Samuel André

Managing Fluctuating Requirements by Platforms Defined in the Interface Between Technology and Product Development

Product platforms play an important role for the efficient customisation and variant forming of products in many companies. In this paper four different companies ranging from OEM to B2B suppliers ...

The design platform – a coherent platform description of heterogeneous design assets for suppliers of highly customised systems

ABSTRACT Companies developing highly customised products are continuously faced with fluctuating requirements during the early and late stages of the product development (PD) process. This differs from companies that develop end-consumer products, which uses fixed specifications and where product platforms have been a successful enabler for efficient customisation. However, in the past, product platforms have not been able to fully support companies working in an engineer-to-order business environment. This article outlines the results from a three-year collaborative research project between academics within the area of engineering design and practitioners from the engineer-to-order industry. The research introduces a design platform (DP) that aims to support the development of customised products when traditional platform concepts do not suffice. The platform approach provides a coherent environment for heterogeneous design assets to be used in PD by supporting both the design activity and the finished solutions. The needs and abilities regarding such a platform were investigated through a series of interviews and workshops at four companies. Then, the DP was modelled and support tools were developed. Finally, company representatives evaluated the complete DP and its applications, reporting promising results.

Manufacturability Assessment in the Conceptual Design of Aircraft Engines – Building Knowledge and Balancing Trade-Offs

This paper addresses the automated assessment of manufacturability of air-craft engine components in the early stages of design, focused on the welding process. It is a novel part of a multi-objective decision support tool for design evaluation, currently running at a manufacturer of jet engine components. The paper briefly describes the tool and how it impacts the product development process. Further, the paper presents an integrated method for manufacturability assessment by finding welding processes that complies with all geometrical and other constraints found in the CAD-models of the conceptual engine. Here, preferences made by manufacturing engineers serves as a base for a manufacturability index so that different parameter settings in the CAD-models can be compared to find the best parameter settings, considering the trade-off with other performance criteria’s of the engine.

A platform model for suppliers of customized systems : Creating an ability to master fluctuating requirements

Manufacturing companies are continuously faced with requirements regarding technology novelty, shorter time to market, a higher level of functionality, and lower prices for their products. This is especially true of suppliers that develop and manufacture highly customized products within the automotive industry. It is not uncommon that a request for a new product or subsystem goes out to several suppliers and that the one that can deliver the product most quickly and at the lowest price receives the contract. It is therefore vital for any supplier to answer to quotation requests rapidly and with a high level of precision while also ensuring that company assets are used efficiently. Other issues that apply to suppliers in the automotive industry are heavily fluctuating requirements during development projects, each customer’s individual preferences, and the ever changing interfaces with the OEM product with which the supplier’s product is to be integrated. Platform strategies have been widely accepted in industry to serve a wide product variety while maintaining business efficiency. However, the challenge of applying a platform strategy at the supplier level in the face of the reality described above has not been fully investigated. Platform approaches tend to require a focused development of the platform, which in turn requires some knowledge about which future variants are to be derived from the platform. The research presented in this thesis investigates the state of practice in industry regarding the challenges, needs, and current use of platforms. To respond to the identified need, a platform approach is proposed that expands the scope of what a product platform has traditionally contained. This is undertaken to aid in the development of highly customized products when physical modules or component scalability does not suffice. The platform approach provides a coherent environment for heterogeneous design assets to be used in product development, supporting both the activity of designing and off-the-shelf solutions. The approach is based on identifying and modelling generic product items that are associated with descriptions governing their design. By describing the outcome of technology and product development like finished designs, design guidelines, constraints, etc., in a standardized format, the platform continues to evolve. To aid in using the platform approach, a support system called Design Platform Manager is introduced at a company active as a secondtier supplier in the automotive industry. The system enables the creation of generic product items that can be structured, instantiated, and associated with descriptions, which aids in realizing product variants. The aim of the platform approach and tool is to support the quotation and continued design processes by identifying valid knowledge to use as circumstances, such as requirement changes or new design iterations, warrant. The support tool and overarching model have been evaluated by company representatives, who reported good results.

Introducing Design Descriptions on Different Levels of Concretisation in a Platform Definition

Product platforms has been widely accepted in industry as a means to reach both high product variety while maintaining business efficiency. For suppliers of highly customised products, however, the development of a platform based upon pre-defined modules is a challenge. This is due to the large differences between the various systems their products are to be integrated into and the customer’s individual preferences. What is common for most platform descriptions is the high level of concretisation, such as predefined modules, they are built upon, but how can companies act when that is not possible? Are there other principles that can be used for the definition of a product platform? This paper presents a concept to incorporate other types of descriptions of different levels of concretisation into a product platform. Parts of the concept has been realised in a computer support tool and tested at a case company in order to improve their quotation process.

Modeling of transdisciplinary engineering assets using the design platform approach for improved customization ability

Original equipment suppliers (OES) that develop unique products are continuously faced with changing requirements during both the quotation and product development processes. This challenge is a di ...

Creating an ability to respond to changing requirements by systematic modelling of design assets and processes

System suppliers, e.g. original equipment suppliers, are important for the success of many products. They design a unique solution, often in close collaboration with other companies, based on different product concepts and/or core technologies. The solution can then be manufactured in different quantities depending on the clients need. High level of customization is required as the interfaces are not standardized, the performance is not negotiable, requirements are not initially fixed and the specific system interacts with, is affected by, or affects other systems that are simultaneously developed. A system supplier commonly designs and manufactures solutions for different OEMs and must support many models and variants in their product portfolios. Efficiency, short lead-time, continuous technology development, and adaptability are essential for the competitive edge. A product platform approach has been a success for many companies to enable variety at low cost, however, it is not applicable for system suppliers. This work describes the result from a case study where a platform approach enabling a new way of structuring, publishing and managing design assets and processes was introduced at a company with the purpose to improve the ability to respond to changing requirements in the quotation process and the subsequent product development activities.

Introducing welding manufacturability in a multidisciplinary platform for the evaluation of conceptual aircraft engine components

Computer simulations play an important role for evaluating designs in an early stages leading to that more informed decisions can be taken and thereby reducing the risk of costly re-design. In this paper, a platform currently in operation at an aeronautical company for doing extensive automated multi-objective design parameter studies on conceptual designs of aircraft engine components is studied. In the paper, an extension of the capability of the platform into making a rule-based evaluation of the welding manufacturability of the conceptual designs is proposed. The extension is tested by a prototype system at the air-craft manufacturer showing the relation between the design parameters and the manufacturability of the components. The results are presented as a manufacturability index showing what trade-offs with other performance criteria of the engine that can be made. It is shown that the manufacturability evaluation can be integrated in the knowledge value stream and supports a set-based concurrent engineering approach in the company.

Design Platform : A Coherent Model for Management and Use of Mixed Design Assets

For many companies, it is a challenge to balance product variety and cost, i.e. external and internal efficiency. Product platforms has been the dominant solution for a business targeting mass-cust ...

How to Challenge Fluctuating Requirements : Results from Three Companies

This paper presents the results from a research project conducted by the research group Computer Supported Engineering Design (CSED) in Jonkoping University in Sweden. The project has the aim of in ...