Every great product starts as a series of engineering decisions.
Long before the first CAD model is created.
Long before the first part number exists.
Long before the first Engineering Bill of Materials is released.Every new product begins with a question.
What should this product become?
Engineering teams start by defining ambitious objectives.
Target vehicle mass.
Target production cost.
Target Center of Gravity.
Target CO₂ emissions.
Target performance.
Target manufacturing complexity.
These are the engineering targets.
But defining targets is only the beginning.
The real challenge is understanding which product architecture will actually achieve them.
At this stage, engineers explore multiple alternatives.
Should we reuse the existing Body-in-White?
Should the battery pack be redesigned?
Can we carry over the front suspension?
Should this subsystem be completely re-engineered?
Every decision generates a different product scenario.
Each scenario produces different engineering KPIs.
Each scenario brings the project closer—or further away—from its objectives.
Unfortunately, this is also the phase where digital continuity is often missing.Alternative concepts, engineering assumptions and trade-off analyses rarely become part of the company's digital assets.
They remain in personal spreadsheets.
Presentation slides.Meeting notes.
Local simulations.
Or simply in the experience of the engineers who created them.
By the time the selected product reaches CAD and PLM systems, companies usually retain the final product definition...…but much of the engineering reasoning that led to that definition has already disappeared.
This is exactly where LIBRA Target Setting creates value.
Target Setting is not simply a module for creating a new Bill of Materials.
It is the engineering environment where future products are imagined, evaluated and progressively refined before they officially exist.
LIBRA allows engineering teams to build multiple Next Generation product scenarios, starting either from a blank sheet or from one or more donor products.
Existing components can be reused as Carry Over.
They can be Modified.
Or completely New solutions can be introduced.
Every engineering decision immediately contributes to the evolution of the virtual product.
And every engineering decision can immediately be evaluated against the engineering targets that the future product must achieve.
The result is not simply a Target BoM.
It is a structured engineering hypothesis describing how the future product is expected to satisfy its technical and business objectives.
As these scenarios evolve, LIBRA preserves their complete history.
Every iteration.
Every engineering assumption.
Every architectural decision.
Every component origin.
Nothing is lost between one concept review and the next.
Target Setting therefore introduces digital continuity at the very beginning of product development.It captures not only what engineers decided to build, but also why they made those decisions.
Once the preferred scenario has been selected, the archived Next Generation BoM becomes much more than a concept model.
It becomes the digital reference that accompanies the project throughout its development.
As Engineering BoMs are progressively created inside PLM and CAD systems, LIBRA maintains the connection between the original concept architecture and the official product definition.
This ensures that the engineering vision established during the earliest concept phase is never disconnected from the product that is ultimately designed, validated and industrialized.
The same digital thread continues into Assessment, where target and actual product evolution can be continuously monitored and compared throughout the execution phase.
With LIBRA Target Setting, engineering teams can:
• Define engineering targets for future vehicle programs.
• Build multiple Next Generation product scenarios starting from scratch or from one or more donor products.
• Classify every component as Carry Over, Modified or New, preserving complete traceability of its origin. • Evaluate alternative product architectures against engineering KPIs before detailed design begins.
• Preserve every engineering iteration through the Archive function.
• Capture engineering assumptions and design decisions from the earliest concept phase.
• Maintain digital continuity from concept definition to product execution.
• Progressively connect each Next Generation BoM with the official Engineering BoMs created in PLM and CAD systems, preserving complete traceability throughout the entire product development process.
• Transfer the selected Next Generation BoM into Assessment, where target and actual product evolution can be continuously compared.
• Compare alternative concepts with competitor products using Benchmark.
• Share engineering scenarios, KPIs and decision progress through QuickShare.
Target Setting is not where engineers create another Bill of Materials.
It is where they transform engineering ambitions into the first digital representation of tomorrow's product.
Because digital continuity shouldn't start when the first CAD model is released.It should start when the first engineering decision is made.
This is the third article in our LIBRA Deep Dive series.