Linda Newnes

Predicting the whole-life cost of a product at the conceptual design stage

Abstract This paper describes cost modelling research, industrial approaches and commercial systems and how these relate to whole-life cost estimating. The particular focus of the research described is the applicability of current approaches for the modelling of low-volume, infrequent products, such as complex electronic systems at the conceptual design stage. Traditional approaches, in particular those used to predict costs for mechanical systems, are described in detail, and the approach by which cost estimating relationships are ascertained is summarized. The approaches used within sectors such as aerospace, construction and injection moulding are discussed and evaluated. All of these are placed in the context of the design process, and in particular their relationship to the conceptual design of a product is described. Finally, a review of commercial systems and the methods they adopt and domains to which they are applicable are described. The use of these approaches in terms of whole-life cost of a product is then mapped.

Cost Engineering for manufacturing: Current and future research

The article aims to identify the scientific challenges and point out future research directions on Cost Engineering. The research areas covered in this article include Design Cost; Manufacturing Cost; Operating Cost; Life Cycle Cost; Risk and Uncertainty management and Affordability Engineering. Collected information at the Academic Forum on Cost Engineering held at Cranfield University in 2008 and further literature review findings are presented. The forum set the scope of the Cost Engineering research, a brainstorming was held on the forum and literatures were further reviewed to understand the current and future practices in cost engineering. The main benefits of the article include coverage of the current research on cost engineering from different perspectives and the future research areas on Cost Engineering.

Uncertainty in Through-Life Costing–-Review and Perspectives

Estimating through-life cost (TLC) is an area that is critical to many industrial sectors, and in particular, within the defense and aerospace where products are complex and have extended life cycles. One of the key problems in modeling the cost of these products is the limited life-cycle information at the early stage. This leads to epistemic and aleatory uncertainty within the estimation process in terms of data, estimation techniques, and scenarios analysis. This paper presents a review of the uncertainty classification in engineering literature and the nature of uncertainty in TLC estimation. Based on the review, the paper then presents a critique of the current uncertainty modeling approaches in cost estimation and concludes with suggestion for the requirement of a different approach to handling uncertainty in TLC. The potential value of imprecise probability should be explored within the domain of TLC to assist cost estimators and decision makers in understanding and assessing the uncertainty. The implication of such a representation in terms of decision making under risk and decision making under uncertainty is also discussed.

Managing by E-Mail: What E-mail Can Do for Engineering Project Management

E-mails are, rightly or wrongly, a staple of the information and communication technology for managing work and collaborative activities. This paper examines the value of the content of e-mail at a project level rather than at the often-studied level of the individual user. The dataset consists of e-mails authored by an engineering team associated with a large, complex, long term, systems integration project, typical of the aerospace, marine, and defense sectors. The research applied a qualitative content analysis methodology to classify the content (what the e-mail contains) and purpose (why the e-mail was sent) of the e-mail in the dataset. The results of the content analysis were compared and contrasted with secondary evidence from interviews and project documentation to enable a time-phased analysis. The findings show that classifying e-mail content by the categories of management, information, and problem-solving transactions revealed signatures that align with project phases and, more importantly, problems encountered. Finally, we found that the purpose of e-mail is not necessarily consistent with the designated job role or responsibility of the sender or recipient. This paper contributes to empirical data on the relation between communication and project performance and the changing nature of e-mail communication throughout the lifecycle of a project. The findings point to a new way to leverage e-mail content to “manage by e-mail”.

Goods, Products and Services

Defining terminology is a useful starting point when reading or writing on the subject of service to prevent any confusion or assumptions that we all understand the terms to mean the same thing. So, what do we mean by goods, products and services? This is a book about service, but what is a ‘service’ and how is it different to ‘goods’ or ‘products’? Whilst most people intuitively know the difference between a product and service, actually defining this difference with clarity and accuracy of text is not straight forward.

Uncertainty in competitive bidding – a framework for product–service systems

Owing to servitisation, manufacturing companies are increasingly required to compete through the provision of services around their products. The contracts for these services are often allocated through competitive bidding where the potential suppliers submit a price bid to the customer. The pricing decision is influenced by various uncertainties. This article proposes a conceptual framework depicting these influencing uncertainties on the bidding strategy. This framework is based on three empirical studies with industry investigating different viewpoints on the decision-making process. The intention is to support the pricing decision when competitively bidding for a service contract. The framework can be applied to specific competitive bidding situations to identify the influencing uncertainties, model them and depict their influences on the pricing decision.

Standards and inference of design information in through-life costing of innovative defence electronic products

Abstract Through-life costing (TLC) is a term used in cost estimation for costing a product from its conception to the end-of-life. However, there seems to be no common representation of the terminologies in the various stages of TLC. This paper reports the findings of research into TLC practices for defence electronic products and includes the terms and elements used in the TLC methods. The terminologies used for this research are adopted from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), including ISO 15288 and ISO 10303 Application Protocols 233 and 239. A TLC spectrum diagram representing how design information is inferred to support the application of top-down and bottom-up approaches is also discussed. A case study focused on the concept and the development stages of design is presented and is followed by suggestions on how the proposed method can be applied to the succeeding stages of manufacturing, in-service, and disposal.

Annotation in product lifecycle management: a review of approaches

In many engineering fields, a great deal of development is based on information processing, in particular the storing, retrieving, interpretation, and re-use of existing data. To be more competitive, the fast developing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems are widely deployed by large scale enterprises. In order to improve the efficiency of data management and communication, annotation technology is considered as a promising approach to aid collaboration between design teams in concurrent design and to aid various needs during the entire product lifecycle. In this paper, a classification of approaches to annotation based on an investigation of the state-of-the-art is presented. Cases are used to illustrate how these approaches aid different phases of the product life cycle. Finally, future challenges in the use of annotation in engineering are discussed. Through this research, the contribution of the use of annotation is demonstrated, and further research work is proposed based on the findings.Copyright

A systems approach to photolithography process optimization in an electronics manufacturing environment

There are many complex problems in the optimization of an electronics manufacturing environment, and it is the view of the authors that these problems should not be solved and optimized in isolation, but analysed in the framework of a system. A systems approach offers an overall approach for solving problems, and optimizing the whole of the system as well as discrete subsystems. The research introduced in this paper integrates several techniques, namely: Integrated computer aided manufacturing DEFinition (IDEF), and experimental design and response surface methods for the analysis, control and optimization of electronic manufacturing processes. Electronics manufacturing includes three major processes; Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing, semiconductor device manufacturing and electronics assembly. This paper describes a novel generic systematic methodology that has been used to create a model to optimize the photolithography process in PCB manufacture. For this, photolithography has been considered as a whole system made up of several sub-systems. This is shown in the process map for PCBs that focuses on photolithography and its subprocesses. A model of the manufacturing process is then given with the results of this being validated using an industrial study. Optimized settings for processing equipment are given resulting in an increase in process yield within industry.

Estimating Cost at the Conceptual Design Stage to Optimize Design in terms of Performance and Cost

In the highly competitive business environment, cost estimation is a strategic tool, which can be used to assist decision making with regard to products throughout their life cycle. 70 to 80 percent of the life-cycle costs of a product are determined by decision taken by designers during the early design stages. Therefore it is important to estimate and optimise cost as early and as accurately as possible. The main aim of this research is to use typically available information at the conceptual stage of design and estimate cost in order to optimise design in terms of performance and cost. The main objective is to employ Design of Experiments (Taguchi method) to use the sparse information more effectively in order to estimate the cost of a product at the early design stage. This paper presents the current status of the research activity. A case study is introduced which illustrates the initial applications of the optimization process. Conclusions are then discussed and the future research described.