I know there are going to be bonuses for using an engine family over long periods of time. I had a suggestion that brings a modular bonus into play. Such as bonuses for having multiple families that used the same bore and stroke sets, allowing for the same pistons and rods to be used across platforms cutting some cost? I understand that across certain platforms that would not be a benefit based on valvetrain setups. I am a fan of modular design, and I do this with my engine line up already. Let me know what you think
Every engine family is treated as it having its own factory, so no part sharing bonuses there, we want to keep this kind of micromanagement (including difficult to see mechanics like this) to a minimum. There will be benefits to producing similar engines though, specifically in required engineering time.
By similar do you mean in terms of size, or number and placement of cylinder, or head type?
The way I imagined them doing it is this
You currently produce an I4 push rod engine
Your next engine is a I6 push rod. since you’ve already worked out inline and push rod then you don’t need as much engineering time for those elements and get “bonus” for each, based on the length of time you have been using them.
If however your next engine was a v6 push rod then you would only get it for the push rod tech.
If it was an I4 ohc then perhaps bonus on the inline and 4 cylinder elements.
But if you went with a sohc v8 then there would be no bonus
At least on the family aspect of the engine. I’d guess there’d be something similar with fuel systems etc.
Yeah this is what I meant, so will the engineering bonus only apply to the family tab and our company’s tech points cover the bottom end, cams, turbo and fuel systems?
I couldn’t really say - the above is speculation on my part
That is reasonably close to correct, yes each design choice will be lookedat to see how often you have engineered that in your company already. That naturally gives you a bonus for what you do or specialize in in the long run.