High-technology Product Development Research Articles

Barriers to reuse of codified engineering knowledge in product development - a literature review

Organisations have for a long time been applying a codification strategy, to build and reuse engineering knowledge throughout product development and the product lifecycle. Billions of dollars have been invested in systems to support knowledge capture, including investments in IT systems and upgrades to PDM/PLM systems to support knowledge codification (documentation) and reuse. Nonetheless, research has shown that knowledge documentation is not used to the extent possible and quality issues within products that should be avoided still occur. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to review barriers that hinder valuable and effective codified knowledge reuse inside high technology product development companies. The study resulted in the identification of 18 barriers mapped into the typology of people, organisation and technology. The study contributes by providing insights for the design and implementation of knowledge management systems (KMS) allowing practitioners to develop strategies to overcome identified potential barriers and improve the engineering knowledge reuse strategy. The paper is also rounded up with a discussion regarding the KMS relation and potential integration with a PDM or PLM system.

Barriers to reuse of codified engineering knowledge in product development - a literature review

Organisations have for a long time been applying a codification strategy, to build and reuse engineering knowledge throughout product development and the product lifecycle. Billions of dollars have been invested in systems to support knowledge capture, including investments in IT systems and upgrades to PDM/PLM systems to support knowledge codification (documentation) and reuse. Nonetheless, research has shown that knowledge documentation is not used to the extent possible and quality issues within products that should be avoided still occur. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to review barriers that hinder valuable and effective codified knowledge reuse inside high technology product development companies. The study resulted in the identification of 18 barriers mapped into the typology of people, organisation and technology. The study contributes by providing insights for the design and implementation of knowledge management systems (KMS) allowing practitioners to develop strategies to overcome identified potential barriers and improve the engineering knowledge reuse strategy. The paper is also rounded up with a discussion regarding the KMS relation and potential integration with a PDM or PLM system.

Operation of high-technology product development based on functions and value

The sector of military-industrial enterprises was the most state supported in recent years. It is obvious that success of strategic initiatives is defined by efficiency of the enterprises diversification and can provide bringing domestic products to the world market with the highest level of competitiveness. Military-industrial enterprises (as drivers of the economy development) have to provide the implementation of several national programs and projects: industry development, diversification, import substitution of hi-technology products, production of the export-oriented products, increase of labor productivity, digital economy. That’s why it is important to find effective solutions, which can provide achievement of several tasks. At the same time, effective development of civilian products is interfered by a number of organizational and economic conditions. For definition of the unique set of functionality and characteristics of a product on the basis of the unique customer needs (for competitive hi-tech export-oriented civilian products), the FSA was created. This model allows to provide the civilian products manufacture development due to paramount and constant orientation to requirements of the market and clients, and the production process improvements for cost reduction without damage to its quality.

The Development of Innovation Infrastructure in Crimea Region

This article deals with major problems of sensibility of business’ economy to innovations and their solution within social and economic growth of Crimea. The article presents problems of implementation of innovation infrastructure policy in Crimea. Market dissolution of cross-sectoral barriers does not provide secure horizontal interdependencies, so a reasonable strategic decision mechanism in the sphere of innovations needs to be organised and developed. In this article we demonstrate the need for transformation of internal and international profile of Crimea: progressive development of high-technology products and services. In addition, we evaluate prospects for state commercialisation of scientific results.A solution to a problem of Crimea innovation infrastructure development can provide steady social and economic development of Russian economy within innovations. Implementation of innovation regional infrastructure policy would present local enterprises with landmarks for development of long-term projects, exploration of new local and foreign market niches withing the “knowledge-based economy”. At that, there are several more important components of regional strategy for development of innovation infrastructure: progressive trasformation of type of international specialization, export diversification, expansion of market share of home high-technology products and services. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p396

Vigas tipo I para la construcción civil fabricadas con madera de plantaciones de rápido crecimiento en Costa Rica

En años recientes, el mercado de la madera en Costa Rica ha sido abastecido por especies de plantaciones forestales de rápido crecimiento. No obstante, aún se presentan vacíos en el diseño y comercialización de productos de alto desarrollo tecnológico. Con el propósito de introducir las maderas de plantación en el mercado, se estableció como objetivo determinar los esfuerzos de diseño (esfuerzo en flexión, cortante y la rigidez a flexión) de vigas tipo I construidas con madera de <em>Gmelina arborea</em>, utilizando madera sólida en las zapatas y plywood de 12 mm en el alma. Se desarrollaron tres tipos de perfiles (24, 16 y 10 cm de alto) y dos tipos de calidades (A y B). Los resultados mostraron que los esfuerzos de diseño variaron de 60 a 147 kg/cm2 en el esfuerzo en flexión y de 42 a 92 kg/ cm2 en el esfuerzo en cortante. Las vigas de 10 cm y de calidad A presentaron los esfuerzos más altos en flexión y cortante, seguidos por las vigas de 24 cm y 16 cm. Con respecto a la rigidez a flexión, las vigas perfil 24 son las que poseen el valor más alto, con 302787437,1 kg-cm2; seguidas de los perfiles 16 y 10. Al demostrar el uso de las vigas en entrepisos, se observó que las vigas de calidad A son las que producen las longitudes óptimas para el mercado. Para techos, la clasificación por calidad de las vigas no produce efectos en la longitud permisible.

Improving High-Tech Product Development through Communication Audits

Functional communication is a necessity to succeed in high technology product development where projects typically are multi-site, multi-cultural, multi-technical, and products are complex. The aim of this study is to clarify what kind of process is suitable for assessing the effectiveness of communication in high-tech product development. Based on the literature analysis, a communication audit process is constructed and tested in five product development projects of different information and communication technology (ICT) companies. Based on test case experiences and analyses, this study proposes a streamlined communication audit process. An outcome of this paper is a streamlined communi-cation audit process that provides benefits for companies, but does not burden the organisation unnecessarily. Man-agers of high-tech companies can utilise the developed process for enhancing communication in their product devel-opment.

Intermediaries in Regional Innovation Systems: High-Technology Enterprise Survey from Northern Finland

Intermediaries play an important role in national as well as in regional innovation systems, especially in innovation policy. In linking organizations within an innovation system, intermediaries are focusing on technology transfer, commercialization of ideas and funding. This research focuses on the role of intermediaries in high-technology product development in northern Finland. Based on a survey of 168 high-technology enterprises, funding services are regarded as the most important activity of intermediaries. Our results show that finance matters: a key actor within the Finnish innovation system in terms of direct funding and indirect collaborative resourcing, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES), is considered the most important public sector organization in private sector product development. The survey also reveals that growth-driven companies with emphases on product innovation and high levels of investment in research and development for increasing their annual turnover benefit the most from intermediaries.

Managing product and customer knowledge in innovative new product development

In a digital economy, companies face intensive competition and a changing market situation, and thus they make efforts in Knowledge Management (KM) by understanding that knowledge creation is a spiral process of interaction between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge so as to enhance their competitive advantage in innovation. Product innovation must link technological competence such as engineering and process know-how as well as customer competence such as knowledge of customer needs. The importance of KM in product technological innovation has been critically recognised, whereas the potential for customer KM is not pervasively studied. This inspires the demand to study how congruently managing product knowledge and customer knowledge with the support of Information Technology (IT), does enable the conversion of tacit knowledge into codified knowledge for creating value and reducing risk. It also arouses the motivation to propose an integrated KM model to deal with a high technology product development project.

PRIORITY DECISION OF KEY TECHNOLOGY ELEMENT IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON BETWEEN QFD AND TAGUCHI METHOD

Technology innovation or new product development (NPD) is composed of various process elements that require specialized knowledge/know-how needed for the application of fundamental technologies on actual product development. With the widespread use of techniques such as PERT/CPM, a major part of project management efforts focuses on resource allocation and time scheduling. In a multi-project environment of high-technology product development, prioritizing technology elements within a full spectrum of required developments is relatively more important than resource allocation or cost-reduction. Furthermore, disagreements between project managers and researchers in setting the priorities of project elements should be resolved and managed systematically to leverage a successful execution of the whole project. In this study, modified QFD and modified Taguchi method are suggested for setting priorities among elemental technologies. As a first step, the authors interviewed project managers from two companies in order to identify elemental technologies and competitiveness factors of the project in scope. Then, the priorities of elemental technologies for both projects are measured using two different methods. In the modified QFD method, the relationship matrix (HOQ, house of quality) is used to determine the priorities. In the modified Taguchi method, the priorities are determined by evaluating contributions of each elemental technology on competitiveness factors with participant's opinions as noise variables. The results of the two methods are compared. A post-hoc survey showed that project managers and researchers slightly prefer the QFD method.

The Changing European Regulatory Landscape

Whilst the US has traditionally been considered the Agency that sets the gold standard for medicines regulation, with the increasing demand for global cooperation and harmonisation of technical conformity and regulatory control, consideration should be given to regulatory requirements in jurisdictions other than the US. The European Union is becoming an important region for global product development. This review sets out scientific and public policy aspects that underpin the European legislative framework for certain healthcare products, including those derived from novel technological platforms. This review attempts to highlight some of the current and new challenges to the development of biotechnological and emerging technology products. There seems little doubt that the whole area of regulatory laws and policy will present new challenges to companies and their advisors in the coming years. It should be recognised that the development of high technology products is more costly and carries higher business risks compared with conventional pharmaceutical products. A successful product development should therefore be underpinned by not only good science, but a thorough understanding of the regulatory environment, which is increasingly complex. The development programme should integrate regulatory strategy at the early stages. This will help identify, address and manage potential regulatory risks that will greatly facilitate the progress of research and development, and the timeliness of the commercial launch of a product.

High technology product development: technical and management review system

In a high technology product development environment, due to large uncertainty and complexity, decision-making becomes very difficult. A review system provides a means for systematically dealing with this uncertainty and complexity. This paper intends to bring out a typical review system for high technology product development projects, based on the experiences of the Indian Guided Missile Programme. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the review system, the high technology product development environment has been modelled and the review system has been characterised for use in similar projects. The need for integration of decision making at various levels, integrated implication analysis of technical and managerial issues, special tools for decision collation and conflict resolution in a multi-project environment have been highlighted. The Indian experience shows that as we move from a traditional project environment towards a high technology environment, the review system attains greater significance and becomes vital for the success of the project.

Will low technology products disappear?: The hidden innovation processes in low technology industries

Political discussions and analyses have usually been devoted to an understanding of the development of high technology products, although low technology products have dominated the industrial structure of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The important role of low technology products in these countries raises the question of whether we can observe a technological paradox in the industrial structure of the more advanced nations, the dominant role of this sector in spite of its competitive disadvantages because of high wages. Using the Danish packaging industry as an example, a central thesis in the article is that innovation processes are important in low technology industries. They are also often an integrated part of the marketing and production functions of the firm. The innovation processes in the low technology industries are therefore too complex for traditional R&D analyses to handle. The article points out that—especially in small firms—the “practical man” and his “tacit knowledge” play a very central role in both product and process development, and that low technology, even in the future, will play a central role in the industrial structure of the OECD countries.

High technology product development in small firms: a challenge for marketing specialists

The paper reports on an exploratory study into the organization and management of follow-on product development in British small high technology firms. Most firms were found to lack a formal marketing function. This can cause technical strengths to be inadequately exploited. It is argued that the deficiency can be overcome by adopting a more planned approach to product development. Marketing inputs are needed for this purpose. An important operational issue is how formal a marketing monitoring system is appropriate, and what type it should be.

Programs/projects management and integrated product/process development in high technology electronic products industries

A summary overview of project/program management and its evolution to an integrated product/process team for high-technology product development (simultaneous engineering, etc.) is presented. Aspects of project/program management and product/process integration are also addressed. The team program planning, documentation, and control process for the product transformation/realization management process are presented and reviewed. It provides the potential and bias to drive the product/technology development process. References are made to a number of successful companies who are implementing the program/project management team product/process development process. >

Organising for High Technology Product Development

Leaders in product innovation manage things differently from less successful follower firms. Research points to several facets of management where these differences are made clear.

Perspectives on high technology

High technology can be viewed as the application of science for human benefit. It encompasses electronics, genetics, optics, metallurgy, and many other aspects of science. High technology product development takes place along the three dimensions of product, market, and technology. Successful introduction of high technology requires integration among all three dimensions.