Development of a computer-aided concurrent net shape product and process development environment

When entering the global market, companies encounter several difficulties, the most severe being long product development times and too high costs of sequential product and process development. In order to overcome this problem, the companies will have to make a shift from sequential product and processes development (which is wasteful regarding time and costs) to a project-driven concurrent product and processes development as soon as possible. Customer is the king!” is becoming the motto of the global market. In the competition between suppliers of products only those companies will survive, which can offer innovative and individual products of good quality, produced in shortest possible time and at the lowest price (Eversheim et al., 1995). Strong competition, existence of the market of customers and increased complexity of products and processes are the characteristics of today's competition. Fast product and process development, combined with timely participation of customers and suppliers, together with entering the market at the right time, seem to be the decisive criteria for the market success of a product. The first supplier of a new product on the market has an advantage over the competition and thus he has the possibility of a faster return of product development investments (Duhovnik et al., 2001). The company has to switch from sequential to concurrent product and process development (i.e. from sequential to concurrent engineering) in order to reduce product and process development time, reduce development costs and ensure quality of the product according to the customer's wishes (Prasad, 1996). The paper presents a procedure for project-driven concurrent product and processes development by taking into account three strategic management methods: parallelness, standardisation and integration of product development processes. Also presented are the changes in organisational concept of the company, organisation of processes, organisation of work and organisation of IT, which are required for a transition from sequential to concurrent product and processes development. Finally, an analysis is presented on concurrent product and processes development teams in a company; this analysis is a prerequisite for a transition to a new method of product and processes development.

This paper presents a collaborative process and data management framework which is capable of supporting information sharing in concurrent product and process development by providing functions for process control and data management. Establishing this framework involves: (i) identification of functional requirements for computer-aided concurrent product and process development, with an emphasis on net shape processes, (ii) use of system engineering and object-oriented modeling techniques for development of the proposed framework.

<div class="htmlview paragraph">In today's global competitive environment, the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are forced to introduce new products in a relatively short turnaround time and the products are required to be custom designs and developed in a concurrent engineering environment. Concurrent Product and Process Development (CPPD) using Casting Process Simulation brings agility to new product and process design and development.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The current computer aided technologies have enabled metal casters to understand and apply physics behind mold filling, solidification, and microstructure evolution. The commercially available tools allow to simulate most of the conventional casting processes such as sand, plaster molded, investment, permanent mold and die casting. Using this technology, castings are virtually made on computer before any hard tooling is made. Case study on cast component product development is presented. A brief description about the use and effectiveness of Casting Process Modeling for the development of the new casting processes such as Semi Solid Molding is discussed.</div>

This paper presents a systematic approach, from domain investigation and functional requirement analysis, through modelling to implementation, to development of a collaborative data management framework that makes use of object-oriented techniques. The framework can support information sharing and team data management in concurrent product and process development by providing functions for project configuration, personal product and process item management, and team library management. Establishing this framework involves: I identification of functional requirements for computer-aided engineering data management through the investigation of a concurrent product delivery process with emphasis on product and process development; ii use of system engineering and objectoriented modelling techniques for development of the proposed framework. A product structure and a project configuration are devised for the development of an object model, and a functional model. They are used together as the basic construct of the collaborative team data management framework.

The manufacturing environment rapidly changes in turbulence fashion. Digital manufacturing (DM) plays a significant role and one of the key strategies in setting up vision and strategic planning toward the knowledge based manufacturing. An approach of combining 3D machine vision (3D-MV) and an Additive Manufacturing (AM) may finally be finding its niche in manufacturing. This paper briefly overviews the integration of the 3D machine vision and AM in concurrent product and process development, the challenges and opportunities, the implementation of the 3D-MV and AM at POLMAN Bandung in accelerating product design and process development, and discusses a direct deployment of this approach on a real case from our industrial partners that have placed this as one of the very important and strategic approach in research as well as product/prototype development. The strategic aspects and needs of this combination approach in research, design and development are main concerns of the presentation.

When entering the global market, companies encounter several difficulties, the most severe being long product development times and too high costs of sequential product and process development. In order to overcome this problem, the companies will have to make a shift from sequential product development (which is wasteful regarding time and costs) to a project-driven concurrent product development as soon as possible. The article presents a procedure for project-driven concurrent product development by taking into account three strategic management methods: parallelness, standardization, and integration of product development processes. Also presented are the changes in organizational concept of the company, organization of processes, organization of work and organization of IT, which are required for a transition from sequential to concurrent product development. Finally, an analysis is presented on concurrent product development teams in a company; this analysis is a prerequisite for a transition to a new method of product development.

The use of a GERT based method to model concurrent product development processes

This paper focuses on how process modelling and analysis using ‘light weight’ technology1 supported by focused group discussions and workshops can improve the ‘concurrence’ and integration within the New Product Development process. This enables managers to improve the management of product design and development through a better understanding of the issues. The paper argues that the traditional changes in human resource management via introduction of multifunctional/collocated teams required by Concurrent New Product Development (CNPD) can be complemented by the introduction of process management, focused on the modelling and analysis of the ‘softer’ organisational issues. A case study of a domestic appliance manufacturer, developing a new product using a collocated product development team, is described to verify the research. The paper concludes by discussing the issues that emerge from this type of approach to performance improvement in NPD management, such as involvement of all team functions, senior management commitment, standardisation of processes, and training in the process management concept including modelling and analysis techniques. The approach proposed allows one to make both tangible benefits, in terms of cost, delivery (lead times) and quality, and intangible benefits, in terms of communication, people empowerment, motivation, and collaboration.

How to reduce new product development time

Usability is part of product risk management and quality management. It should also be part of product creation process. However, usability engineering models do not fit into concurrent product development practices. In this paper we describe what incompatibilities there are between usability engineering lifecycle and concurrent product development process and describe an example how this problem is handled at Nokia Mobile Phones. Current descriptions for usability engineering lifecycle describe how the work is done during one engineering lifecycle or in one product development project (project organisation) from the very beginning of design to the product launch and to the collection of field feedback. However, in mature development organizations usability engineering is continuous and parallel work from one product to another (line organisation) and the engineering practice should take this continuity into account. In addition to this, product development is naturally divided into three different phases that set different requirements for the engineering work. These phases are concept work, actual product development and evaluation of the product on the market.

This paper presents a collaborative data management framework which is capable of supporting information sharing and team data management in concurrent team-oriented product and process development by providing functions for project configuration, personal product and process item management, and team library management. Establishing this framework involves: (i) identification of functional requirements for computer-aided engineering data management through the investigation of concurrent product delivery process, with an emphasis on product and process development, (ii) use of system engineering and object-oriented modeling techniques for development of the proposed framework.

Allied concurrent engineering is defined by unifying the concepts of virtual enterprise and concurrent engineering in the engineering processes. It aims to integrate the engineering activities and resources from different enterprises through enterprise alliances to respond to customer expectations quickly. The integration, management and sharing of engineering information is the basis for allied concurrent engineering. This paper presents a systematic approach, from domain investigation and functional requirement analysis, through system design and modelling to implementation of an engineering information system that makes use of various modelling techniques. The system aims at quickly providing the right information to the right place at the right time in the right formats throughout the inter-enterprise concurrent engineering processes to facilitate communication, coordination, control and integration of multi-enterprise concurrent product and process development. The result of this research will enable the practice of allied concurrent engineering and consequently help increase product development capability and quality, reduce development cycle time and cost, and hence increase product marketability.

Concurrent Product and Process Development (CP/PD) is a disciplined, computer integrated, product and manufacturing process development methodology. Similar to simultaneous engineering, CP/PD combines marketing, finance, design, engineering, manufacturing, purchasing and suppliers in the development process from concept initiation to customer delivery using computer database technology.

Most industrial implementations of total quality management (TQM) are based on dimensions, which are ‘quality‐oriented’, goals are ‘quality‐focused’ or efforts are ‘quality‐driven’. Today manufacturing sectors are much more fiercely competitive and global than before. Consumers are more demanding, competition is more contentious and ruthless, and technology is advancing (and changing) rapidly. The quality‐based philosophy inherent in a TQM implementation does not exploit the concurrencies present in today's complex product design, development and delivery (PD3) environment. The competitors are always finding better and faster ways of designing and developing products. With the TQM process alone, it is difficult to accomplish all aspects of Total Value Management (TVM) such as X‐ability, cost, leanness, responsiveness, agility, tools and technology, and organization issues. A new concurrent Knowledge Management process for Total Value Management is proposed here, which accounts for concurrency — paralleling of value characteristics — along with an integrated methodology for their systematic deployment. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Firms concentrate more in capturing market by performing product innovations as their key strength. However the key to increase the market share is in their strategy: apart from enhancing the product performance they should concurrently focus in the process innovation, which involves in both technological and business processes. Earlier researches have shown disruptive innovation as a distinct difference from the continuous and radical innovation in product development. However in this study it is shown that it can be extended to process type innovation of high tech industries. For every product there is a close relationship between the product development and its manufacturing process, hence knowledge transfer and technology diffusion between the two teams is crucial to explore and exploit each other's strength. Secondly, to enable process innovation, emphasis should be made to introduce the concept of modularity and flexibility in a product's manufacturing process. Accordingly, this paper introduces a framework for concurrent product and process development that will help a firm to achieve a highest level in its competitive strategy.