Jan Erik Heller

Life Cycle Engineering in Preliminary Aircraft Design

In preliminary aircraft design, the assessment of aircraft life cycle is mainly focused either on life cycle costs, or on economic and environmental analysis of certain life cycle phases. This paper presents an interdisciplinary approach for life cycle engineering during preliminary aircraft design enabling the evaluation of costs and environmental impact of the entire aircraft life cycle. The developed sustainability analysis modules are integrated in a platform together with an aircraft design suite. This allows for feeding back economic, ecological and social impact into the aircraft design synthesis, hence enabling future optimization of aircraft designs for sustainability.

End of Life Strategies in the Aviation Industry

Until approx. five years ago, it was common practice in the aviation end of life cycle phase to store the vehicles on aeroplane scrap yards. However, this procedure will not be suitable for the predicted amount of aeroplanes. This paper presents an analogy observation of the end of life cycle approaches in the naval, railway and automobile industries and the applicability of process steps to the aviation end of life strategy. In addition to that, relevant economic and ecological drivers of the possible strategies will be shown.

Multi-technology Platforms (MTPs)

The growing demand for individualized commodities requires new solutions for a highly flexible yet cost-efficient production. Hence, the research results described in this chapter address the question of how different manufacturing technologies could be combined and employed efficiently in industrial practice. Reaching across the whole field of Multi-Technology Platforms (MTPs) a generalized design methodology was examined. The resulting template-based procedure, combining function structure and technology chains, is introduced in the first section. Consecutively, the next section advances this approach by illustrating the incorporation of metrology into machine tools and MTPs. For technological validation, all newly-developed scientific approaches were successfully integrated into four demonstrator test beds located at the RWTH Aachen University: a Multi-Technology Machining Center, a Hybrid Sheet Metal Processing Center, a Conductive Friction Stir Welding Center and a laser-enhanced hybrid lathe. The economic efficiency of manufacturing technology integration is reviewed before a profitability assessment based on the aforementioned demonstrator test beds is performed. The chapter concludes with an outlook on future research topics.

PLM Reference Model for Integrated Idea and Innovation Management

The authors present their research results and practical experience regarding implementations of PLM systems in a set of companies. In detail, the very early stages of product planning and innovation management are considered. As most of today’s enterprises already operate PDMS (Product Data Management Systems), excellent foundations for a company-spanning idea and innovation management exist. An extensive analysis showed that idea management – if established – uses autonomous databases and data models which are not merged into or consistent with already existing PLM models. Potential is scattered due to disruptions in the information flow. Mostly, marketing and strategic groups have no direct access to relevant development and service data and thus lack customer feedback and stimuli for new strategic product ideas. Furthermore, strategic, technological and market boundaries have not been modelled yet to allow for an efficient handling of « postponed » ideas. The authors developed an extended data model in combination with a reference process model for innovation and idea management. Strategic data comparable to business intelligence information is consolidated with regular PLM information offering advanced opportunities and efficiency for innovation management. The paper also features an implementation of the introduced reference data and process models in a state of the art PLM system. Additionally, the approach serves as a guideline for SMEs and enables the set-up of professional innovation and idea management including presets for workflows, model attributes and open innovation functionalities.

Future Product Development Cost Prediction Model for Integrated Lifecycle Assessment

Beneficial for PLM implementation is the use of data from every product phase for optimising future goods. The objective is to decrease engineering efforts. In order to determine monetary efficiency and its influence on the product’s lifecycle, it is essential to anticipate revenues and obtain information about expected costs. Most approaches focus on production expenses as they evoke the major share of costs. Development expenditures are not identifiable reliably. Existing methods premise the availability of accurate values as input. A new approach has been developed, that is based on requirements. Assuming that products with similar indicators cause similar development efforts, databases are set-up to allow for development cost prediction. The model was validated for civil aircraft. A retrospective analysis of existing aircraft and their requirements provided the necessary input. Approach and validation are presented and information about the software demonstrator that was integrated into a lifecycle assessment platform is given.

Improving Result Quality in Engineering Design by Better Linking Employee’s and Task’s Features

Human interference with engineers’ activities negatively influences engineering tasks’ success. Regarding human influence is therefore a promising approach to improve that success. This Paper examines the aspect of man-induced disturbances in Systematic Engineering Design processes. Based on a lab study done with engineering students and interviews with engineers in industry a model of how to link engineering tasks with the most appropriate problem solving design engineer is developed. To underline the importance of the model, specific background information on Design Theory approaches is given.