Jože Tavčar

Skills for effective communication and work in global product development teams

This paper presents a systematic discussion of the specifics of communication and work within a virtual development team, which is of crucial importance for competitiveness in the course of globalization. With advances in technology, work within virtual teams is gaining ever-greater importance. However, in this process, special knowledge and skills of virtual team members are a greater obstacle than technical equipment. Work within a virtual product development team requires intense communication, which is possible via videoconferencing. The contribution of this paper consists of a set of recommendations on how to develop necessary skills for effective communication and work in virtual development teams. The recommendations can be applied in both university and industrial environments. The paper is based on experiences from the international course on European Global Product Realisation that provided students with initial experiences in working within a global team. The authors believe that skills and technical equipment will need to be constantly supplemented and upgraded so that they will become practically independent of personal meetings (i.e. the distance between team members).

Preparing undergraduate students for work in virtual product development teams

The development of innovative and competitive products and mastery of IT&T technologies are crucial for a companys long-term success in the global market. The main flag bearers for development are product developers, but it is questionable whether the existing systems are appropriate for the education of such professionals. For example, one study found large deficiencies concerning their skills in group interaction and ability to translate thoughts into action. Based on these and similar findings, a decision was made to organize an international course that would help students become competent members of product development teams. Integrated product development is a demanding and complex activity as it is, and its level of difficulty is additionally increased by the ever-changing business environment, primarily by functional associating of geographically disperse human resources. The paper describes the E-GPR (European Global Product Realization) course program, the used IT&T technologies, the way international teams were formed and the experiences and findings of the students, company representatives and lecturers who participated in this course. The authors believe that realism is the main strength of the course. Based on positive responses of all participants, the organizers decided to continue and further improve the E-GPR course.

Concurrent Engineering in Real and Virtual Tool Production

Tool production is a widespread and indispensable part of every serial and mass production job. International competition and globalization require ever shorter time frames from idea to placement of the products on the market, and the time needed to produce the tools plays an important part in this process. A proper information system plays a crucial part in concurrent engineering, because it en ables greater reviewability of the production process and thus, greater overlapping of individual phases (Prasad, 1996). The first step in the re-engineering of a companys information system is gaining a thorough knowledge of the work process. This paper presents the methodology of analysis of information creation and information flow. The most important requirements are identified, and con crete solutions are presented for the creation of an appropriate information system. We have connected tool production and the develop ment of serial products and managed to reduce the time to product fabrication. In individual production, all phases must be closely con nected ; a complete toolmaking facility was therefore designed as a well-connected informational whole (Tavčar and Duhovnik, 1997; 1998). Concurrent work requires independent documentation of individual building blocks and data transparency throughout all phases, from preparation of the tender to manufacture. Expansion of the functionality of a product data management (PDM) system to include monitoring and management of production proved to be an appropriate solution for the majority of set requirements. A virtual toolmaking factory was set up to increase capacity during peak production periods. When the concept was tested in the Domel Toolmaking Factory, the average tool production time was reduced by 32%.

Project manager with quality assurance

Abstract The management system presented in the paper allows the generation and control of documentation flow throughout the whole manufacturing process, from all design levels to manufacturing. Using the method of quality assurance, a useful management system has been developed that covers cooperative work between different departments, clear responsibilities, the description of procedures for documentation manipulation etc. The suggested project manager allows a user-friendly implementation of quality assurance in the development/design phases. Using a method of systematic design that includes iterative processing, systematic identification of documents is allowed, and the integration of CAD with CIM is facilitated. The systematic identification is based on a natural classification throughout all the design levels; a special language is used which involves human communications terms. An important feature of the system is that the project has a clear structure. More documentation can be generated by the CAD system, and this system or a similar system is a necessary part of every enterprise. The project manager has been successfully applied in industry.

PLM Used as a Backbone for Concurrent Engineering in Supply Chain

Supply chain management and early involvement of suppliers into product development process is one of the key elements of concurrent engineering. Internet based Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system can improve communication between customers and suppliers. In the case study is presented a communication model and configuration of the PLM system that supports a second tier system supplier in automotive industry and its sub-suppliers. First set of activities is during the development phase of the project and later for engineering change management. The method of work and documents structure is based on the automotive industry practice [2] and it is upgraded with some specific solutions. We believe that this concept can be applied also to other types of production. The product data model is a core of all activities in the product development process therefore it is used as a backbone. PLM system is used to manage product data and it is a key connection between customer and supplier. PLM system does not replace personal communication, face to face meetings and product validation. PLM system is a meeting point where people can get and upload product data. In this way they can work more efficiently.

Concurrent Engineering in Machinery

Application of concurrent engineering (CE) to machinery has to consider the type of production (individual, serial), product complexity and level of design. Product development (PD) involves four characteristic levels of design that requires specific activities. The characteristic design levels require definitions of the activities for providing the necessary software and other support for all phases of the design process. The following four levels of the design process have become established in the professional literature: original, innovative, variation and adaptive. Systematic analyses of product development processes (PDP), workflows, data and project management, in various companies, has shown that specific criteria have to be fulfilled for CE to be managed well. It is very important to consider the involvement of customers and suppliers, communication, team formation, process definition, organisation, and information system to fulfil minimum threshold criteria. The quality of communication and team formation, for example, primarily affects the conceptual phase. An information system is useful predominantly in the second half of the design process. It is shown with typical examples what is important in each PD phase. In the second part of this chapter reference models for CE methods are presented for PD in individual production (CE—DIP), in serial production of modules or elements (CE—DSPME) and in the manufacture of mass products (CE—DMMP) with an example from household appliances. The reference models for CE methods map PD phases and CE criteria for each type of production and have to be used together with case studies. They help to recognise strong and weak points of a CE application and show a way to improve processes and supporting CE methods.

Case study analysis and genetic algorithm adaptation for job process planning and scheduling in batch production

The paper presents an application of job process planning and scheduling into the production of turned parts. Both planning and scheduling are controlled by the genetic algorithm (GA) approach in order to achieve optimum plans. Genetic algorithms are one of the artificial intelligence methods. With GA we are searching in an iterative manner for possible schedules taking into account the limitations of the process. They imitate the Darwin theory of the development of living beings and natural selection. The objective of this paper is to present scheduling model and prove that the genetic algorithm could be applied to various technical problems with some adaptations. The article describes in detail the optimisation process of genetic algorithm, chromosome representation, selection, genetic operators and parameter settings. Some programming code details in the Visual Basic (VB) language are added for clearer presentation. The orders on the machines are scheduled on the basis of a GA, according to the target function criteria. With the GA throughput time, makespan and costs were reduced. Special attention was put on the integration of the improved scheduling algorithm into existing information system.

Concurrent process planning and scheduling applied into production of turned parts

The paper presents an application of concurrent process planning and scheduling into the manufacturing company of turned parts. The first topic is strategic resource optimisation in the phase of new products process plan development. The second topic is how to handle consequences of unplanned events like urgent order from an important customer or a machine brake down. In order to optimise the efficiency of turning manufacturing process, the process has been analyzed and re-engineered. All data from production (operations, quantities, date, time duration of operations, etc.) is now located in ERP system. It provides the necessary condition for the establishment of a robust planning and scheduling model. The article presents the information support and the algorithm based on genetic algorithm. Production capacities have to be linked up with a supply chain and customers. The presented planning and scheduling model can be adapted to various types of production.

Engineering change management maturity assessment model with lean criteria for automotive supply chain

ABSTRACT Supplier relationships in the automotive industry have changed fundamentally in recent decades owing to trends such as less vertical integration, global sourcing, simultaneous engineering, and the Internet. Suppliers have become much more important in terms of both production and development. The ability to manage engineering changes (EC) efficiently and reliably reflects the capability of the whole supply chain. EC is a modification of a products component after the product has entered serial production. This paper reviews engineering change management (ECM) and the application of lean methods into the product development process. The conclusions from the literature review are summarised in a model for assessing the maturity level of lean ECM. The model is tested within eight automotive component and system suppliers of different sizes, from 196 up to 77000 employees. The result of the survey is a comprehensive overview of ECM status with automotive suppliers. An important conclusion is that ECM should begin already during product development process. Knowledge management was recognised as a key enabler for reducing the number of ECs.

Towards a model for robust design and design process in one-of-a-kind production of large power transformers

The robust engineering seeks for design of products and processes insensitive to changes in the work environment and to the variation of the components. The robust process has built-in mechanisms to detect potential errors on time, to eliminate them and to initiate all the necessary measures to ensure the same error does not occur again. One-of-a-kind production is characterised by unique products which contain characteristics of prototypes with all the imperfections. Such an industrial environment is very specific, therefore robust design process plays a key role in the final value of the product. Based on a systematic analysis of the sample company, this paper proposes a model of multi-level, systematic approach for a complete renewal of system information and working methodology, where reorganisation of activities are anticipated to result in an increase of overall effectiveness.