A simulation approach for evaluation and improvement of organisational planning in collaborative product development projects

Human behaviour and organisational structure impact collaborative product development outcome on a large scale. Therefore, companies are continuously seeking new opportunities to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and predictability of their collaborative product development projects, and to develop innovative principles for organisational design and management such as multi-functional teams. However, there are many factors which have to be considered and assessed to systematically optimise organisational planning in respect of team configuration, structure organisation, and human behaviour. This paper proposes an agent-based simulation methodology to evaluate and improve the organisational planning in complex product development projects. An agent-based integrated simulation model is formulated which can explicitly represent human behaviour, organisational interactions, and tasks networks. Based on the model, the design agent structure and behaviour protocols are studied in detail, and a simulation platform is developed. Finally, the methodology is evaluated in a collaborative roadway design project, and several management insights are established, which are proven to be effective for the organisational optimisation. The results of the case study also show that the methodology can effectively support the evaluation and improvement of organisational planning.     

Distributed knowledge sharing for collaborative product development

Product development is a knowledge-intensive activity in manufacturing enterprises. This paper analyses various forms of knowledge resources in the product development process and studies the representation scheme for them. Then a novel distributed knowledge sharing model is proposed for spreading and sharing knowledge among engineers in collaborative product development teams. In a collaborative team, engineers usually come from diverse disciplines; their demands for knowledge are also different from each other. The proposed knowledge sharing model could deliver the proper knowledge to the engineers who may need them. Moreover, our model is based on the engineers’ personal knowledge repositories rather than the centralised team knowledge repository in the collaborative team. The proposed model could bring out an efficient and proactive way for knowledge sharing among engineers in the product development process. The efficiency and usability of the proposed model are validated by experiments referring to the knowledge sharing in a real-world collaborative team of a manufacturing enterprise.     

开放式结构产品的模块规划

 产品的多元化和市场竞争使客户对产品的个性化需求不断增加,传统的产品结构难以满足低成本和个性化的需求．开放式结构产品使得产品既拥有大批量定制的优点又能满足客户个性化的需求．开放式结构产品将产品的模块分为通用模块、定制模块和个性化模块．模块划分和模块类型规划是开放式结构产品设计的重要步骤．针对开放式结构产品的设计,提出了一种以公理设计为分析框架、以质量功能展开（QFD）为基本模型的模块划分和分类方法．该方法采用公理设计建立功能需求与概念结构之间的映射关系,通过分析概念结构之间的功能、空间和信息流关系建立了设计关联矩阵,运用系统聚类法对设计关联矩阵进行聚类模块划分,利用QFD规划产品中零部件的类型并建立模块类型规划准则,最后根据零部件类型确定了开放式结构产品的模块类型．应用所提出的方法对玩具喷漆机进行了模块规划,得出了开放式结构玩具喷漆机的结构方案,验证了该方法的有效性和可行性．     

A STEP-compliant product data model for injection moulding products

In the current rapidly changing manufacturing environment, most manufacturing companies have realised that the ability to quickly develop a customised product at competitive prices is very crucial for them to survive in the keen competitive global market. Product modelling has been recognised as one of the key factors in determining the success of various product development strategies and for industrial competitiveness now and in the future. Standard for Exchange of Product model data (STEP) is an international standard designed to provide a complete, unambiguous, computer-readable definition of the physical and functional characteristic of a product through its lifecycle. This paper proposes a STEP-compliant product data model to fully support the complete product information representation and management for injection moulding product development. The data model is developed based on the structure of an injection moulding company. The entire data model consists of six data models which are defined to express information from various departments of the company. The data model is described in EXPRESS language, which can be integrated with other STEP-based product data models and databases. Consequently, the proposed system can be further extended for helping other injection moulding manufacturers to improve their product development process. An information sharing prototype system is implemented based on the proposed product data model to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.     

信息时代产品开发设计的团队协作

随着以计算机技术为代表的信息时代的到来,团队协作已成为信息时代产品开发设计的主要特征.以目前团队协作普遍存在的问题出发,阐述了团队组织的构建方法及团队协作在具体阶段的实施,并认为设计将进入团队协作的时代.     

Readiness assessment of collaborative networked organisations for integrated product and service delivery

More and more firms are entering into alliances and coalitions to deliver competitive customer solutions, and there is a need to establish a common and recognised methodology in order to evaluate and qualify the impact of such company partnering on collaborative networks. These measures are necessary for informing decisions to admit/omit partners, for the delivery of integrated products and services, i.e. a product-service system, and for enhancing operational efficiency and competitiveness in the rapidly changing and dynamic global environment. In this article, a conceptual model is proposed for assessing the readiness of collaborative networked organisations for product-service system delivery. The model consists of a structural assessment of collaborative network topologies and densities, and a behavioural assessment of partner delivery competences and performance. Based on these concepts, an assessment process model was developed and used in case studies across industrials, consumer goods, health care, and utilities industries. The resulting implications of the assessment for researchers and practitioners are then highlighted and discussed.     

State-of-the-art technologies and methodologies for collaborative product development systems

In order to facilitate product realisation processes, presently, research is actively being carried out to develop methodologies and technologies to support geographically dispersed teams to organise collaborative design based on the quickly evolving information technologies. A number of research works and commercial systems have appeared to provide solutions for collaborative and distributed product development, and the practical applications are getting more pervasive and mature. In this paper, the recently related works are summarised from three aspects—visualisation-based collaborative systems, co-design collaborative systems and CE (concurrent engineering)-based collaborative systems. Around these aspects, about 100 papers and 30 commercial systems/international standards published or launched recently are discussed. The current research and development statuses and issues, underlying algorithms, mechanisms and system architectures, and the future trends and challenges are explained and compared in detail.     

An approach to conceptual and embodiment design within a new product development lifecycle framework

The design of new innovative products is the result of an accurate and precise management of knowledge sources all over its life cycle, such as technology, market, competitors and suppliers. The work contributes with a framework that shows how the knowledge sources influence in the state-of-the-art and market needs so that they become opportunities for innovating products addressing the whole product life cycle. It provides a systematic path from the early generation of ideas to the production of a new product proposal. Through a deep analysis of previous research works of new product innovation life cycle development frameworks and linking it with knowledge management, strategic planning and scorecards, we came out with a structured contribution. The result considers the concurrent activities and its relationships all the way through the product life cycle that can help in creativity and innovation, combined with a process management proposal. Managing the sources of knowledge in highly dynamic markets and technologies is one of the major difficulties involved in innovative products design and development. The emerging knowledge from external sources is confronted with organisation internal knowledge and experience in order to achieve the first product correct.     

An integrated framework for product line design for modular products: product attribute and functionality-driven perspective

The purpose of this research is to facilitate original equipment manufacturers operating in a single market segment to frame their product line design strategy that pertains to offering right product attributes with right attribute level in the right product profile within a market segment. Through this research, we attempt to establish a link between functional level design of product attributes with commercial objectives of the enterprise. Initially, by deriving the functional importance of product attribute levels of individual product attributes within a product profile, demand and functional importance data are generated. Utilising the function-based cost estimating framework and multi-linear regression methodology, we determine the cost and product development time coefficients for respective product attributes. Finally, a mixed integer quadratic programming-based mathematical formulation is developed that includes maximisation of product premium and minimisation of various costs as major objectives under the assumption that manufacturer seeks to offer optimal number of product profiles within the market segment. Employing the commercial solver LINGO, the integrated framework is solved. The entire framework is illustrated using the operator cabin of heavy construction machinery.     

Evaluation of information and communication technology development in G7 countries: An integrated MCDM approach

Information and communication technology (ICT) contributes highly to various sectors of modern societies. Due to rapid growth of ICT and its spread into different sectors, ICT now has noticeable impacts on economic and social growth. Considering both positive and negative impacts, governments are continuously working on proposing better policies and recommendations to improve their ICT infrastructures. However, proposing better policies is highly depended on understanding past and current policies to have a complete overview of the situation. In this regard, evaluation of countries’ performance in terms of ICT development is of great significance. This paper attempts to evaluate the ICT development based on social and economic indicators using an integrated MCDM approach. To provide a real-life benchmark, G7 countries as major developed countries are investigated using real data from OECD datasets. For this purpose, six major indicators as ICT employment, ICT goods exports, ICT investment, ICT value-added, and internet access are considered to comparatively evaluate performance of G7 countries. Results indicate that United States of America along with Japan as top countries based on their ICT development while countries such as Italy and Canada are found to have the weakest performance which should upgrade their ICT policies to maximize their performance.     

Standardised product development for technology integration of additive manufacturing

ABSTRACT

The implementation of additive manufacturing (AM) as an industrial production process poses extraordinary challenges to companies due to the far-reaching differences to conventional processes. In addition, there are hardly any standards and guidelines or methodical process models for the relatively new technologies that enable the reproducible and target-oriented use of AM. In order to solve this problem, five industrial companies together with the Paderborn University are researching as part of the ‘OptiAMix’ research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). This paper focuses on the development of an ideal process chain. Reference processes of the OptiAMix partners were analysed, norms and standards from conventional production were adapted and implemented and procedure models developed OptiAMix were integrated. The resulting AM Product Development Process was then applied and validated with the aid of a previously developed integration methodology using an example component from the automotive industry.     

Semantic interoperability for an integrated product development process: a systematic literature review

Global competitiveness challenges manufacturing industry to rationalise different ways of bringing to the market new products in a short lead-time with competitive prices whilst ensuring higher quality levels and customisation. Industries need to effectively share heterogeneous information during Product Development Process (PDP) within and across their institutional boundaries to be competitive. However, problems with misinterpretation and mistakes have been identified during information exchange due to the semantic interoperability obstacles. Thus, this research proposes a systematic literature review to identify the main researches and the milestones reference works on semantic interoperability field. A rigorous methodology was conducted in different databases, covering the articles published in scientific journals from 2005 to 2015 as a preliminary study had indicated that the incidence of articles related to the subject was more frequent from the second half of the 2000s. The research structure consisted of four steps: Survey – searching, analysis and selection of recent researches; Categorisation – categorisation of the selected papers; References citation frequency analysis – the selected papers were analysed and the main researches and milestones references were identified; and Main researches critical analysis – the main researches were analysed for their contributions and limitations, their contributions and limitations, resulting in 14 selected scientific articles and 8 identified milestones references. It is evident that this field has interesting perspectives on future research opportunities on semantic interoperability of information issues across PDP, contributing to the new concepts of future factories.     

An integrated approach to evaluating conceptual design alternatives in a new product development environment

As many companies have demonstrated over time, a conceptual design for a new product contributes greatly to an improvement in competitiveness, because it permits a reduction of costs, an increase in quality, and, often, a shortening of the time necessary to get the product on the market. That is why the evaluation of conceptual design alternatives created in a new product development (NPD) environment has long been very vital and a critical point for the future success of companies in fast-growing markets. These alternatives can be evaluated using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), one of the most commonly used multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques. This technique is used to reduce the number of conceptual design alternatives after ranking them using the scores obtained from the process. Furthermore, another technique, simulation analysis integrated with the AHP, is also used to help decision makers (product engineers or managers) perform economic analyses of the AHP's high-score alternatives using data from the generated simulation model of a real-life manufacturing system in which the final alternative is produced. In short, the objectives of this research are: first, to use the AHP technique to evaluate conceptual design alternatives in a NPD environment; second, to use a simulation generator integrated with this technique in order to perform economic analyses for the AHP's high-score alternatives. Finally, the results of both techniques, simulation and AHP, are used in a benefit/cost (B/C) analysis to reach a final decision on the conceptual design alternatives.     

A membership function approach for aggregate production planning problems in fuzzy environments

This paper proposes a novel approach for the aggregate production planning (APP) problem with fuzzy parameters. Different from the results of previous studies, in this paper the membership function of the fuzzy minimal total cost is constructed based on Zadeh's extension principle and fuzzy solutions are provided. A pair of mathematical programs parameterised by possibility level α is formulated to calculate the lower and upper bounds of the fuzzy total cost at α. By enumerating different values of α, the membership function of the fuzzy total cost is constructed. To illustrate the validity of the proposed approach, the example studied by Lai and Hwang (1992 Lai, YJ and Hwang, CL. 1992. Fuzzy mathematical programming: methods and applications, Berlin: Springer.  [Google Scholar]) using Chanas's approach is investigated. Since the objective value is expressed by a membership function rather than by a crisp value, the proposed approach can represent APP systems more accurately, thus obtained solutions which contain more information can offer more chance to achieve the feasible disaggregate plan, and it is beneficial to the decision-maker in practical applications. The proposed approach can also be applied to APP problems with other characteristics.     

An integrative product line redesign approach for modular engineering products within a competitive market space: a multi-objective perspective

The purpose of this research is to aid enterprises to redesign their existing product line from the standpoint of two critical competitive dimensions i.e. time to market (TTM) and market share. An integrative methodology for product line redesign is evolved that sews together aspects related to product functionality, modularity and competitive market segments. Firstly, the existing level functionality of a multi-modular product is established employing the functional analysis systems technique for the given manufacturer under consideration and other market players. Thereafter, product premium and TTM functions for respective modules in terms of the linear relationships are established. Further, a detailed mathematical model is evolved where the two objective functions related to minimisation of TTM and maximisation of the product premium are formulated. The constraints in the devised optimisation model pertain to market segment, product profile, engineering design and non-negativity and integrality considerations. Finally, employing the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), the devised model is solved that yields a number of Pareto-optimal redesigned products for the three market segments under consideration. Analysis of the results yields several managerial insights that are discussed. The devised framework is illustrated employing a real-life case of Black and Decker’s power tool product line.     

An integrated approach for production and distribution planning in supply chain management

Many firms have been trying to optimize their production and distribution systems separately, but using this approach limits any possible increase in profit. Thus, it is becoming more important to analyse these two systems simultaneously. This paper presents the solutions for integrated production and distribution planning and investigates the effectiveness of their integration through a computational study, in a multi-plant, multi-retailer, multi-item, and multi-period logistic environment where the objective is to maximize the total net profit. Computational results on test problems using the proposed heuristic confirm the substantial advantage of the integrated planning approach over the decoupled one. Sensitivity analysis on the input parameters indicates that, under the right conditions, the effectiveness of integrating production and distribution functions can be extremely high.     

An integrated fuzzy approach for the selection of outsourcing manufacturing partners in pharmaceutical R&D

The selection of the outsourcing manufacturing partners (OMPs) is an important issue for research and development (R&D) in the pharmaceutical industry. The selection process considers several main criteria, as well as a few sub-criteria for each main criterion. Such problems can be formulated as hierarchical structures and can usually be resolved with multi-criteria decision-making approaches. This paper presents an integrated fuzzy approach for selecting a suitable OMP in pharmaceutical R&D. In the integrated approach, fuzzy concepts are used for decision-makers’ subjective judgments to reflect the vague nature of the selection process. Fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS are included in the integrated approach. Fuzzy AHP is used to determine the fuzzy weights of criteria and sub-criteria because it can effectively determine various criteria's weights in a hierarchical structure. Fuzzy TOPSIS aims to find the OMP with the best performance with respect to the sub-criteria. We exemplify the integrated approach using a numerical application to demonstrate its feasibility.     

Optimal utilisation level for lean product development in a multitasking context

Flow of information is of utmost importance during product development (PD) endeavours with timely feedback supporting the resolution of higher risk elements. PD task size, multitasking and resource utilisation levels of the PD system influence information flow and the value ultimately realised from the investment in PD. In this paper, a model incorporating a methodology developed using queuing theory, and in particular, results obtained for Jackson networks are extended to help engineering management to improve PD task flow and consequently become more ‘lean’. Considered factors include: optimal PD task size and multitasking (focus) level as well as the utilisation level of PD resources. Empirical data were collected from a case study company and compared to optimal values. The benefits of the proposed model and approaches are discussed.     

An integrated multi-criteria Taguchi computer simulation-DEA approach for optimum maintenance policy and planning by incorporating learning effects

Modelling the maintenance activities could be complex and non-linear system which consists of different parameters. In this paper, a new approach for maintenance policy and planning problem is developed. First, maintenance activities are simulated by incorporating learning effects. Production and maintenance functions are estimated using historical data. Then, simulation is carried out for different scenarios which are combinations of periodic maintenance and different policies. Several outputs including machines and operators’ availability, reliability, efficiency and queue length are computed. Since the problem is multi-criteria, data envelopment analysis method is used to select the preferred policy. In order to show the applicability of the proposed approach, the data for a series production line is used and different scenarios with different policies are investigated. Since many scenarios are needed to be simulated, Taguchi orthogonal array design is used to reduce the number of scenarios. The proposed approach of this study would help managers to identify the preferred strategy considering and investigating various parameters and policies. This is the first study that introduces an integrated multi-criteria approach for optimum maintenance policy and planning.     

An evaluation framework for product planning using FANP,QFD and multi-choice goal programming

Technological innovation and satisfaction of customer needs are the keys to survival and success for firms, especially in global competitive high-tech industries. Since new products are usually a source of new sales and profits, the success of new product development (NPD) is essential to maintain a competitive edge and to make a decent profit in a longer term. Therefore, how to develop products that deliver the quality and functionality customers demand while generating the desired profits becomes an important task for the manufacturers. In this paper, a framework with two phases is constructed for facilitating the selection of engineering characteristics (ECs) for product design. In the first phase, quality function deployment (QFD) is incorporated with the supermatrix approach of analytic network process (ANP) and the fuzzy set theory to calculate the priorities of ECs with the consideration of the interrelationship among factors and the impreciseness and vagueness in human judgments and information. In the second phase, multi-choice goal programming model is constructed by considering the outcome from the first phase and other additional goals, such as NPD cost and manufacturability, in the attempt to select the most suitable ECs. A case study of the product design process of backlight unit (BLU) in thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry in Taiwan is carried out to verify the practicality of the proposed framework.