Reduce Product Development Cycle Time Research Articles

Mathematical Modeling and Optimization of Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) Process Parameters for Shape Deviation Control of Polyamide 6 Using Taguchi Method.

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a layer-by-layer additive manufacturing (AM) process for producing parts. For industries to gain a competitive advantage, reducing product development cycle time is a basic goal. As a result, industries’ attention has turned away from traditional product development processes toward rapid prototyping techniques. Because different process parameters employed in this method significantly impact the quality of FFF manufactured parts, it is essential to optimize FFF process parameters to enhance component quality. The paper presents optimization of fused filament fabrication process parameters to improve the shape deviation such as cylindricity and circularity of 3D printed parts with the Taguchi optimization method. The effect of thickness, infill pattern, number of walls, and layer height was investigated as variable parameters for experiments on cylindricity and circularity. The MarkForged® used Nylon White (PA6) to create the parts. ANOVA and the S/N ratio are also used to evaluate and optimize the influence of chosen factors. As a result, it was concluded that the hexagonal infill pattern, the thickness of 5 mm, wall layer of 2, and a layer height of 1.125 mm were known to be the optimal process parameters for circularity and cylindricity in experiments. Then a linear regression model was created to observe the relationship between the control variables with cylindricity and circularity. The results were confirmed by a confirmation test.

RELIABILITY; WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

Abstract In today's high-tech world, we heavily depend on electronics for our health, safety, mobility and economic welfare. When they fail, the results can be as minor as consumer annoyance to as severe as loss of life. Not to mention a significant financial penalty to the producer in the form of warranty cost. In the electronics industry, especially in the consumer electronics segment, warranty expense cost can be 1% - 2% of the total revenue1. As an example, for a $1B company, this can impact the bottom line by $10M–$20M. For this reason, reducing warranty cost through increased product reliability is not only necessary for survival but also smart. However, achieving product reliability in today's environment with limited development resources and demand for reducing product development cycle time creates a special challenge. In addition, many small to medium size organizations struggle to understand the basic concepts behind reliability engineering, often confusing it with quality. This paper presents a lean approach to developing and implementing a reliability program that is simple, flexible and woven into a product development program.

Launching Products Towards the Right Target

The textile and apparel industries are under constant pressure to develop and introduce new products; product development is a cornerstone in the survival strategy of any company in these industries. Yet, the development cycles are lengthy and usually require several feedback loops, often showing a mismatch of product properties, cost, and requirements. Other assembly-oriented industries have successfully used managerial tools to integrate the product development process with marketing, product costing, and procurement functions. This paper discusses the use of product development tools (e.g. quality–function–deployment matrix) and target costing as an integrated approach for the textile and apparel industries. With the help of a case study it is shown how this integrated approach can reduce product development cycle time by focusing technical research, and how to incorporate desirable features in the new product design to gain customer satisfaction. The integrated approach facilitates the development of new products that are competitively priced and earn projected profits in a target market niche.

Accelerating product development in the automobile industry

Competition in consumer product space demands acceleration of product development. Not only is greater variety demanded by customers, but every model seems destined to a shorter shelf life. Beyond this, the faster pace of regulatory changes adds even greater emphasis. To achieve more rapid product development, organisations have employed many fundamental enablers including: platform concepts allowing more effective leverage of designs; doing work concurrently; reducing the time taken for each task. Major automobile manufacturers have used all these methods for reducing product development time. Tata Motors, the largest automobile firm in India, has also used many of these same levers to accelerate product development. Tata Motors developed a new Sedan Indigo in about 20 months (and subsequently a Station-wagon, Indigo Marina), leveraging the successful Indica platform and manufacturing system. This approach, supported by a formal vehicle development process, concurrent engineering, maths based simulations and a disciplined manufacturing planning activity has been deployed with considerable benefit. The cross-functional teams employed in many stages of the development activity have also promoted organisational learning apart from reducing product development cycle time. Ultimately only the marketplace success of these products, contributing to the financial turnaround of the company, can be viewed as a true measure of the success of these efforts.

Product development process in Spanish SMEs: an empirical research

Rapid product development has been treated as a competitive strategy in a global market environment. It is essential to improve the product development process with the objective of reducing product development cycle time and hence to reach the market as quickly as possible. Large-scale companies have adopted new strategies and technologies to reduce the product development cycle time, taking into account various market and innovation barriers. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have not received adequate attention from researchers for their product development process. In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyze the critical success factors for the product development process with the help of an empirical research in SMEs. The research is based on a sample of 65 SMEs located in a medium developed region (Valencia) of Spain. The main objective of this research is to identify the major determinants that confront the product development. The cost of product development projects that discourages commitment to new product development and the uncertainty of the market acceptance were found to be the major factors. Contrary to what the theoretical studies recommend, the most frequent sequence for the process of development and promotion of new products is rather simple and short, with an average time for new product development of around 6 months, although largely depending on the sector. According to the study reported in this paper, the fulfilment of the key success factors as suggested by the literature is, in general, low.

Strategic Impact of The Information Age

Industrial R&D leadership will be profoundly influenced by a pervasive information-communication ether. The arrival of the new millennium not only marks a milestone in the Christian calendar but also signals a technological watershed for mankind. This happens to be a coincidence, not planned by man or nature, yet it provides us with a rare occasion to pause and reflect. The reason I say we are approaching a technological watershed is that many believe, and I agree, that we are passing from the industrial age to the information age, driven by rapid and remarkable advances in information and communication technologies. New products and services based on these advances are everywhere. Although they are not always visible to us as consumers, they have permeated our lives as if we were living in an infon-nation-communication ether. Management of industrial R&D in the next 10- 15 years will be profoundly influenced by the all-connecting, all-pervading nature of this information-communication ether. The impact will be felt in many ways, some obvious, some not so obvious and some not yet foreseen. In my view, there are at least five significant impacts with strategic implications for R&D leaders in industry: 1. Shrinking Time and Distance This is the most direct and obvious impact of the information-communication revolution. Members of an R&D project team can now be dispersed around the world yet work together around the clock as if they were next-door neighbors, thanks to innovations like videoconferencing and on-line meetings. Multi-site videoconferencing with high-fidelity document transfer is bringing together technology users and suppliers on short notice and overcoming the inconvenience of time zones. Real-time (or near real-time) on-line meetings involving many individuals from as many locations are becoming fairly routine. Such cybermeetings are being organized and run just like traditional, face-to-face get-togethers. On-line brainstorming sessions are gaining particular popularity. In some companies, videoconferencing is being combined with simultaneous on-line meetings to provide a truly powerful tool. For example, British Petroleum technologists were reportedly able to see, analyze, diagnose, and solve equipment malfunction problems on off-shore oil-drilling equipment-from their comfortable offices and laboratories in England! 2. Lowering Cost and Increasing Output In addition to saving travel expenses and time, R&D people everywhere are reducing activity cost and increasing work output through intelligent use of information and communication technologies. Computer-aided design tools, laboratory information management systems, molecular modeling techniques, process modeling and simulation exercises, and electronic submission of new drug applications (NDAs) to regulatory agencies are just a few examples. R&D and engineering managers are making use of computer-aided project management to reduce product development cycle time. And use of computers and robots in conjunction with statistical planning of experiments is reducing the amount of trial-and-error in R&D. 3. Enhancing Organizational Networking/Learning Even five years ago, most individuals in an organization depended on face-to-face interactions to build linkages, share knowledge, and generate ideas. Telephone and paper exchange complemented these face-to-face interactions. Because of widespread availability and use of network-based tools and systems such as electronic mail, groupware, search engines, web crawlers, etc., organizational networking and knowledge-sharing have now become much easier and more widespread within (and outside) R&D. Thanks to Internet and e-mail, opportunities to access external information rapidly and communicate with individuals at distant places have multiplied by several orders of magnitude. Secure Intranets (and Extranets) are not just opening doors to similarly rapid access and exchange internally (and externally with selected partners) but also creating computerized information archives as lasting knowledge legacies for R&D organizations. …

Project Complexity and Efforts to Reduce Product Development Cycle Time

One of the primary goals of new product development (NPD) teams is the reduction of development cycle time. To date, many companies continue to adhere to the structure and formality of standardized processes irrespective of the complexity of the development task at hand. Using a pattern-matching methodology, we selected 20 NPD projects for detailed study. The final sample was balanced on the basis of project complexity, cycle time, and company size. In-depth interviews conducted with the leaders of these projects highlighted several key differences in the approaches used to reduce cycle time in projects of varying complexity. The short-cycle simple projects in our sample tended to be run by autocratic leaders, who adhered to a well-defined product development process. In contrast, the short-cycle complex projects in our sample were run by leaders who used a more participative management style, used many external sources of information, and were less formal in their approach to NPD project management. The long-cycle project leaders in our sample were also more autocratic in their approach to project leadership, used less external sources of information, and generally adhered to the standardized, serial processing approach to NPD. Our findings indicate that short-cycle complex projects require a different type of management process than is evidenced in the literature. Managers of this type of project need to foster a short-cycle mentality among the project team and the company’s product development organization. At the same time they must exercise caution to ensure that the decision-making process is not dominated by the mere desire to be quicker.

Rapid prototyping of composite parts using resin transfer molding and laminated object manufacturing

An expensive and time consuming aspect of a product development cycle is manufacturing the prototype of the design concept. The goal of current research is to devise a methodology for the rapid process development of resin transfer molding (RTM) in order to reduce product development cycle time and lower the cost of developing composite parts. As a first step towards this goal the feasibility of an alternative rapid prototyping technique, namely laminated object manufacturing (LOM), to fabricate molds has been investigated. The durability and dimensional stability of such a mold, as well as its economic practicality in the RTM manufacturing of a composite I-beam were considered. To keep tooling and fixturing simple, vacuum pressure was used to draw resin into the mold. However, injection at this low pressure proved difficult. To remedy the situation a high permeability layer (HPL) was incorporated into the process. The benefits and drawbacks of utilizing such a layer are also discussed in the paper. Furthermore, an RTM simulation program developed at UCLA was employed to determine optimum gate locations. Finally, the total hours to manufacture the first acceptable part were quantified for comparison with future studies.

An integrated cost estimating system for concurrent engineering environment

Concurrent engineering is the simultaneous design of the product and the processes required to produce it as well as to support it. It is a philosophy, not a process. When it is implemented, it can help to reduce product development cycle time for the introduction of high quality products and at low cost. Many tools and methods have been developed for supporting concurrent engineering environment. Often the traditional cost estimating systems are utilized in the concurrent engineering environment.The traditional cost estimating systems are not structured for concurrent engineering. This paper presents the concept of an integrated cost estimating system specifically designed for concurrent engineering (ICESCE). It is designed to work in the concurrent engineering environment and to enhance the power of concurrent engineering.The design of ICESCE consists of four modules: a database module, a central processing module, an interface module, and a utility module.