Janne Harkonen

Managerial view on design for manufacturing

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a tangible example of organisational solutions in effective design for manufacturing (DfM) in a large information and communications technology (ICT) company., – An interview study was carried out in a leading ICT company to clarify the practical realisation of DfM, and the current challenges encountered. The interviews covered all the key persons involved in DfM and related processes, in a case company that has successfully applied DfM for over a decade., – The paper shows the importance of a separate management organisation for coordinating the requirements of internal functions. With relation to the case company, this organisation, in contrast to the literature, is located in production, not in product development. Despite the successful application of DfM, the case company still has challenges in exploitation of related data systems., – This paper describes one of the top companies in its field. However, the obtained results could vary to some degree, should a wider set of companies be included in the study., – Managers of other companies could learn from this example at three levels: organisational solutions for DfM, its practical realisation, and the challenges encountered., – The existing literature is relatively scarce on organisational implications of DfM implementation. This paper identifies a functional organisational location, structure and practical realisation for effective DfM.

Improving the efficiency of verification and validation

The application of electronics and software technologies is spreading to new areas, because they offer new feature possibilities. Consequently, these technologies require more Validation and Verification (V&V) efforts, resulting in increased costs and slower time-to-market for new products. The ICT industry has been forced to significantly improve its V&V processes. In this study, major Scandinavian telecom companies have been interviewed to clarify the challenges of V&V, and to identify ways to tackle them. The management of traditional industrial sectors could use the experiences from the ICT sector as a benchmark, as they will face the same challenges.

Managing requirements in ICT companies

Purpose – Requirements management has become a challenge for new product development (NPD) as products are getting increasingly complicated and customer segments more fragmented. The purpose of this paper is to provide new ideas for improving requirements management in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative interview study is carried out in the ICT sector to clarify the current challenges in requirements management. The results of the interview study are analysed using a benchmark from the automotive industry. This benchmark is chosen, as the automotive industry is a developed business sector that has streamlined its business processes, including its requirements management.Findings – The paper shows how ICT can benefit from the experience of the car industry on issues such as managing customer needs throughout the NPD process, overflow of data and communicating requirements with suppliers.Research limitations/implications – Using another sec...

Manufacturing Process Capability and Specification Limits

In modern electronics, specifications for products have constantly been tightened due to performance competi- tion. The processes for product development and manufacturing have been developed to meet the tighter specifications and quality requirements. The development of test methods and measurement devices have not been as fast, and as a con- sequence, the relative impact of measurement errors has increased. Traditionally, the measurement inaccuracies have been compensated by tightening the acceptance limits. This study concentrates on analysing, through simulation, how compa- nies should minimise the failure costs by adjusting acceptance limits. The study shows, in contrast to the conventional thinking, that widening the acceptance limits makes business sense in some cases.

The relations between stakeholders and product development drivers: practitioners’ perspectives

Product development is affected by various drivers and multiple stakeholders. This study assesses relationships between different external and internal stakeholders and product development drivers. The relationships between stakeholders and product development drivers are analysed at managerial level in NPD intensive companies, which operate in market-driven environment. The results indicate the most relevant external stakeholders for product development drivers to include customers, suppliers, and partners, whereas the most relevant internal stakeholders include product management, management, and engineering. In addition, key stakeholders for individual drivers are identified. Industrial managers can utilise the findings to improve decision-making, prioritisation, and to reduce unnecessary complexities.

Maturity of verification and validation in ICT companies

This paper examines the maturity of Verification and Validation (V&V) activities in the different phases of a New Product Development (NPD) chain. A Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)-based Verification-Validation Maturity Model (V2M2) is utilised for the analysis. In this study, the maturity of V&V activities is analysed based on interviews conducted in major Scandinavian telecom companies. The study highlights how the maturity of V&V in production is higher than in earlier NPD phases. The overall maturity of V&V activities is found to require significant improvement.

Organisational maturity and functional performance

This article examines the maturity of company practises from two different perspectives. The overall management system is analysed by using the People Capability Maturity Model. The maturity of an operational function is scrutinised by using the Verification and Validation Maturity Model (V2M2). Verification and Validation (V&V) was chosen as an example as it has become a challenging function for the management of the high technology sector. Even the best performer in the managerial maturity analyses, a major Scandinavian telecom company has significant difficulties with the V&V maturity. Typically, small and medium sized companies should concentrate on developing their overall management system before they can reach high maturity in single operational functions.

Analysing telecom companies using the Toyota NPD model

The telecom sector is facing great challenges in its New Product Development (NPD) as products are getting increasingly complicated and customer segments more fragmented. This study uses a benchmark from the automotive industry to obtain ideas for improving NPD and requirements management in the telecom sector. Toyota was chosen as the benchmark as the automotive industry has been a large volume, mature and competitive business sector, and Toyota has been successful in streamlining its business processes and in meeting customer needs. The study clarifies the similarities and the main differences between interviewed telecom companies and NPD practices at Toyota.

Evaluating University-Industry Collaboration: The European Foundation of Quality Management Excellence Model-Based Evaluation of University-Industry Collaboration.

The growth in university-industry collaboration has resulted in an increasing demand for methods to evaluate it. This paper presents one way to evaluate an organization’s collaborative activities based on the European Foundation of Quality Management excellence model. Success factors of collaboration are derived from literature and compared against the quality award criteria. Tailored evaluation criteria are proposed based on the analysis, and piloted by evaluating a biosciences research umbrella organization. The results show that success factors of university-industry collaboration can be addressed by using the model-based evaluation criteria. The results of the study can potentially be used by actors on both sides of university-industry collaboration to evaluate their organization’s collaboration capabilities and performance.

Reducing test costs in electronics mass-production

This paper studies the simultaneous optimisation of quality and costs in mass-production of complex electronics products. Testing has become a critical bottleneck for assuring quality, requiring a large amount of time and resources. The volume of especially functional testing must be minimised to reduce costs. Sampling is a potential way to obtain this. Unfortunately, existing sampling methods are not functional in the modern electronics environment with multiple tests. This paper presents new efficient methods, based on continuous sampling plan (CSP) procedures. The applicability of the developed methods is confirmed empirically by analysing and simulating real industrial data.