Managment of Product Design - Assignment Example

 Management of Product Design Brief: You are a management consultant retained by a manufacturing company to advise on updating their design processes to incorporate best practice as defined in the relevant standards. Using BS7000 part 2 as your main source document, prepare a report for the company board identifying the structure and input required at each stage of the design process to introduce the relevant standards into the Company's procedures. – ONLY SECTION 7.3 FROM BS EN ISO 9001 has to be used Executive Summary One of the most significant challenges for firms worldwide is to keep their competiveness within the global under extremely strong competition in all industrial sectors. Towards this direction, specific management models have been developed supporting the increase of the firms’ performance in accordance with internal and external organizational environment. The specific issue has been examined by Oakley (1986) who refers to the design methods applied on management practices used by modern corporations. His study led to the conclusion that ‘concern about the role played by design in industrial and economic achievement now extends to include the problems of managing design’ (Oakley, 1986, 352). However, it is noticed in the above study that the value of managing design for all firms around the world has been underestimated – in fact it is made clear that the above phenomenon has been caused by the lack of appropriate training of firms’ managers on the various issues of management design. In practice, the application of management design methods in firms within the international community is highly supported by entrepreneurs – even if the measures taken are not always as effective as expected. A series of management design methods have been developed in firms worldwide taking into consideration the needs of the firms but also the market rules and the relevant principles of law. Simulation which ‘has become a major tool in studying discrete manufacturing systems’ (Ozdemirel et al., 1996, 171) is being used by certain firms worldwide – where the use of other similar tools is not indicative for the needs of the specific industrial sector. It should be noticed that under the pressure of the competition it is possible that the quality of products/ services of firms worldwide is being influenced (in fact it can be worsened). In order to protect customers, governments worldwide have developed specific standards of quality required for all products offered within the international market. These standards can refer to different stages of the production process but they are all obligatory – their application can be enforced by the law. These standards are most known as ISO standards and can refer to different parts of the organizational activity (to the production process, the human resources or the management of quality). In accordance with a relevant report ‘the most popular standard in the world (ISO 9001 Quality management systems; requirements) is used by over 670,000 organizations in 154 countries’ (BSI, 2008, online report). In this report, the potential use of the above standard – especially its 7.3 section – for the improvement of the firm’s performance is examined and evaluated using existing resources - as possible. At a first level, the use of this standard seems to support significantly the firm’s operational activities; however, it is necessary that specific measures are taken in order to keep the cost at a low cost without reducing the employees’ normal rewards/ benefits. As noticed above, current report focuses on the potential development of the firm’s production using the section 7 of ISO 9001. More specifically, the design and development parts of the firm’s production process are going to be evaluated and updated using the suggestions included in the section 7.3 (entitled as ‘product realisation’ (ISO 9001)). The characteristics and the trends of the particular industry (manufacturing) are going to be taken into consideration; however, the resources available should be also be a criterion for the plans suggested regarding the update of the firm’s production – focusing on the design and development processes. 1.1 Development of product design in manufacturing - overview The standards of quality referring to industrial activities are usually appropriately customized in order to meet the needs of each particular industrial sector. In manufacturing – which is the industry under examination – many different models of design and development have been proposed taking into consideration specific characteristics of firms that operate in the particular industry. An indicative example is concurrent engineering (CE), a method for improving the product design and development by updating specific organizational sectors. In this context, it is noticed that ‘one of the concurrent engineering (CE) issues has been centered on the way in which the knowledge of the functions such as manufacturing, logistics, marketing, and sales, is captured and managed’ (Huang, 2004, 39). The above model is based on specific initiatives within the organizational environment, especially the following ones: ‘(1) modeling/representing modular products and design knowledge explicitly and (2) supporting collaborative decision-making with agent techniques intelligently’ (Huang, 2004, 39). Managers in manufacturing firms can use the above model in order to improve the product design ensuring in this way the improvement of quality of products which can lead to the increase of sales. On the other hand, the above model requires that the collaboration among the firm’s staff will be continuous regarding the development of the various parts of the relevant project – the distribution of knowledge across the organization should be equal while all information available should be carefully processed. A similar approach is that of Interrante et al. (1994) who presented another model for improving production in manufacturing; this approach is called ‘scheduling’ and is characterized as ‘a form of selective attention applied to scheduling problems that cross the boundaries of the typical manufacturing organization’ (Interrante et al., 1994, 97). The study over the effectiveness of the above method led to the conclusion that ‘when combined with a concurrent engineering focus in design, an organizational-level scheme results which is able to accomplish collaboration in manufacturing design, operations, and control’ (Interrante et al., 1994, 97). In other words, scheduling could be combined with concurrent engineering schemes leading to the improvement of the quality of the firm’s products and the increase of its performance. The advantages of concurrent engineering for manufacturing are also highlighted in the study of Shehab et al. (2001). In this study it is made clear that ‘one of the targets of concurrent engineering philosophy is to reduce both cost and time involved in product development at the conceptual stage of the design process; if the product manufacturing cost is estimated at an early design stage, designers would be able to modify a design to achieve proper performance as well as a reasonable cost’. Concurrent engineering could be used in the case under examination in order to support the improvement of the quality of the firm’s products. The firm under discussion - Active Systems Ltd is a manufacturing firm operating in the British market for more than 15 years. The use of the quality standards suggested by ISO 9001 (especially the provisions included in the section 7.3) could help towards the increase of the firm’s profitability – under the terms discussed in the sections that follow. At the same time the use of any of the common methodologies of product design – like the concurrent engineering – could be valuable in order to develop a plan – referring to the product design – that will be feasible in terms of the resources required but also appropriate for the industry in which the firm operates. 1.2 Active Systems Ltd - Main characteristics of existing product design system As noticed above, Active Systems Ltd operates in the manufacturing industry (Britain) for more than 15 years. Since its establishment of the firm, the product design remains the same with only limited differentiations – under the pressure of competitors. The main characteristics of the firm’s existing product design system are the following ones: 1) A carefully structured plan of product design. In accordance with this plan, the following criteria are taken into consideration in order to decide on the methods used through all the production stages: a) the needs covered through the firm’s products not only now but also in the future; b) the place available for the development of all the production stages – issues of spatial structure and cooperation, c) the maintenance of the machinery/ equipment involved in production, d) issues of health and safety, e) the product life cycle and f) communication and cooperation with local authorities/ existing legislation. 2) The inputs related with the firm’s product design system are continuously reviewed. These inputs include: a) the performance of the product, b) all the legal provisions/ regulations referring to the specific product, c) the needs of the product in terms of its design. 3) Outputs referring to the firm’s product design are appropriately addressed following the procedure below: a) all statutory regulation related with the specific product is carefully studied in advance; b) the firm’s staff is offered the necessary training and c) the criteria for the product’s acceptance are precisely stated in the beginning – in case that the product does not meet the requirements set by the product design plan, then it is replaced within a short time period. 4) The review of product design process is taking place through the following initiatives: the power of the design office has been increased; the design office can review the progress of the production processes anytime without notifying the firm’s executive while the performance of the firm is reviewed on a weekly basis trying to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the product (surveys among the firm’s customers have been employed many times towards this direction). 5) Appropriate criteria have been set by the relevant plan’s designers in order to ensure that all the stages of the production process are appropriately verified – the control of representatives of the design office over the procedure is followed by a report ensuring on the application of the quality standards set for the production process. 6) The validation of the firm’s products is clearly stated on the product – it is ensured that all quality standards set by the local (and the international where applicable) laws are met in the firm’s products. 7) Any potential change on the production process is carefully documented and reported to the design office; the relevant change is then evaluated taking into account the needs of the market, the quality of the product and the cost involved. 1.3 Problems related with current design system – issues that need to be addressed The firm’s current product design process – as described above – seems to be well structured; however, problems could be identified regarding its effectiveness. More specifically, the following problems regarding the development of this process have been identified by the firm’s design office: 1) While a series of criteria has been set in order to ensure the effectiveness of this plan (planning part of the product design process, section 1.2(1) above) in practice many of them have not been taken into consideration for the design of the particular process mostly because the resources available for the realization of this part are limited – there are no employees skilled on the maintenance of the firm’s machinery (the firm usually seeks for outsourcing when there is such a case); at a next level, the application of the principles of health and safety included in the firm’s relevant manual is not possible since there are no employees trained on the specific sector. The firm’s managers usually control the application of the rules of health and safety without having though any expertise or experience on the particular issue. 2) Despite the role of the design office is important and even under the term that increased power has been offered to its staff, in practice when the decisions of this department are to be enforced, a series of problems appear; this is because there is a need for continuous and heavy production and there is no time left for the development of continuous controls – as the design office has suggested through its plans. However, in this way, there is the risk that certain of the standards set through the firm’s product design plan are not applied. Of course, as noticed previously a report of the design office’s representatives is developed after the check of the production process (see section 1.2(5); however this report has lost its significance since it is usually developed within the design office after a short overview of the process (because of the load of work as noticed previously). 3) A series of training programs have been developed within the firm; however not all employees have the chance to participate in these programs; usually only the firm’s managers are asked to participate in the relevant seminars. The above fact affects adversely the performance of the rest of employees as the latter are unable to handle a series of problems appearing on a daily basis in the firm’s production department. 4) The suggestions of the employees in the design office are often underestimated; the development of the production is a priority and any suggested change that could cause delay to the production process is avoided. 5) Another important problem is the fact that the standards set for the hiring process across the organization have been proved ineffective; in many organizational sectors employees cannot face the problems appearing on a daily basis and it has been proved afterwards that these employees do not have the necessary skills/ education for the specific position. For this reason, a radical change on the firm’s existing hiring procedure is necessary as the inadequacy of employees can severely affect all parts of the firm’s production process. 6) It should also be noticed that there are no appropriate rules for the protection of the environment by the firm’s manufacturing activities; unused material or products that are not appropriate for the market should be disposed in accordance with existing law and ethics; however, in the firm under examination there is no specific department handling the disposal of this material which is collected on a monthly basis by an outside provider – outsourcing is employed again in the firm’s production process. Under these terms, the update of the firm’s product design process is necessary in order to address all the above issues that affect the firm’s productivity and can cause severe delays to its performance. The use of the standards set by the ISO 9001 – especially its 7.3 section – could help the firm’s managers to effectively handle the above problems by developing the appropriate program of action. 1.4 Update of existing product design system using the BS EN ISO 9001 (section 7.3) standards – presentation and critical analysis In accordance with the section 7.3 of the ISO 9001, the following organizational sectors need to be reviewed in order for a firm’s product design process to be appropriately developed: ‘planning, inputs, outputs, review, verification, validation, change control’ (section 7.3, Design and Development, ISO 9001, as in Tricker, 2005, 114). All the above sectors are quite important for the improvement of a firm’s product design process. However, not all firms around the world present the same failures in their product design process; for this reason, the above rule should be appropriately customized in order to meet the needs of its particular firm internationally. In the firm under examination – which operates in the manufacturing industry (electronics) of Britain – the need for review of the product design process is emergent – in order to resolve the problems described above. The problems of the firm’s product design process could be resolved through the update of the existing product design system as described below – each stage refers to one specific part of the framework suggested by the ISO 9001 (section 7.3), i.e.: ‘planning, inputs, outputs, review, verification, validation, change control’ (section 7.3, Design and Development, ISO 9001, as in Tricker, 2005, 114). There are two stages included in the process suggested by ISO 9001 – i.e. verification and validation – that are rather well developed up to now in Active Systems and for this reason no suggestion will be made for update of the specific parts of the product design process in the particular firm; rather existed verification and validation procedures (as included in the firm’s current product design process) will be incorporated within the suggested model – as presented below: a. Product design Planning: A series of standards set for the hiring of employees working in the firm’s design office would be developed – in order to ensure that the people working in this section have the necessary skills/ competencies. At the same time new standards will be set for employees working across all parts of the firm’s production sector – in order to ensure that employees in the specific sector will be able to understand and apply the plans developed by the firm’s design office. Moreover highly skilled staff will be hired dealing exclusively with the specific issue – outsourcing in this case will be avoided. In case that this is considered as feasible, some of the firm’s existing managers will be trained on the specific sector – if hiring would be avoided at this part for financial purposes. b. Product design inputs: In accordance with the section 7.3 of ISO 9001 ‘functional and performance requirements and information derived from similar designs’ (section 7.3, Design and Development, ISO 9001, as in Tricker, 2005, 116) are among the issues included in a firm’s product design inputs. In the specific firm where the application of the standards set by the design office and the monitoring of the relevant plan are among the most severe problems of the product design process, the following initiatives should be taken: a series of standards should be set regarding the material used in the production process (quality of products); the application of these standards should be checked on a weekly basis by random samples of the firm’s products; the volume of production should be also set in advance (using also a weekly basis); this volume should not be increased or decreased unless the prior order of the manager of the specific department; the quality of the products of competitors could be checked; the product design system used for their production could be used as a model for the specific firm. c. Product design outputs: As the level of training of firm’s employees (especially those belonging in the lower levels of the hierarchy) is rather limited, a series of training sessions would be arranged on a regular basis for all employees in the firm’s production sector. Moreover, specific standards would be included in the firm’s current product design plan regarding the purchase requirements. d. Product design review: The review of the procedure followed throughout the progress of the production process should be frequent: once a month employees in the firm’s design office should overview all parts of the product design plan in order to identify any failure. In accordance with the firm’s existing product design plan this review is taking place once a week. However, this is rather ineffective especially if taking into consideration that the power of the design office to actively intervene in the production process and enforce changes has been limited; for this reason, it is preferable for the specific task to take place on a monthly basis being better prepared and scheduled including the necessary mechanisms and tools for the enforcement of the changes required – an issue developed further in the section that follows. e. Product design change control: One of the most important requirements when attempting the update on a firm’s existing product design is to be offered the necessary support in order to enforce the application of the relevant rules. In the firm under examination, the power of the design office to enforce the firm’s product design plan has been limited under the market’s pressure for increased production and quick delivery of products. For this reason, it would be necessary for the role of the firm’s design office to be accordingly developed, power of intervention in any stage of the production process would be offered and relevant consequences for the employees that do not follow the guidelines of the relevant rules should be established. 1.5 Evaluation of the new (suggested) system The changes suggested above on the firm’s existing product design system are expected to support significantly the improvement of the quality of the firm’s products. The rate of the firm’s productivity is also expected to be improved. The investment made by the firm on the update of its product design system will be paid back within a rather short period of time – an estimated period of 2 years will be required for the firm to have a significant improvement on its production using the above methodology. In accordance with Lei et al. (1996) ‘investments in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) that provide significant economies of scope (i.e. low-volume/low-cost manufacturing) produce strategic options that allow the firm to place a 'call' on related markets that it may potentially enter; the value of AMT investments grow with the increasing changes in the environment’ (Lei et al., 1996, 501). In other words, the particular investment is necessary in order for the firm to compete successfully within its market; in the long term, it will be proved that the specific investment will protect the firm from a potential decrease of sales (caused by the worsening of the quality of its products as a result of the severe failures of its current product design system – as described above). A significant advantage of the specific methodology is the fact that it supports the alignment of the firm’s current product design system with the market trends – using a well known legislative framework, this of the ISO 9001 – within a rather low cost – if taking into account other methodologies that could be used instead. An indicative example is the case of neutral reference architecture, an advanced manufacturing software application described in the study of McLean et al. (2005). The above software application would require significant and radical changes to the firm’s existing product design system, a fact that would increase at high levels the cost of the relevant project. A similar assumption could be developed if the methodology suggested by Kiran et al. (1989), i.e. simulation, would be chosen for the update of the firm’s product design system. On the contrary, the methodology suggested in this report – using the features included in the ISO 9001, section 7.3 – would not lead to the firm’s financial pressure (because of the cost involved); instead the investment made could be expected to be paid quickly under the terms explained previously. 1.6 Conclusion - Recommendations The development of manufacturing activities worldwide has been related with the increase of the pollution of the environment - either directly or indirectly. For this reason, specific programs are promoted by governments internationally aiming to the improvement of all industrial activities so that the negative effects on the environment to be limited. In the literature, various approaches have been developed in order to help firms worldwide to keep a balance between the development of their productivity and the protection of the environment. One possible solution is the modularization process suggested by Kimura et al. (2001) (see also Appendix, Figure 1). The above researchers supported that ‘for reducing environmental burden of industrial products, it is mandatory to rationalize product design and to achieve a closed loop product life cycle by use of comprehensive parts reuse and recycling’ (Kimura et al., 2001, 89). However, it is not made clear whether firms operating in different industrial sectors should follow a specific methodology for the improvement of their production process (including the product design part) or whether a common framework would be rather developed referring to firms in all industrial sectors. On the other hand, apart from the protection of the environment there is a series of additional issues that need to be addressed through the appropriate update of the firm’s existing product design system. The limitation of the power of the design office to enforce its plans is a significant constraint to the improvement of the quality of the firm’s products (see Figure 2, Appendix). Towards this direction, the use of the standards of ISO 9001 especially of the section 7.3 can support the improvement of the firm’s existing product design system within a relevant low cost. It should be noticed that the development of cooperation and the collaboration within the organization is necessary for the success of the relevant initiative. The examination of the internal organizational environment led to the conclusion that still within the organization there is a problem with the cooperation among the employees mostly because of the inequalities in training developed through the years. By the changes proposed (Figure 3) in the firm’s current product design plan it is expected that all these inequalities will be eliminated and the communication will be improved in all organizational departments. The close monitoring of the project remains however a key factor for its success. The increase of the power of the design office – as it is suggested through this report – will improve the control over all parts of the project while the chances for the development of failures will be decreased. References BSI British Standards (2008) available online, http://www.bsigroup.com/en/Standards-and-Publications/About-BSI-British-Standards/ Huang, C. (2004) A Multi-agent Approach to Collaborative Design of Modular Products. Concurrent Engineering, 12(1): 39-47 Interrante, L., Rochowiak, D. (1994) Active Rescheduling and Collaboration in Dynamic Manufacturing Systems. Concurrent Engineering, 2(2): 97-105 Kimura, F., Kato, S., Hata, T., Masuda, T. (2001) Product Modularization for Parts Reuse in Inverse Manufacturing. CIRP Annals – Manufacturing Technology, 50(1): 89-92 Kiran, A., Schloffer, A. (1989) An integrated simulation approach to design of flexible manufacturing systems. SIMULATION, 52(2): 47-52 Lei, D., Hitt, M., Goldhar, J. (1996) Advanced Manufacturing Technology: Organizational Design and Strategic Flexibility. Organization Studies, 17(3): 501-523 McLean, C., Riddick, F., Lee, T. (2005) An Architecture and Interfaces for Distributed Manufacturing Simulation. SIMULATION, 81(1): 15-32 Oakley, M. (1986) Bringing Design into the Management Curriculum. Management Learning, 17(4): 352-362 Ozdemirel, N., Yurttas, G., Koksal, G. (1996) Computer-Aided Planning and Design of Manufacturing Simulation Experiments. SIMULATION, 67(3): 171-191 Shehab, E., Abdalla, H. (2001) An Integrated Prototype System For Cost-Effective Design. Concurrent Engineering, 9(4): 243-256 Tricker, R. (2005) ISO 9001: 2000 For Small Businesses. Butterworth-Heineman Appendix Figure 1 – Methodology for reuse of product – product modularization (source: Kimura et al., 2001, 90) Figure 2 – Problems in Active System’s existing product design system Figure 3 – Main aspects of the new (suggested) product design plan (steps) Read More