Janez Kušar

Development Process with Regard to Customer Requirements

Today, it can be maintained that the customer is a ‘king’ as he will buy only the products that satisfy his needs and wants. The companies of today are facing new challenges: global business and local operation, standardization, and individualization of products, demanding customers and fierce competition. The company wants to achieve shorter product development time, lower costs, high quality of the product, and finally, customer satisfaction. In order to achieve the set goals, the company has to take into account the customers wants and needs during the new-product-development process. This article presents the mode of description of processes that allow recognition of suitable natural systems and their transformation into technical systems and a model for management of development process. The phases of quality functions deployment (QFD) during the new product development process along with the location for collecting customer needs and wants are presented. A detailed description is given on information resources for obtaining data on customer needs; the methods for obtaining, structuring, and evaluation of the data obtained. The results of testing the proposed methodology of taking into account the voice of the customer in the process of developing a new Vario Flow product in a company that produces and sells medical equipment in domestic and foreign markets are also included.

Project-driven Concurrent Product Development:

When entering the global market, companies encounter several difficulties, the most severe being long product development times and too high costs of sequential product and process development. In order to overcome this problem, the companies will have to make a shift from sequential product development (which is wasteful regarding time and costs) to a project-driven concurrent product development as soon as possible. The article presents a procedure for project-driven concurrent product development by taking into account three strategic management methods: parallelness, standardization, and integration of product development processes. Also presented are the changes in organizational concept of the company, organization of processes, organization of work and organization of IT, which are required for a transition from sequential to concurrent product development. Finally, an analysis is presented on concurrent product development teams in a company; this analysis is a prerequisite for a transition to a new method of product development.

Teamwork as a Precondition for Simultaneous Product Realization

This article presents the savings in time and costs achieved by a transition from sequential to simultaneous product realization. Such a transition is not possible without prior well-organized teamwork or virtual teamwork. The article demonstrates the team structure in simultaneous product realization. A two-level team structure is suitable for small companies, with a core team on the first level and several project teams in simultaneous product realization loops on the second level. In order to ensure successful work of the core team and several project teams, appropriate communication tools are suggested and a communication matrix has been developed, defining information exchange during the execution of activities in simultaneous product realization. The communication matrix is used for identifying information system connections. The results of organizing teamwork and virtual teamwork are shown on a case study of simultaneous realization of a pedal assembly.

Concurrent realisation and quality assurance of products in the automotive industry

The aim of the concurrent product realisation and quality assurance of products is to shorten the realisation time, reduce realisation costs, increase the quality of products and thus increase customer satisfaction. In a case study of a project of the concurrent realisation of products (components for the automotive industry), it is shown how the requirements of quality standards for the automotive industry can be integrated in processes of the concurrent product realisation project, based on track-and-loop principle and three strategies: parallelness, standardisation and integration. This article gives an overview of quality-related standards in the automotive industry, the principles of sequential and concurrent product realisation and the course of concurrent product realisation and quality assurance of products in the automotive industry. Five loops of concurrent product realisation processes are defined for the automotive industry, as well as seven milestones of advanced product quality planning. A course of concurrent realisation and quality assurance of products in the automotive industry is shown in the case of the concurrent realisation of a car component.

Extended risk-analysis model for activities of the project

Project management of product/service orders has become a mode of operation in many companies. Although these are mostly cyclically recurring projects, risk management is very important for them. An extended risk-analysis model for new product/service projects is presented in this paper. Emphasis is on a solution developed in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The usual project activities risk analysis is based on evaluation of the probability that risk events occur and on evaluation of their consequences. A third parameter has been added in our model: an estimate of the incidence of risk events. On the basis of the calculated activity risk level, a project team prepares preventive and corrective measures that should be taken according to the status indicators. An important advantage of the proposed solution is that the project manager and his team members are timely warned of risk events and they can thus activate the envisaged preventive and corrective measures as necessary.

Risk Management of Cyclically Recurring Project Activities of Product Realisation

An extended risk-analysis procedure for new product/service realisation projects is presented in this paper. The usual risk analysis of project activities is based on evaluation of the probability that risk events occur and on evaluation of their consequences. Product/process realisation projects are cyclically recurring, so the third parameter has been added in the proposed procedure: an estimate of the incidence of risk events. On the basis of the calculated activity risk level in a three-dimensional risk analysis, a project team prepares preventive and corrective measures that should be taken according to the status indicators. An important advantage of the proposed solution is that the project manager and team members also take into account the recurring risk events in risk management. By successive elimination of sources of recurring risk events, the three-dimensional risk analysis of project activities can be transformed to the well-known two-dimensional risk analysis. A template was created in the MS project environment. The project team used the template for testing the proposed methodology in a case study of realisation of a die-cast tool for manufacturing a car component.

Techniques and Analyses of Sequential and Concurrent Product Development Processes

A company can enter the global market only if it can fulfil the customer needs regarding features and quality of products. Customers are becoming more and more demanding and their requirements are changing all the time. “Customer is the king!” is becoming the motto of today.

Integrated Scheduling of Flexible Manufacturing and Assembly Systems

An integrated system of master and fine scheduling of a flexible manufacturing (FMS) and assembly system (FAS) is discussed in this presentation.

EXPERT SYSTEM IN PRODUCTION FLOW OPTIMIZATION

The new manufacturing philosophy characterized by flexible manufacturing systems and production cells with their cost and benefits are being applied in industry, above all in metal cutting industry. Production Flow Analysis (PFA) /1/, a method for identification of families of parts and corresponding groups of machines is shortly described.