A DEA benchmarking methodology for project planning and management of new product development under decentralized profit-center business model

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, technology-driven organizations widely adopt decentralized profit-center business model. In order to complete a series of new product development (NPD) activities on time and within budgetary constraints, the NPD managers need an objective benchmarking approach to gain accurate perception on the relations of resource allocations, profits, costs and times for each NPD activity. Thus, this study employs the data envelopment analysis (DEA) concept to put forward a benchmarking planning and management methodology to optimize the NPD activities within a profit center for achieving the goal of maximal profit and satisfying the resource constraints. By applying the real case of the electric motor scooter NPD project, this research demonstrates the method’s real case application with superior results, comparing to other existing approaches.     

A collaboration model for new product development through the integration of PLM and SCM in the electronics industry

As customer requirements for high-tech products vary and become complicated, the lifecycle of these products becomes much shorter. In response to this market environment, many manufacturing companies have established a global simultaneous launch strategy for new products to occupy markets before competitors. In this process, careful scheduling of the global simultaneous launch strategy is critical. In particular, to meet the launch schedule for each country in which a new product will be released, a collaboration process among relevant departments must be prepared, and correct product information should be maintained among major cooperative work support systems according to new product development business processes. This paper suggests a collaboration model integrating product lifecycle management and supply chain management as an approach to supporting complicated new product development procedures. We use a practical case study to evaluate this model.     

Modeling customer satisfaction for new product development using a PSO-based ANFIS approach

When developing new products, it is important to understand customer perception towards consumer products. It is because the success of new products is heavily dependent on the associated customer satisfaction level. If customers are satisfied with a new product, the chance of the product being successful in marketplaces would be higher. Various approaches have been attempted to model the relationship between customer satisfaction and design attributes of products. In this paper, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) based ANFIS approach to modeling customer satisfaction is proposed for improving the modeling accuracy. In the approach, PSO is employed to determine the parameters of an ANFIS from which better customer satisfaction models in terms of modeling accuracy can be generated. A notebook computer design is used as an example to illustrate the approach. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, modeling results based on the proposed approach are compared with those based on the fuzzy regression (FR), ANFIS and genetic algorithm (GA)-based ANFIS approaches. The comparisons indicate that the proposed approach can effectively generate customer satisfaction models and that their modeling results outperform those based on the other three methods in terms of mean absolute errors and variance of errors.     

流程导向的新产品开发领域本体构建方法研究

分析了新产品开发领域的特点,基于对现有本体构建方法的分析和改进,结合基于本体的知识检索,提出了流程导向的新产品开发领域本体构建方法。该过程分为原型展示、本体详细构建、本体进化三个阶段。重点对该方法的过程进行了详细阐述。最后,对流程导向的新产品开发本体构建方法进行了评述。     

An ideation method for generating new product ideas using TRIZ,concept mapping,and fuzzy linguistic evaluation techniques

The quality of initial ideas is considered a critical determinant for successful new product development (NPD). This study presents an ideation method for generating new product ideas. The aims of the proposed method are (1) to clarify and identify potential problems involved in the knowledge domain of the product design through the Su-field enhanced concept mapping diagram; (2) to abstract inventive problems and generate novel product ideas by means of the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) methodology; and, (3) to develop an effective decision aiding method for evaluating alternative ideas and determining promising product ideas using fuzzy linguistic evaluation techniques. The applicability of the ideation method is demonstrated through a case study of an air purifier design. The theoretical and practical implications of the ideation method are also discussed.     

Construction of house of quality for new product planning: A 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic approach

A house of quality (HOQ) diagram is used to analyze the critical factors involved in the quality function deployment (QFD) processes for the new product planning (NPP). The principal tasks of the QFD acting process comprise describing and scoring customer requirements (CRs); determining design requirements (DRs), the relationship between CRs and DRs, the correlations among CRs, and the correlations among DRs. Finally, the DRs can be scored by these assessments in NPP. This study proposes various methods of scoring the requirements of current and potential customers to reflect the knowledge and preference differences among different customers regarding CRs. The CR scores provided by different customers can be assessed by using linguistic, numerical, and interval values, or can be assessed using linguistic label sets with different granularity. A 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic computational approach is adopted to aggregate the CR importance scores obtained from customers by using various methods. In addition, to accurately rate the DRs, a modified relationship between CRs and DRs is proposed. The proposed HOQ construction model is practical because it prevents the loss of information during the QFD process for NPP. An example is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model.     

PSO based approach for scheduling NPD projects including overlapping process

The efficient scheduling of the new product development (NPD) projects is important to reduce the required development time, and to offer the new product faster. Activity overlapping is commonly regarded as the most promising strategy to reduce product development times. However, overlapping must be well-planned by weighting the gain from the activity overlapping against the additional time for rework. The objective of this research was to develop a resource constrained scheduling methodology for NPD projects considering overlapping of activity couples. A particle swarm optimization based approach is used to schedule NPD projects that include overlapping process. The proposed PSO method is developed into a user friendly system so that the practitioners can utilize it. A real-life example of a product development project taken from the literature is used to show the efficiency of the software.     

Customer satisfaction evaluation method for customized product development using Entropy weight and Analytic Hierarchy Process

Providing customized products with high customer satisfaction (CS) has become an inevitable trend for modern customized companies to remain competitive. This study proposes a CS evaluation method for customized product development using Entropy weight and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Firstly, customer requirements are identified based on Voice-of-Customer (VoC), and classified into four categories (positive, negative, must-be and fuzzy attributes) according to the characteristics of CS criteria. Then, CS evaluation model and its solution method are introduced in detail. This study especially focuses on the quantitative methods for each category of the evaluation criteria through formulating several mathematical models, and criteria weights are obtained through integrating Entropy weight and AHP method. Finally, a case study of applying the proposed methodology to customized portrait-based product industry demonstrates the functionality of the proposed methodology.     

An integrated framework for mechatronics based product development in a fuzzy environment

New product development (NPD) is a term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new concept to a state of market readiness. Mechatronics based product requires a multidisciplinary approach for its modeling, design, development and implementation. An integrated and concurrent approach focusing on integrating the mechanical structure with basic three components namely sensors, controllers and actuators is required. This paper aims at developing a framework for a new Mechatronics product development. For conceptual design of Mechatronics system, various tools like Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM), Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modeling (FISM), Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP) and Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (FQFD) are used. Based on the prioritized design requirements, the functional specifications of the required components are developed. Then, Computer Aided Design and control system software are used to develop the detailed system design. Then, a prototype model is developed based on the integration of mechanical system with Sensor, Controller and Electrical units. Performance of the prototype model is monitored and Fuzzy failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is then used to rank the potential failures. Based on the results of fuzzy FMEA, the developed model is redesigned. The proposed framework is illustrated with a case study related to developing automatic power loom reed cleaning machine.     

Some q-rung orthopair fuzzy maclaurin symmetric mean operators and their applications to potential evaluation of emerging technology commercialization

The Maclaurin symmetric mean (MSM) operator is a classical mean type aggregation operator used in modern information fusion theory, which is suitable to aggregate numerical values. The prominent characteristic of the MSM operator is that it can capture the interrelationship among the multi-input arguments. In this paper, we extend the MSM operator and dual MSM operator to q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets to propose the q-rung orthopair fuzzy MSM operator, q-rung orthopair fuzzy dual MSM operator, q-rung orthopair fuzzy weighted MSM operator, and q-rung orthopair fuzzy weighted dual MSM operator. Then, some desirable properties and special cases of these operators are discussed in detail. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed methods and deliver the sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis.     

Evidential reasoning-based Fuzzy AHP approach for the evaluation of design alternatives’ environmental performances

With the growing general awareness of the need to protect the environment as well as the increasingly stringent regulatory requirements imposed by various national and cross-national bodies, manufacturers have to minimise the environmental impacts of their products. Environmental considerations have therefore become a new key criterion for evaluating design alternatives during the product development stage. To facilitate non-Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) experts, such as most product designers, in evaluating the design alternatives in terms of environmental friendliness, this paper introduces a decision-making mechanism that combines the multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) approaches with LCA methodology. This evidential reasoning-based approach is a fast-track and objective tool which ranks the available design alternatives according to their potential environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of design alternatives assessed by the LCA are used for the weight elicitation processes of the proposed approach. A case application is conducted to illustrate the use of the proposed method to evaluate the environmental performances of design alternatives.     

一种复杂产品界面可用性定量评估方法的研究和应用

可用性评估是保证界面质量的重要手段。利用粗糙集灰色分析解决复杂产品界面可用性评估中的模糊问题,建立界面可用性评估模型;基于任务将难以直接评估的复杂界面分解成多个子界面,建立新的复杂界面可用性评价指标的测量方法和实验范式,从而实现对复杂界面可用性的客观评价。经实例验证,本方法可实现对多个复杂界面方案进行可用性评估和优选,最后通过脑电实验验证了其有效性。     

Development of a fuzzy decision model for manufacturability evaluation

A manufacturability evaluation decision model is formulated and analyzed based on fuzzy logic and multiple attribute decision-making under the concurrent engineering environment. The study emphasizes on the treatment of the linguistic and vagueness at the early product development stage. The study also considers the function integration of the total life cycle of a product. Hence, the integrated decision model covers the multi-level, multi-goal requirements of the products. Multiple criteria such as the goal space, the decision space, the function space, the development (i.e., product & process design) space, and the activity space, are then applied under different analysis of decision-making methods. For instances, the fuzzy multiple attribute decision-making (FMADM) combined with activity-based costing (ABC) can be used in the activity decision space. The fuzzy logic decision model can be applied in the goal decision space. The results of this study point out the importance of early decision making capability. An example of a high-pressure vessel is provided to demonstrate the proposed model for evaluating the manufacturability.     

The selection of technology forecasting method using a multi-criteria interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy group decision making approach

Technological forecasting is a tool for organizations to develop their technology strategies. The quality of forecasting is extremely important for the accuracy of the results and in turn company future. Therefore a proper selection methodology of forecasting technique that considers the characteristics of technology and resources needed such as cost, time is essential. On the other hand, although many forecasting techniques are available, there is a high uncertainty in choosing the most appropriate technique among a set of available techniques. In this paper interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is proposed for the solution of technological forecasting technique selection problem. The proposed method includes seven selection criteria and twelve forecasting technique alternatives. The methodology is applied for 3D TV technology. The results revealed that Fisher Pry method is found as the most appropriate method for forecasting since it has the highest closeness coefficient.     

Dynamic modelling of customer preferences for product design using DENFIS and opinion mining

Previous studies mainly employed customer surveys to collect survey data for understanding customer preferences on products and developing customer preference models. In reality, customer preferences on products could change over time. Thus, the time series data of customer preferences under different time periods should be collected for the modelling of customer preferences. However, it is difficult to obtain the time series data based on customer surveys because of long survey time and substantial resources involved. In recent years, a large number of online customer reviews of products can be found on various websites, from which the time series data of customer preferences can be extracted easily. Some previous studies have attempted to analyse customer preferences on products based on online customer reviews. However, two issues were not addressed in previous studies which are the fuzziness of the sentiment expressed by customers existing in online reviews and the modelling of customer preferences based on the time series data obtained from online reviews. In this paper, a new methodology for dynamic modelling of customer preferences based on online customer reviews is proposed to address the two issues which mainly involves opinion mining and dynamic evolving neural-fuzzy inference system (DENFIS). Opinion mining is adopted to analyze online reviews and perform sentiment analysis on the reviews under different time periods. With the mined time series data and the product attribute settings of reviewed products, a DENFIS approach is introduced to perform the dynamic modelling of customer preferences. A case study is used to illustrate the proposed methodology. The results of validation tests indicate that the proposed DENFIS approach outperforms various adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approaches in the dynamic modelling of customer preferences in terms of the mean relative error and variance of errors. In addition, the proposed DENFIS approach can provide both crisp and fuzzy outputs that cannot be realized by using existing ANFIS and conventional DENFIS approaches.     

Application of OLAP to a PDM database for interactive performance evaluation of in-progress product development

This paper applies online analytic processing (OLAP), a widely accepted database analysis technique, to a product data management (PDM) database to evaluate the performance of in-progress product development. This paper introduces a set of processing key performance indicators (KPIs) that can measure ongoing product development. To convert and analyze operational data in a PDM database with interactive OLAP operations, this study proposes a multidimensional data model specified by product facts with associated dimensions. The model is implemented using a commercial OLAP engine, and applied to a database supported by a prototype PDM system. The OLAP engine allows analysts to interactively evaluate the performance of in-progress product development in a multidimensional data space. This is a far more flexible and efficient approach than other result-oriented static evaluation approaches.     

Technology-driven roadmaps for identifying new product/market opportunities: Use of text mining and quality function deployment

A technology roadmap (TRM), an approach that is applied to the development of an emerging technology to meet business goals, is one of the most frequently adopted tools to support the process of technology innovation. Although many studies have dealt with TRMs that are designed primarily for a market-driven technology planning process, a technology-driven TRM is far less researched than a market-driven one. Furthermore, approaches to a technology-driven roadmap using quantitative technological information have rarely been studied. Thus, the aim of this research is to propose a new methodological framework to identify both profitable markets and promising product concepts based on technology information. This study suggests two quality function deployment (QFD) matrices to draw up the TRM in order to find new business opportunities. A case study is presented to illustrate the proposed approach using patents on the solar-lighting devices, which is catching on as a high-tech way to prevent environmental pollution and reduce fuel costs.     

Development of a product model for specifying new lines of seafood products

New product development in the seafood industries is increasingly based on extension of product lines. These must be tailored to the retailer and customer needs and be available with short lead-times. One possibility for seafood companies to meet this challenge is to utilise the benefits and prospects of an IT approach to product modelling. The approach used is developed for non-food specification tasks and coupled with the experience gained in a seafood company. IT application prototype that consisted mainly of earlier product solutions and knowledge related to the specification tasks was developed. Testing of the prototype has indicated possibilities for speeding up the specification process in the company and it is assumed that similar results can be obtained in other food product development processes.     

面向新产品开发知识联盟的知识管理系统及其应用研究*

知识联盟已经开始取代产品联盟成为新的战略联盟形式。知识管理系统有利于新产品开发知识联盟中的知识的共享、利用和扩散。本文在已有知识管理系统模型研究成果的基础上,构建了面向新产品开发知识联盟的知识管理整体框架,该框架包括决策层、流程层和系统层等三个层次,具有内容、协作、技能和定位等四个核心功能。接着提出了面向新产品开发知识联盟的知识管理系统功能结构的概念模型。最后讨论了知识管理系统在新产品开发知识联盟中的实施方法和应用策略。该系统为分散异地的联盟成员之间的知识交流和共享提供了有力的支持。     

Generation of new service concepts: A morphology analysis and genetic algorithm approach

The concept generation is the first and most important stage in the process of new service development (NSD). Morphology analysis (MA), which is aimed at modeling a complex problem, provides strong possibility of revealing unexpected new service concepts (NSCs), but the weakness lies in screening and selecting satisfactory ones. The NSCs derived through MA may be too much for further investigation. In response, this study proposes a systematic approach to generation of NSCs based on MA and genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed approach is comprised of two stages, NSC derivation and NSC screening. During the first stage, MA is conducted to derive service concepts by exploring all possible combinations of a morphology matrix. The second stage deals with screening concepts that have been derived at the first stage. GA is employed here not merely as an optimization engine, but also as a search tool with screening criteria. The practical utility and benefits are that the possible and reasonable NSCs can be identified at the very first time in the process of NSD. In addition, it may lessen the pressures, such as time constraints, of concept generation. The final result, a set of 10–20 satisfactory NSCs, is expected to aid decision making on generation of NSCs. A case on game service is presented to illustrate the proposed approach in detail.