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INTRODUCTION
In our globally-linked economy, product development capabilities are
the basis for successful competition. Successful product development requires
fundamentally improved approaches to organizing the development process,
reducing waste, and providing products to meet customer needs in order to
respond to global competition in our own markets as well as compete effectively
on a global basis. Integrated product development practices (IPD) and time-to-market
are key elements in competitive success. IPD orients product design to customer
needs and the company's production capabilities. More broadly, it enhances
integration of product and process design with strategic objectives, improves
organizational effectiveness, and provides a framework for effectively implementing
design technology.
The traditional approach to improvement in U.S. manufacturing has been to
break down the enterprise into more understandable functional units and
work centers, study each one individually, and then optimize the operations
of each unit. The optimization of individual units has been at the expense
of suboptimization of the whole enterprise. This functionally-oriented thinking
has resulted in barriers between departments. This is exemplified by the
"wall" between Engineering and Manufacturing with designs being
"thrown over the wall" to Manufacturing without adequate regard
to producibility. IPD requires that the enterprise be viewed in a more integrated
manner. This integration considers three dimensions:
- Strategic integration to tie decision-making and the pattern of enterprise
activities to a focused direction that allows an organization to distinguish
itself in the marketplace.
- Functional integration which organizes and links the various functional
areas of an enterprise to work together more effectively and optimize the
whole.
- Logistic or supply chain integration which
extends integration concepts beyond the manufacturer's four walls to its
customers and its suppliers.
Since product and process design have such a major influence on the competitiveness
of the enterprise, it is especially critical that the design function be
better integrated with the other functions of the enterprise. This means
integration within the engineering function (e.g., integration of both product
design with process design and integration of electrical, mechanical and
software design), integration of the design and engineering function with
the rest of the enterprise, and integration of the engineering function
with external organizations (customers and suppliers).
This integration will result in the release of more mature product designs
which can be more effectively produced within a company's existing or planned
production system and more effectively supported. New product design and
introduction leadtime or time-to-market will be reduced to meet rapidly
changing technology and customer demands and increase enterprise flexibility.
More specifically, the objectives of Integrated Product Development are:
- The design of products to better meet customer needs and quality expectations
- The design of processes or the consideration of process capabilities
in designing products in order to produce products at a more competitive
price
- Reduction of product and process design cycle time or time-to-market
to bring products to market earlier
- High productivity through release of producible
designs and minimization of disruptive design changes
The accomplishment of these objectives requires an integrated approach
to product and process design which considers the company's business strategy.
This integrated approach to product and process design rests on:
- Alignment of product development with business strategy;
- Organizational integration using product development teams or integrated
product teams as a way to organize development activities;
- A well defined and optimized development process;
- Integrated design automation tools oriented toward creating, analyzing
and using digital product data to move a product into production;
- Optimization of the product and process design
to enhance manufacturability, testability, affordability, reliability,
maintainability, etc.
In applying these tools and concepts, the organization must be re-structured,
cultural issues considered, and communication among different functional
units improved.
INTEGRATION OF DEVELOPMENT WITH BUSINESS STRATEGY
The enterprise's product and process design approach must be linked to
the business strategy. Hayes and Wheelwright define five dimensions to competition:
cost, quality/performance, flexibility, dependability and innovativeness.
A world class manufacturer must be effective in all five dimensions, but
can only excel in one or two dimensions. An enterprise's strategy must be
considered in the approach to product and process design. For example, the
low cost producer must optimize the product design to the company's production
system and consider high volume, highly automated production processes.
The flexible producer with lower production volume would develop flexible
production processes and a design engineering function with greater degrees
of design freedom and flexible, automated product and process design capabilities.
In any case, a general strategy for manufacturers is to move toward focused
factories which concentrate on doing a few things well. This implies focused
product and process design which further implies standardization and simplification
of products and parts within each focused facility. (If the product has
been designed intelligently, it will be possible to provide a great deal
of product variety through combining assembly modules and adding product
options late in the manufacturing process.) Through standardization and
simplification, a company will be able to focus its attention on the producibility
of its preferred parts and products. These standardized families of parts
and products will require a more limited set of manufacturing processes.
A company can then focus on developing theseproducts and processes considering
its selected dimensions of competition such as follows:
Basis of Competition and Product and Process Development
Implications
| Cost |
A strong emphasis on target costing, design-to-cost, value engineering,
and design for manufacturability. Minimum product variety. Significant manufacturing
and accounting involvement in development. Suppliers are well-integrated
into the development process. Factory uses high volume equipment specifically
oriented to the product; automated material handling. |
| Quality / Reliability / Dependability |
A disciplined and rigorous product development process. Strong focus on
understanding customer needs and
providing products that meet those needs. Use of techniques like
FMEA, FTA, FRACAS, DOE, Taguchi Methods, poke-yoke, and reliability prediction. Heavy
emphasis on testing and qualification. Processes are oriented to
self-checking and adjustment and use of computer- aided inspection and
test equipment. |
| Time-to-Market |
Use of modular design approaches. Sufficient resources to undertake development
processes underway. Continuous surveillance of the marketplace and understanding
of customer needs. Well-defined development processes based on tightly integrated
design automation tools. Well-planned and managed programs with clear definition
and acceptance of responsibilities. Process equipment to handle a wide range
of work envelopes; FMS; quick set-up and changeover. |
| Innovativeness / Technology |
A technology plan and roadmap based on the business and product strategy
and plan. Effective technology management. Process to review new technologies
developed outside for applicability internally. Effective process to deploy
n ew technology to development programs. State-of-the-art design and analysis
tools to support requirements of new technology. Policies to invest in training
and development of personnel to master new technology. Culture open to new
ideas and taking risks. Investment in new process technology. |
A starting point is to define and understand the company's marketplace,
customer needs and competition. Based on this assessment, the company's
primary competitive dimensions can be selected and a strategy defined to
develop and enhance these competitive dimensions. Once this is done, product
and process design based on IPD can be oriented to implement this strategy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kenneth A. Crow is President of DRM Associates,
a management consulting and education firm focusing on integrated product
development practices. He is a distinguished speaker and recognized expert
in the field of integrated product development. He has over twenty years
of experience consulting with major companies internationally in aerospace,
capital equipment, defense, high technology, medical equipment, and transportation
industries. He has provided guidance to executive management in formulating
a integrated product development program and reengineering the development
process as well as assisted product development teams applying IPD to specific
development projects.
He has written papers, contributed to books, and given many presentations
and seminars for professional associations, conferences, and manufacturing
clients on integrated product development, design for manufacturability,
design to cost, product development teams, QFD, and team building. Among
many professional affiliations, he is past President and currently on the
Board of the Society of Concurrent Engineeringand is a member of the Product
Development Management Association and the Engineering Management Society.
For further information, contact the author at DRM Associates, 2613 Via
Olivera, Palos Verdes, CA 90274, telephone (310) 377-5569, fax (310) 377-1315,
or email at kcrow@aol.com.
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