Horses for courses: optimising a new product development process

The relationship between system theory and the product design, the process of product development has been described. It compared the merits and demerits of serial and parallel product development processes and, with the guidelines of system theory, put forward and analyzed the planning actions and corresponding necessity existed in the indistinct initial phase in product development process. It also analyzed the optimizing effect of planning actions in product design & development process. Thus, it obtained the model of product design & development process based on system theory so as to clarify the indistinct initial phase, shorten product development time and, improve the effectiveness of enterprise's product development.

Implications of Service-related Business Models on Product Development Processes

Process planning for collaborative product development with CD-DSM in optoelectronic enterprises

The focus of this study is on exploring the risk factors affecting new product development (NPD) processes in manufacturing enterprises. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach is utilised in this research for analysing the interactions between different risk pillars, and among various risk factors within each risk pillar. The findings of this study reveal the underlying relations between various risk factors prevalent in NPD process. The ISM based integrated framework developed in this study would enable engineering managers and practitioners of NPD in understanding the inter-dependencies among the risk factors and would help them in directing their resources towards mitigating these factors occurring in NPD initiatives of their enterprises. These finding would be beneficial for identifying the driving risk factors having major impact on product development process, enabling the decision makers to make informed choices while managing NPD projects.

This article presents a multi-level modelling approach for supporting the management of evolving new product development (NPD) processes. Following its articulation, an example of implementing process changes during the development process is presented. Such changes cannot be modelled by existing design/dependency structure matrix (DSM) approaches. A conceptual change in the product design occurs during the development process, in order to standardise the product components, and yields changes in the process plans that are simulated for decision-making. Implementation implications of dynamic changes to a development process are demonstrated, including business rules used to choose between process change options, while considering iteration learning effects. From the demonstration, it becomes clear that either DSM or Petri nets alone do not offer complete modelling capabilities for NPD processes and a multi-level approach must be adopted. Such a complete cycle of modelling would start from product knowledge through the DSM and DSM nets, which are process scheme models, with potentially additional patterns, and would end with a simulation in order to obtain insight into the dynamic changes in the process planning.

Lean concepts are routinely used in manufacturing but are still relatively new to New Product Development (NPD) process. If manufacturing can be modeled as flow of material, an analogous model for NPD process would be flow of information. This paper addresses the issue of eliminating wastes in new product development process by bringing lean concepts through an assessment system. The paper first defines wastes in the context of NPD process. A large number of waste drivers which add to wastes in any NPD process are identified. Similarly lean enablers and lean tools which if implemented can reduce wastes are also identified. A model connecting wastes and lean enables is arrived which gives a holistic picture of relationship to address and assess wastes in any NPD process. In order to measure the effectiveness of NPD process five lean performance measures are used which include design cost overrun, product cost overrun, schedule overrun, knowledge capture and customer satisfaction. Industrial inputs are used to arrive at assessment system proposed in this work and a further feedback from industry is used to enrich the assessment system after it is developed. Though the proposed system is developed for machine tool development process, it is generic in nature and can be used to assess any new product development activity.KeywordsNew product developmentLean product developmentLeanness assessment

DFMEA is a systematic and scientific method for new product design and development, which is applicable throughout the entire process of new product design and development. In this paper, DFMEA method is adopted in the systematic analyzing of the million-kilowatt nuclear power steam turbine rotor new product design and development process. On the basis of the introduction of product characteristics and current development requirement, DFMEA is introduced to the design and development process, applying the block diagram and structure-function matrix to locate the possible failure factors. Subsequently, the evaluation criteria of Severity (S), Occurrence (O), and Detection (D) are introduced and defined. According to the criteria, the Risk Priority Numbers (RPN) and Action Priority (AP) of key risks are sorted, therefore indicating the terms critical to product quality improvement. Through the application of DFMEA, an effective risk identification and analysis of the million-kilowatt nuclear power steam turbine rotor is carried out, achieving the results that operational failures are advanced to the design stage to implement countermeasures, therefore realizing the improvement of product and system operation reliability, optimization of project cycle and manufacturing cost reduction. DFMEA promotes the optimization of overall new product development process. Meanwhile it provides ideas for the subsequent design optimization methods of similar kinds.

This research explored a new direction of improving collaborative design by performance measurement. More specifically, a novel 3-dimensional performance measurement model is developed and the purpose of this model is to help project managers improve team collaboration by indicating strengths and weaknesses of team members during the project development process. Considering the complexity of collaborative design work, a multiple criteria model is proposed to reflect the design dynamics, which highlights five performance indicators: efficiency, effectiveness, collaboration, management skills and innovation. These five indicators are mostly influenced by role-based performance measurement criteria (the second dimension). Design and development process (time) is also considered (the third dimension). This 3D model allows all involved design participants to measure work performance at any time during the product development process. In order to develop this model, the role-based task analysis and industrial survey methods were utilized. Three groups of role-based product design and development performance measurement criteria were identified for measuring design performance of the top managers, middle managers and individual designers in a project team. A 3-dimensional performance measurement method was proposed to calculate final performance scores from a performance measurement matrix. The proposed model was evaluated as a tool which can support project managers to reduce potential design and collaboration risks and increase confidence in decision-making process. The model has been discussed on implementing in a web-based application for measuring design performance throughout the product design and development process.

PurposeProduct development process (PDP) in the context of Industry 4.0 may present several marketing implications. To understand these implications, the purpose of this study is to identify the benefits and difficulties of Industry 4.0 related to the PDP and its impact in marketing strategies and operations.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used to perform this research was a systematic literature review. For this, five steps were followed, namely, research question formulation; studies location; studies selection and evaluation; analysis and synthesis; and reporting and use research results.FindingsThe systematic literature review considering PDP in Industry 4.0 context resulted in 28 benefits and 14 difficulties, in a total of 53 articles. From the analysis of these benefits and difficulties, several implications for marketing were identified, namely, better understand customer preferences; greater agility in marketing decision-making; better align marketing, product development and operations processes issues; better understand product/service lifecycle; analyze possibilities of new ways of distribution and communication channels; better define the value of products and services and location requirements.Originality/valueThe findings presented here can be used both by market professionals, interested in the subject and by researchers for future studies. The better understanding of PDP in the context of Industry 4.0 can enhance marketing strategies for market professionals and provide insights for researchers. No similar studies were found in the literature.

Para que as empresas nacionais do setor de máquinas e implementos agrícolas consigam sobreviver e ampliar sua participação nesse mercado em crescimento, do interesse econômico de companhias multinacionais e no qual essas detêm expressiva participação, elas necessitam melhorar a capacitação para desenvolver novos produtos e assim atender as novas demandas quanto a requisitos e homologação dessa produção. As empresas nacionais do setor apresentam um perfil predominante de empresas familiares, de pequeno e médio porte, e pouco se conhece sobre a realidade da gestão do Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produto (PDP) nessas organizações. Este trabalho caracteriza e analisa os perfis e a maturidade da gestão do PDP em empresas de pequeno e médio porte de capital nacional do segmento de máquinas e implementos agrícolas do Estado de São Paulo. Foi realizada uma pesquisa de levantamento (survey) em 40 empresas. Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a técnica de análise multivariada de clusters. As empresas da amostra apresentam uma estrutura heterogênea com relação à gestão do PDP. Foram identificados três grupos de empresas, com diferentes perfis de maturidade do PDP: Grupo I (20% da amostra), Grupo II (50% da amostra) e Grupo III (30% da amostra). Evidenciam-se diferenças na gestão do PDP principalmente entre os Grupos I (com menor nível de maturidade do PDP) e III (com nível de maturidade relativamente mais elevado). Apesar das diferenças na gestão do PDP entre os grupos, comparando-se a prática com o referencial teórico (as boas práticas sobre gestão do PDP), os 3 grupos se encontram no nível geral básico, ou inicial, de maturidade do PDP. A análise e identificação do nível de maturidade em que as empresas se encontram podem auxiliar no direcionamento do processo de melhoria do PDP e na elaboração de políticas públicas que incentivem o desenvolvimento e inovação de produto nas empresas nacionais do setor

Industrial revolutions (IRs) are mostly associated with how transformations regarding the operations of an enterprise affect said enterprise’s manufacturing systems. However, the impact of these transformations exceeds the production systems themselves; rather, they affect the entire value chain, from the product design and development process (PDDP) through manufacturing and supply-chain management to marketing and disposal. As the new PDDP to a large extent defines the value chain for a company, the challenge lies in ensuring that the designed product will help the company fully benefit from the IRs. By analysing the 4th IR, the authors reveal that few publications shed light on this aspect. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to establish features and properties that will shape the PDDP throughout the 4th IR and into a smart design engineering. To accomplish this, the authors conduct a systematic review of the literature, which provides ten findings. These findings are then analysed by 11 specialists both from academia and the industry, and the findings’ relations to the 4th IR and their impact on the product development process is discussed. By establishing these findings, this paper provides a platform for the understanding of what could potentially shape smart design engineering and its design-related activities.

PurposeThe objective of this research was to compare the behavior of two methods of managing an engineering change request (ECR) process, namely, perform changes as they occur or in a batch.Design/methodology/approachThis comparison was accomplished by creating a computer model of a new product development (NPD) process and simulating ECR management. The model connects process design and process characteristics (teamwork, parallel activities) to process outcomes (development time, effort). The first method executes the ECR promptly and the rework is done as soon as the ECR is initiated. In the second method, ECRs are batched; in other words, a number of them are accumulated, and processing of the ECRs takes place when a batch of a certain size has accumulated. Thus, the change requests are grouped into a batch, and then, the section(s) of the process to effect the change(s) is (are) reworked.FindingsBatching ECRs was found to be superior to doing them one at a time.Research limitations/implicationsFuture work should focus on refining the computer model and differentiating ECRs by assigning priorities to incoming ECRs.Practical implicationsFor product development managers, processing ECRs in batches is preferable than attending to them on an individual basis. Nevertheless, in some situations ECRs require immediate attention. A mechanism will always be needed to deal with situations directly. Also, in terms of batching, ECRs could be processed in groups on a periodic basis. Periodically performing ECRs due to new design versions or prototypes in a timely manner is a good compromise between a random batch mode and doing them individually.Originality/valueThe paper shows that batch processing is superior to executing ECRs promptly as they are received. This result has been shown through the use of a computer model of NPD. To the authors' knowledge, no other studies have used computer modeling to study this problem.

Processes are very important for the success within many business fields. They define the proper application of methods, technologies, tools, and company structures in order to reach business goals. Not only manufacturing processes have to be defined from the start point to their end, also other processes like product development processes need a proper description to gain success. For example in automotive industries complex product development processes are necessary and defined prior to product development. Over the last decades several product modeling languages have been developed moving to object oriented modeling languages, such as UML, but the used process modeling languages are still procedural. The paradigm shift caused by object oriented description within product modeling languages has to be transferred to process modeling languages. This paper describes an object oriented approach for process modeling, referred to as PML and its application to a complex product development and production process for integrated sheet metal design of higher order bifurcations. Using UML as a starting point an object oriented process modeling method is differentiated. The basic concepts which are needed for process modeling are put into an object oriented context and are explained. The paper gives an outlook, what can be achieved by the new approach.

Identifying the moderating influences of external environments on new product development process

Tacit meaning in disguise: Hidden metaphors in new product development and market making