An innovative framework of collaborative-based workflow in Development Chain Management

Currently, most product development procedures have been characterized as unnecessarily complicated. To maintain a competitive edge and to simplify the procedures, joint efforts from different functional groups play such crucial role. Specifically, information from marketing, sales, engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing should be cross-referenced. In addition, adopting pre-defined workflows contributes to efficient collection of distributed information. Moreover, unlike traditional workflow, a collaborative-based workflow (CWF) in product development process boasts of complicated workflow forms with manifold views for a workflow execution. Traditional workflow solutions, for instance, can only transmit a workflow form through different actors. Such workflow solutions merely offer modeling approval-based workflow (AWF), such as drawing reviews or absence applications.     

Product structure (BOM)-based product similarity measures using orthogonal procrustes approach

In geometry, two configurations are called similar if they can be brought to a complete match by rigid motions and dilations. In the simplest case, product designs X and Y have the same dimensionality and same number of points which can be brought into a one to one correspondence by substantive considerations. Under orthogonal transformations, product design Y can only be rotated and reflected in order to approximate product design X. As for the “as close as possible” or “relatively close” criterion, a reasonable definition would be to measure the distances between corresponding points, square these values, and add them to obtain the sum-of-squares criterion L. In this paper, a product structure (BOM)-based product similarity measures using orthogonal procrustes approach is proposed. A structural product is first transformed into bill of materials (BOM), the structural similarity measurement between a product query and target product is calculated and evaluated using orthogonal procrustes approach. The results show that the proposed product structure similarity measure method can help companies find desired product information based on BOM feature.     

Recovery of sensor embedded washing machines using a multi-kanban controlled disassembly line

Product recovery involves the recovery of materials and components from returned or end-of-life products. Disassembly, an element of product recovery, is the systematic separation of an assembly into its components, subassemblies or other groupings. Stricter environmental regulations together with dramatic decrease in natural resources and landfills have increased the importance of disassembly as all product recovery options require some level of disassembly. Due to changes made during the lifetime of a product by customers or service personnel, the number and the version of components prior to disassembly is unknown. Customers may also discriminate between and demand different versions of components. The existence of non-functional components further adds to the uncertainty associated with disassembly yield. Sensors implanted into products during their production can address this uncertainty by providing information on the number, condition and version of components prior to disassembly. In this study, we evaluate the impact of sensor embedded products (SEPs) on the various performance measures of a washing machine (WM) disassembly line controlled by a multi-kanban system, which takes into consideration the highly stochastic behavior of the line while managing material and kanban flows. First, separate design of experiments studies based on orthogonal arrays are performed for conventional products and SEPs. In order to observe the response of each experiment, detailed discrete event simulation (DES) models for both types of products are developed considering the precedence relationships among the components of a WM. Then, pair-wise t-tests are conducted to compare the two cases based on different performance measures. According to the results, SEPs provide significant reductions in all costs (viz., backorder, holding, disassembly, disposal, testing and transportation) while increasing revenue and profit.     

Components meet aspects: Assessing design stability of a software product line

Context

It is important for Product Line Architectures (PLA) to remain stable accommodating evolutionary changes of stakeholder’s requirements. Otherwise, architectural modifications may have to be propagated to products of a product line, thereby increasing maintenance costs. A key challenge is that several features are likely to exert a crosscutting impact on the PLA decomposition, thereby making it more difficult to preserve its stability in the presence of changes. Some researchers claim that the use of aspects can ameliorate instabilities caused by changes in crosscutting features. Hence, it is important to understand which aspect-oriented (AO) and non-aspect-oriented techniques better cope with PLA stability through evolution.

Objective

This paper evaluates the positive and negative change impact of component and aspect based design on PLAs. The objective of the evaluation is to assess how aspects and components promote PLA stability in the presence of various types of evolutionary change. To support a broader analysis, we also evaluate the PLA stability of a hybrid approach (i.e. combined use of aspects and components) against the isolated use of component-based, OO, and AO approaches.

Method

An quantitative and qualitative analysis of PLA stability which involved four different implementations of a PLA: (i) an OO implementation, (ii) an AO implementation, (iii) a component-based implementation, and (iv) a hybrid implementation where both components and aspects are employed. Each implementation has eight releases and they are functionally equivalent. We used conventional metrics suites for change impact and modularity to measure the architecture stability evaluation of the 4 implementations.

Results

The combination of aspects and components promotes superior PLA resilience than the other PLAs in most of the circumstances.

Conclusion

It is concluded that the combination of aspects and components supports the design of high cohesive and loosely coupled PLAs. It also contributes to improve modularity by untangling feature implementation.     

A new mixed integer linear programming model for product development using quality function deployment

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a product development process performed to maximize customer satisfaction. In the QFD, the design requirements (DRs) affecting the product performance are primarily identified, and product performance is improved to optimize customer needs (CNs). For product development, determining the fulfillment levels of design requirements (DRs) is crucial during QFD optimization. However, in real world applications, the values of DRs are often discrete instead of continuous. To the best of our knowledge, there is no mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model in which the discrete DRs values are considered. Therefore, in this paper, a new QFD optimization approach combining MILP model and Kano model is suggested to acquire the optimized solution from a limited number of alternative DRs, the values of which can be discrete. The proposed model can be used not only to optimize the product development but also in other applications of QFD such as quality management, planning, design, engineering and decision-making, on the condition that DR values are discrete. Additionally, the problem of lack of solutions in integer and linear programming in the QFD optimization is overcome. Finally, the model is illustrated through an example.     

B2B e-commerce supply chain integration and performance: A contingency fit perspective on the role of environment

Drawing upon contingency theory “fit” research in the IT and supply chain management literature, we applied the “fit” concept to the relationship between B2B e-commerce supply chain integration and performance. The results demonstrated that the effect of B2B supply chain integration on financial, market, and operational performance decreased as product turbulence and demand unpredictability jointly increased. Managerial implications include the conditions under which IT investments yield performance improvement and the need for firms to actively manage demand uncertainty.     

Assisting designer using feature modeling for lifecycle

This paper presents a product dynamic model and design for X solution (DFX) developed in C++ with the OpenCASCADE geometric kernel, allowing the designer not only to get feedback on the viability of his design choices but also to collect data for process and task planning, maintenance and end-of-life strategy planning. The implemented method evaluates automatically both the efficiency factors and the incompatibilities between development characteristics in order to optimize the design of the product for multiple domains. The framework of this DFX solution, based on the product data structure, consists of imposing integration constraints concerning the development process during the entire design product process. In this paper, simple assemblies are used as brief examples to demonstrate the application of the proposed integrated design solution, its effectiveness to improve the design for X and collecting useful data for entire lifecycle duration. The method developed has been formalized with the NIAM model.     

Design and implementation of an agent-based collaborative product design system

The evolution of computer science and technology has brought new opportunities for multidisciplinary designers and engineers to collaborate with each other in a concurrent and coordinated manner. The development of computational agents with unified data structures and software protocols contributes to the establishment of a new way of working in collaborative design, which is increasingly becoming an international practice. In this paper, based on the analysis of the dynamic nature of collaborative design process, a new framework for collaborative design is described. This framework adopts an agent-based approach and relocates designers, managers, systems, and the supporting agents in a unified knowledge representation scheme for product design. In order to model the constantly evolving design process and the rationales resulted from design collaboration, a Collaborative Product Data Model (CPDM) and a constraint-based Collaborative Design Process Model (CDPM) are proposed to facilitate the management and coordination of the collaborative design process as well as design knowledge management. A prototype system of the proposed framework is implemented and its feasibility is evaluated using a real design scenario whose objective is designing a set of dining table and chairs.     

An integrated domain analysis approach for teleoperated systems

Teleoperated systems for ship hull maintenance (TOS) are robotic systems for ship maintenance tasks, such as cleaning or painting a ship’s hull. The product line paradigm has recently been applied to TOS, and a TOS reference architecture has thus been designed. However, TOS requirements specifications have not been developed in any rigorous way with reuse in mind. We therefore believe that an opportunity exists to increase the abstraction level at which stakeholders can reason about this product line. This paper reports an experience in which this TOS domain was analyzed, including the lessons learned in the construction and use of the TOS domain model. The experience is based on the application of extensions of well-known domain analysis techniques, together with the use of quality attribute templates traced to a feature model to deal with non-functional issues. A qualitative research method (action research) was used to carry out the experience.