Performance measurement for new product development: a model based on total costs

The modern market is characterized by consumer demand for quality products (at lower prices), reduced time to market, and cost-savings pressures on manufacturers. To survive in this competitive environment, enterprises must be able to manage and measure their performance with respect to new product development (NPD). This paper presents a cost-effective performance-measurement system for NPD. The model is based on the concept of total-costs analysis. This provides a transparent statistical model that assists management and employees to understand the importance of doing things right the first time. The model incorporates the interactions among NPD teams, manufacturing teams, and customers. It also integrates the results of instances of poor quality at various stages of the NPD process, including: (1) development; (2) manufacturing (the internal customer's perspective); and (3) external customers. A total-costs analysis is thus developed and utilized in planning and establishing a measurement system for NPD performance. The model can be used to satisfy both internal and external customers, and to ensure optimal value for investment in NPD teams.     

An integrated fuzzy approach for information technology planning in collaborative product development

Collaborative product development (CPD) processes are generally based on technological infrastructures. Various information technologies (IT) are proposed every day to facilitate collaboration, integration, co-design and co-development processes. In this highly uncertain environment, a systematic methodology is essential to plan the IT infrastructure needed to start and maintain a collaborative process. This study offers an integrated IT planning methodology combining fuzzy quality function deployment, fuzzy axiomatic design and fuzzy rule-based systems. The methodology is tested in a CPD case and the outcome presents an improvement path for IT for each of the collaborative parties.     

Modelling engineering change management in a new product development supply chain

The changes within a new product development (NPD) process are handled differently depending on the stage of the project. The changes during the initial stages of the project are addressed by design iterations, while the changes after the product design is complete are addressed using a formal engineering change management (ECM) process. The ECM process is a complex process, especially under a collaborative environment, where various independent entities work together for a common cause of product development. The interactions between the NPD and ECM processes have rarely been investigated in the research community. In this paper, we attempt to study the interactions between the various NPD and ECM process parameters by modelling the processes and simulated the model to understand the parameter interactions. The organisations in a supply chain have been characterised based on their interactions with the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) during the NPD process. The organisation process templates representing the NPD and ECM processes of each type of organisation in the supply chain have been modelled. The templates have been used to develop a simulation model representing the NPD and ECM processes for a supply chain. The process variables, such as processing rates, resources, resource composition, resource allocation priority, processing quality and phase overlap, have been included in the model. The results indicate that most of the variables and interactions among the variables have a significant influence on the NPD lead time. By identifying the status of?the NPD process, the decision-makers can use these results to develop appropriate management policies to govern their product development projects.     

An approach to functional synthesis of solutions in mechanical conceptual design. Part III: Spatial configuration

These three papers describe an approach to the synthesis of solutions to a class of mechanical design problems; these involve transmission and transformation of mechanical forces and motion, and can be described by a set of inputs and outputs. The approach involves(1) identifying a set of primary functional elements and rules of combining them, and(2) developing appropriate representations and reasoning procedures for synthesizing solution concepts using these elements and their combination rules; these synthesis procedures can produce an exhaustive set of solution concepts, in terms of their topological as well as spatial configurations, to a given design problem.This paper (Part III) describes a constraint propagation procedure which, using a knowledge base of spatial information about a set of primary functional elements, can produce possible spatial configurations of solution concepts generated in Part II.     

The role of product feature relations in a knowledge based methodology to manage design modifications for product measurability

During product development, the verification process should already be considered at the design phase to ensure that the characteristics of the product are measured effectively and reliably. Moreover, the verification process may prove more effective if the inspector is aware of the specific designer's intents. The development of the new ISO GPS (Geometrical Product Specifications) standards is mainly founded on these considerations. In accordance with the ISO GPS concepts, previous work developed a knowledge based system named Design GuideLines (DGLs). This system provides the designer with the knowledge concerning the manufacturing and verification procedures/tools and better links the manufacturing and verification processes to the designer's activities/needs. Further research then exploited the DGLs to discover the relations among product features determined by a particular manufacturing process.

This work again uses the DGLs to prove that further relations among product features may also be determined by the verification process. This knowledge helps designers in understanding the consequences of the modifications applied to the product features required to improve the measurability of the product. Moreover, inspectors can better manage the verification procedure knowing these relations among the product features.