Stefan Rudolf

Module-based release management for technical changes

Making systematically use of synergies by product platforms and thus creating “volume bundling”-effects enables the producing companies to cope with increasing international competition and the need to focus on individualization of customer segments. Whilst in the literature the initial setup of a modular product architecture is covered with numerous modularization approaches, the lifecycle has not been focused in scientific literature. Meanwhile the importance of the act of planning and executing changes is emphasized with relevant studies outlining that the majority of changes to a product occur during serial production. This paper aims at showing how to enable an efficient release management process, starting in the early stages of the development of a product architecture. Furthermore the approach introduces a method which addresses the lifecycle of a product architecture, aiming at systematically analyzing the possibility for bundling of changes and when to synchronize the changes with the product portfolio.

Highly Iterative Product Development Process for Engineering Projects

Many companies are exposed to the challenge to fulfill constantly growing heterogeneous costumer requirements and simultaneously deliver the highest quality standards for their products. One way to face these challenges is the highly iterative product development approach. The content of this approach is the division of the current development process in many short and iterative sub processes (sprints). This procedure enables a regular involvement of the customer in the development process and an early validation of the development status which jointly results in costumer-specific and marketable products. As a consequence of this short-cycled approach the requirements for the practiced process of development projects change fundamentally. However, most companies do not know how this new short-cycle development process has to look like for their daily project work. This is due to the fact that most published papers just deal with the description of how the highly iterative methods look like, however, without considering the challenges an implementation in a producing company involves. This paper aims at the presentation of a standard approach for the handling of highly iterative product development projects.

Increasing Commonalities by Designing Production-Oriented Modular Product Platforms

Companies producing in high-wage countries are increasingly challenged due to the necessary differentiation and cost pressure. The modular product platform approach is more and more used by these companies for structuring their product range in order to realise and deploy commonalities. This type of product architecture enables companies to produce nearly individual products without losing economies of scale across the product range. Economies of scale due to communalities result in decreased process costs, reduced development lead-time by uncoupling the development of modules and products as well as the augmentation of the technical product robustness. However, the design of modular product platforms itself causes new challenges regarding the product structuring, the process and organizational design. Recent approaches for the development of communalities through modular product platforms are focusing only the product itself. Since costs are mainly determined in the development phase but caused later in the production phase both product and production have to be taken into account. Furthermore, modular product platforms have a higher variety and diversity of elements since they represent the components, modules and functions of the entire product program. This paradigm shift from an integral product design to a modular product structure cannot be controlled with existing models and methods. Our paper confirms commonality has to be optimized by focusing both the product and production. Therefore we have designed a descriptive framework (commonality model) to display and optimize the commonality both in the product and the process. Furthermore, a product architecture development process that is superior to the individual product development processes was developed for the systematic design of commonalities. The approach presented in this paper focusses on the interactions between product and process parameters. In our approach these interactions will first be displayed based on the graph theory and then be optimized applying sensitivity analysis. By varying relevant parameters both on the product and process side constitutive features can be derived determining product and process standards in order to enhance the overall commonality level.

Methodology for the evaluation and selection of the suitability of highly iterative product development methods for individual segments of an overall development project

Todays challenge for manufacturing companies is the fulfillment of constantly growing heterogeneous customer requirements by simultaneously delivering highest quality standards within shortest time. One way to face this challenge is the highly iterative product development approach. Its objective is the distribution of the current development process in many short and iterative sub-processes. This procedure enables a regular involvement of customers in the development process and an early validation of the development status, which jointly results in customer-specific and marketable products. However, most companies do not know how this short-cycle concept can be used in development projects. This is due to the fact that most published papers just describe the highly iterative methods, however, without considering the suitability of these methods for individual development scopes. This paper aims at the presentation of a methodology for the evaluation and selection of highly iterative product development methods depending on the individual development scopes.

Preventive controlling of product development projects by aid of predictive analytics - identifying hot spots within the deviation probability map

This paper presents a concept to anticipate deviations from the target process and thus inefficiencies within development projects by aid of predictive analytics. It is stated that predictive analytics approaches can be adapted to predict deviations in development projects, comparable to the anticipation of crimes. Deviations in terms of time, costs and quality are seen as a result of waste and therefore a dimension for inefficiencies. In this context the deviation probability map is introduced as a part model of the superordinate methodology allowing the intuitive identification of deviation hot spots and enhancing preventive controlling of development projects.

Smart Product Variety

Kurzfassung Produzierende Unternehmen stehen zunehmend vor der Herausforderung, der marktseitigen Forderung nach immer kundenindividuelleren Produktvarianten gerecht zu werden. Indirekte Mehrkosten für die Einführung neuer Varianten werden jedoch oft nicht verursachungsgerecht verrechnet und führen zur Quersubventionierung „exotischer“ Varianten. Am Werkzeugmaschinenlabor WZL der RWTH Aachen wurde daher eine Methodik entwickelt, welche die Minimierung und die verursachungsgerechte Ermittlung indirekter Kosten für neue Produktvarianten vereint. Diese ganzheitliche Methodik ermöglicht eine verbesserte Zusammenarbeit zwischen Vertrieb, Produktmanagement und Entwicklung bei der Preis- und Kostengestaltung. In einer frühen Phase der Auftragsabwicklung können die tatsächlich anfallenden indirekten Kosten einer neuen Produktvariante mit deutlich geringerem Aufwand als bisher bestimmt werden. Kernelement der Methodik ist der Rückschluss von der Produktähnlichkeit auf die anfallenden indirekten Kosten.

Systematic waste elimination in lean product development using generic activities

In the context of lean product development, the Value Stream Analysis (VSA) has proven to be an effective approach for the elimination of waste in product development processes. While this method focuses on the detection of waste by analysing the dependencies and interaction of activities in the development processes, the execution of the activities themselves is not further examined, although a great potential for the elimination of waste within activities can be identified. This paper introduces a new approach to analyse the execution of product development activities and eliminate waste. Generic activity types within the development processes are derived and their ideal and lean execution is defined. To utilise the generic activities for the optimisation of product development activities, a specific procedure applicable within a VSA is presented.

Release frequency for technical changes of modular product platforms: How to synchronise technical changes and product releases during the lifecyle of a product platform

Product platforms are well-established in many industries in order to offer a wide variety of products while realizing economies of scale on the inside for development and production. Nevertheless a study performed by Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University shows that most companies do not use release management to systematically introduce technical changes and modified modules into their product platforms. In this paper a new method is proposed to analyze and visualize the flexibility of modules. Afterwards strategies are developed to synchronize those module release cycles with introduction of new products within a modular product platform.

Conceptual framework for evaluation of complexity in new product development projects

Complexity in new product development projects is a challenge for many companies in manufacturing industry today. Increased product variety and individualization, enhanced functionality and differentiated markets result in growing complexity in product development. As the number of conditions and interdependencies that have to be considered rises, the need for methodological support to manage complexity in new product development projects increases at the same time. There is a large number of existing approaches that provide frameworks for complexity drivers in projects and identify specific drivers as well as approaches to measure complexity in certain dimensions. This paper aims at integrating a holistic set of complexity drivers and a method to evaluate complexity based on these drivers in a conceptual framework. The complexity drivers are evaluated individually and analyzed in a portfolio. The presented framework enables project managers to identify critical sources of complexity in a new product development project and to analyze measures to adjust complexity taking into account the interdependencies between the complexity drivers.

Methodology for optimizing product differentiation in product ranges

The continuous occupation of niches within product ranges and the corresponding decrease in product differentiation are significant challenges for manufacturing companies. To address this challenge a methodology has been developed which allows recommendations for the positioning of new products within the product range in order to optimize the product differentiation. Unlike other approaches, this optimization is based on a quantified performance evaluation of products derived from their technical features using a performance index. This enables a specific and systematic differentiation on diverse levels of the product structure. The methodology is split into two phases: In the first phase, the performance of the individual product features is quantified based on a systematic evaluation method. The performance evaluations are aggregated into a product performance index. In the second phase, the feature specifications for a new product are derived from the previously calculated performance indices under consideration of the technical differentiation from the existing product portfolio. The developed methodology can be used to ensure product differentiation based on product features within the product range of manufacturing companies.