Pekka Belt

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.

About, for, in or through entrepreneurship in engineering education

ABSTRACT Engineering competences form a potential basis for entrepreneurship. There are pressures to find new approaches to entrepreneurship education (EE) in engineering education, as the traditional analytical logic of engineering does not match the modern view of entrepreneurship. Since the previous models do not give tangible enough tools on how to organise EE in practice, this article aims to develop a new framework for EE at the university level. We approach this aim by analysing existing scientific literature complemented by long-term practical observations, enabling a fruitful interplay between theory and practice. The developed framework recommends aspects in EE to be emphasised during each year of the study process. Action-based learning methods are highlighted in the beginning of studies to support students’ personal growth. Explicit business knowledge is to be gradually increased only when professional, field-specific knowledge has been adequately accumulated.

Product development drivers in literature and practice

Todays product development must address often conflicting needs of multiple stakeholder groups. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the main product development drivers and how their importance is perceived in different types of companies and projects. This paper presents a synthesising list of main product development drivers based on literature and studies how these drivers are valued at the managerial level in NPD-intensive companies. The literature tends to give a simplified categorisation for product development drivers to fully acknowledge the complexities that product development managers face. The results of this study indicate 18 significant product development drivers, the most important ones being profitability targets, revenue targets, offering the right product mix, company brand and image, strategy and competition. However, there were big differences in driver importance for different project types and companies. Industrial managers can utilise the findings in clarifying their drivers to improve decision-making and reduce unnecessary ambiguities.

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.

Organising infrastructure networks – two descriptive case studies on value creation

Shortage of public capital and inefficiency of public provision have resulted in new approaches to organise infrastructure services. Privatisation and public-private partnerships have been under discussion for decades. This paper develops a framework for analysing infrastructure networks from value creation perspective and utilises it for two municipal case services in Finland. The study shows the importance of analysing municipal ownership and governance arrangements in order to improve the operational efficiency of infrastructure networks. In addition, the analysis of public service providers from business perspective is justified.