Managing concurrent execution of multiple activities in product development process

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 210-221
Author(s):  
Gyesik Oh ◽  
Yoo Suk Hong

Many companies adopt concurrent engineering in their product-development projects in order to reduce time to market. Concurrent engineering requires careful management, since the uncertainty of transferred information leads to rework and renders a development process complex. Most of the existing studies on concurrent engineering have analyzed overlapping between two activities. The present study expanded the research scope by modeling the developmental process of the concurrent execution of multiple activities as the result of management decisions, the overlapping ratio, and the information transfer frequency. When multiple activities are overlapped, it is more difficult to model a development process, since the uncertainty of cascaded information has impacts on many activities. The quantitative model developed in the present study provides insights into the uncertainty of information and the product-development process. Based on the generalized process model for multiple-activity overlapping, the optimal decision to minimize project duration was considered. As a solution to the dilemma of the high computational burden of considering all feasible decision sets, this paper proposes a myopic heuristic. The project management heuristic proposed in this paper is intended to assist managers in the decision-making process, as well as reducing the intermediate deadlines in project main plan.

2004 ◽  
Vol 471-472 ◽  
pp. 770-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.Z. Liu ◽  
M. Liu ◽  
Pei Si Zhong

Product development process analysis and reengineering are the basic for enterprise to put CE into practice. The characteristics of concurrent PDP are analyzed and compared with the traditional PDP. The basic requirements, methods and steps of PDP analysis, improvement and reengineering for CE are presented. The process model for PDP analysis and reengineering is built. According to the actual PDP in Qiqihar Railway Rolling Stock Company in China, the process for the grain rolling stock development is analyzed and improved, and the result is satisfactory.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fupeng Yin ◽  
Qi Gao ◽  
Xue Ji

The appropriate iteration process model is the basis for managing and optimizing the product development process. In this article, we attempt to introduce the concept of process effectiveness and process value. The relationship between rework probability and process effectiveness is discussed. The evolution function of process effectiveness is proposed to drive the overlapped iteration process of multi-coupled activities. The evolution process with input information update is studied, and a simulation model is presented to obtain the accurate iteration process of development. It is useful to analyze the risks during development, and has good flexibility and versatility. The calculation method of process value for overlapped iteration process is given, and an optimization model for product development process is provided. The model is used to improve the development process of the stamping die of a car roof. With the model, we can get a suitable overlapping rate of multi-coupled activities to improve development performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-532
Author(s):  
Rachel Parker-Strak ◽  
Liz Barnes ◽  
Rachel Studd ◽  
Stephen Doyle

PurposeThis research critically investigates product development in the context of fast fashion online retailers who are developing “own label” fashion clothing. With a focus upon inputs, outputs, planning and management in order to comprehensively map the interplay of people, processes and the procedures of the product development process adopted.Design/methodology/approachQualitative research method was employed. Face-to-face semi structured in depth interviews were conducted with key informants from market leading fast fashion online retailers in the UK.FindingsThe major findings of this research demonstrate the disruptions in the product development process in contemporary and challenging fashion retailing and a new “circular process” model more appropriate and specific to online fast fashion businesses is presented.Research limitations/implicationsThe research has implications for the emerging body of theory relating to fashion product development. The research is limited to UK online fashion retailers, although their operations are global.Practical implicationsThe findings from this study may be useful for apparel product development for retailers considering an online and fast fashion business model.Originality/valueThe emergent process model in this study may be used as a baseline for further studies to compare product development processes.


Author(s):  
Tianyi Cai ◽  
Theodor Freiheit

Lean value creation requires a value-adding network of lean activities across the whole Product Development Process (PDP). Management needs to allocate resources and properly control the process to create the value that stakeholders desire. Leading companies in industry have successfully applied Set-Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE) for lean PDP. In SBCE, designers propose several feasible solutions and develop them relatively independently and in parallel, and then gradually narrow the sets of solutions based on updated project feedback at each stage-gate design review. As an important lean concept with many advantages, SBCE has constraints that can jeopardize lean value creation. For instance, it is unclear how resources are allocated to each stage, different functional teams, and different value creation activities related to different kinds of value, which can cause waste of talent, time, and money. This paper focuses on how resources can be allocated to SBCE by viewing product development activities as value creation cells. Under management control, lean value creation activities use knowledge and other resources to produce valuable design solutions. A mathematical feedback control model is proposed to illustrate how management can invest resources for the value creation process. This model can be used to explore resource allocation to functional teams and processes according to a holistic value creation project development strategy and the optimal creation of lean value.


Author(s):  
G. Drieux ◽  
J.-C. Le´on ◽  
N. Chevassus ◽  
F. Guillaume

The Digital Mock-Up (DMU), which is a comprehensive numerical model describing the final manufactured product, is today widely used in the industry (like the automotive and aeronautic industries) to support the concurrent engineering organizations and processes. On the other hand, simulation helps in the development of a product for design decision making or validation purposes. It allows to determine, with the appropriate level of accuracy, the behavior of the future product under a specific environment or set of exterior actions. Virtual Reality (VR) applications are simulations where the focus is on immersion and interaction with the product. However, there is still lacks in the integration of simulation within the product development phases. In particular the link between the DMU and the numerical models for simulation in the large is often hardly achieved. For some types of simulation, it is even inexistent. In this paper, we propose a new object, the Downstream Digital Mock-Up (DDMU), based on a polyhedral representation, and we show that it can be a support for the integration of a subset of simulation activities within the product development process by making the link between the DMU and these simulations. In the particular case of VR, we show that this object is particularly adapted. One particularity of the DDMU is to be prepared for a specific target application, defined by its objectives and the context in which it is immersed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amran Rasli ◽  
Saif ur Rehman Khan ◽  
Tan Owee Kowang

Taking into account the customers, supplier and organization involvement in the new product development (NPD), this article focuses on the synthesis, evaluation, and selection of various sub-factors of concurrent engineering involved in new product development process. The aim of this study was to provide the reliability and validity of six sub-factors of concurrent engineering model of the 49-item questionnaire and to analyze its association with concurrent engineering and new product development process in a sample of 35 manufacturing and services organization located in Johor, Malaysia. Methods: A self reported survey was conducted in 35 manufacturing and services organization located in Johor, Malaysia. Results: Appropriate internal consistencies of the six sub-scales: customers relationship, team development, continuity, tools and techniques, suppliers involvement and corporate focus and their association with concurrent engineering, were obtained. Zero-order correlation and regressions analysis replicated the theoretically assumed structure of the effective concurrent engineering (ECE). Evidence of criterion validity was obtained from cross-correlations of the scales and from their linear and multiple regression analysis. Finally, all seven scales were associated with a highly significant ratio of concurrent engineering as predicted by fundamental theory. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study the seven version of the model, questionnaire is considered a reliable and valid instrument for measuring association in developing the new complex product development process.


Author(s):  
G Q Huang ◽  
K L Mak

Shortcomings of sequential engineering and advantages of concurrent engineering in product development have become better understood. However, the transformation from a sequential engineering environment to a concurrent engineering environment remains challenging. A dynamic transformation approach by combining the focused application of ‘design for X’ (DFX) with the extensive use of business process re-engineering (BPR) is discussed in this paper. The main role of DFX is to provide the drive, focus, vision and concurrence necessary for BPR, while the main role of BPR is to institutionalize good practice and make improvement permanent and continuous.


Author(s):  
Håkan Petersson ◽  
Damien Motte ◽  
Martin Eriksson ◽  
Robert Bjärnemo

When developing products, engineering designers often face the problem that their candidate for a technical solution, ranging from a concept to a detailed design, needs to be analyzed by a design analyst before it is approved or rejected and the engineering designer can continue his/her activities within the product development process. If engineering designers have to send every solution candidate to a design analyst, a lot of time and money is lost. To avoid this, some Swedish companies have started to allow their engineering designers to use the analysis capabilities imbedded in modern CAD/CAE software. In the literature on product development and on computer based design analysis (CBDA) both processes are fairly well described. However, this cannot be said about the interaction between the two processes. This is a growing issue as it represents core knowledge for developing efficient and effective integration concepts, which in turn can be developed into likewise efficient and effective approaches on how to assist the engineering designer to perform parts of the CBDA process on his/her own. Note that when we refer to CBDA here, this is confined to the use of FEM in the development of products, primarily based on working principles originating from the area of Mechanical Engineering. Since we have been working on a process model for the integration between engineering design and design analysis, this has inspired us to utilize findings from these efforts to propose a conceptual model for a design analysis process driven by the engineering designer to be integrated into the product development process. The proposed design analysis process model is based on the use of predefined analysis methods or templates. Templates are also utilized for QA (Quality Assurance) and monitoring of the analysis activities. Responsible for the development of the analysis methods and the templates are expert design analysts, who develop these tools within a technology development process. Before allowing the engineering designers access to them, these tools need to be approved by relevant bodies within the industrial enterprise and/or by external sources such as those responsible for certification and risk management. In this paper we present the development of the proposed integrated design analysis process model and an industrial case study, which incorporates a non-linear design analysis activity, utilizing the FEM-program Abaqus within the CAD-software Catia V5 and its imbedded optimization module.


2013 ◽  
Vol 299 ◽  
pp. 176-179
Author(s):  
Xue Peng Liu ◽  
Dong Mei Zhao

The process -oriented product process model is established. The map of process model and product development is built. On the basis of product development process model, a model DMPA (Product development process model based on the process or action) is proposed. The algorithms of process deletion and recursion are put forward to implement the application system.


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