdem dialog editor and implemented connection and interrogation of the Oracle database, where all production data are stored, in the SQL/ODBC interface that also permits the user to execute arbitrary SQL statements up to 10,000 characters in length. We developed numerous routines for statistical and mathematical analysis, as well as for translation of user-specified search criteria into complex SQL queries, in DIAdem SCRIPT to allow the routines’ execution in response to user-generated events.

Application Functionalities

The first step in using Smart Report is to query the Oracle database and retrieve data in DIAdem. The user interface features three levels that reflect the increasing complexity of the query and the deepening inspection detail. Furthermore, two branches are available to analyze both test bench sensors and NVH data.

The first search level is common to the two branches and performs the task of selecting a subset of engine tests based on engine parameters (such as serial number), test result, date/time, and other information. With Smart Report, the user also can translate the simple graphical interface just by specifying the desired criteria in the correct SQL statement, which is sent to the database through the SQL/ODBC interface. This goal is achieved with an interpreter realized in DIAdem SCRIPT. The underlying database structure is completely transparent to the final user. At the first search level, a user also can create several general-purpose reports. Smart Report can provide multiple-page reports, with one form per each engine test, that collect and display the main results in a simple, intuitive fashion. Smart Report also can produce single-page, summary reports to evaluate the ensemble characteristics (such as the number of good and bad engines) and occurrence of specific failures.

A versatile menu is available at the subsequent search levels. For instance, a user can display the time trend of selected channels over the whole test cycle for an arbitrary large engine number. Furthermore, the user can select one or more specific cycle step(s) to obtain the statistical parameters of the channel under investigation. A dispersion plot with detailed labeling helps in finding abnormal results and in tracing them to specific engines. For NVH-based analysis, Smart Report displays data in both the frequency and order domains, again for an arbitrary large engine number.

The user can define and save search masks, which can increase the application’s automation level and significantly speed up standard report generation on a daily basis.

Versatility of DIAdem

We were able to integrate all the necessary functionality into Smart Report using a single software product. With this versatile system, users can add report types to the packet simply by adding script routines and report templates: this feature is actually very important since API Com benches can carry out several test types to provide full coverage of engine behaviour. The skilled user or production engineer can quit the application user interface without losing data retrieved and processed from the database. And with the powerful tools of DIAdem, we can run personalized data analysis and report generation.

For more information contact:

Eurins srl

v. Marzocchi 2/b

Zola Predosa (BO)

40069 Italy

Tel: +39 051 6167371

Fax: +39 051 6165049

E-mail: l.pasquini@eurins.com, info@api-com.com