Showing papers on "Product design specification published in 1997"

System and method for delivering consumer product related information to consumers within retail environments using internet-based information servers and sales agents

Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for finding and serving consumer product-related information over the Internet to consumers in retail shopping environments, as well as at home and work, and on the road. The system includes Internet information servers which store information pertaining to Universal Product Number (e.g. UPC number) preassigned to each consumer product registered with the system, along with a list of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that point to the location of one or more information resources on the Internet, e.g. World Wide Web-sites, which related to such registered consumer products. Upon entering the UPC number into the system using a conventional Internet browser program running on any computing platform or system, the menu of URLs associated with the entered UPC number is automatically displayed for user selection. The displayed menus of URLs are categorically arranged according to specific types of product information such as, for example: product specifications and operation manuals; product wholesalers and retailers; product advertisements and promotions; product endorsements; product updates and reviews; product warranty/servicing; related or complementary products; product incentives including rebates, discounts and/or coupons; manufacturer's annual report and 10K information; electronic stock purchase; etc. Web-based techniques are disclosed for collecting the UPC/URL information from manufacturers and transmitting the same to the Internet-based databases of the system.

Modelling the Costs and Benefits of Delayed Product Differentiation

Abstract: Expanding product variety and high customer service provision are both major challenges for manufacturers to compete in the global market. In addition to many ongoing programs, such as lead-time reduction, redesigning products and processes so as to delay the point of product differentiation is becoming an emerging means to address these challenges. Such a strategy calls for redesigning products and processes so that the stages of the production process in which a common process is used are prolonged. This product/process redesign will defer the point of differentiation (i.e., defer the stage after which the products assume their unique identities). In this paper, we develop a simple model that captures the costs and benefits associated with this redesign strategy. We apply this simple model to analyze some special cases that are motivated by real examples. These special cases enable us to formalize three different product/process redesign approaches (standardization, modular design, and process restructu...

Metrics for Managing Research and Development in the Context of the Product Family

Abstract: The paper proposes methods to measure the performance of research and development in new product development. We frame these measures in the context of evolving product families in the technology-based firm. Our goal is to more clearly understand the dynamics of platform renewal and derivative product generation and their consequences for long-term success. We explore the utility of the proposed methods with data gathered from a large measurement systems manufacturer. We find that the methods and measures can help management assess the technological and market leverage achieved from the firm's present and past product platforms. This provides a foundation for transforming single-product, single-period planning processes into a multi-product, multi-period form that embraces the product family and the renewal of product architecture. The research also shows the need to integrate data from engineering, manufacturing, and sales organizations to produce information for managing the growth of the firm's product...

Integrated Product Design for Marketability and Manufacturing

Abstract: Using as a point of departure previous work in marketing on optimal concept selection that utilizes product attribute-based customer preference and product cost models, the authors consider the con...

Competing in Product and Service: A Product Life-Cycle Model

Abstract: In this paper we develop a product life-cycle model that studies a set of strategic choices facing manufacturers as they design the joint product/service bundle for a product which may require maintenance and repair support after its sale. The choice parameters of interest include the product price, the quality of after-sales service and the price to be charged for the after-sales service. We adopt a competitive, game-theoretic as opposed to single-firm optimization framework, where there is competition for the provision of after-sales service between the manufacturer and an independent service operator. The product price and the service quality/price are characterized by an equilibrium to a sequential game. The resulting outcome is applied to support the valuation of alternative product designs in explicit consideration of the tradeoff between profit from product sale and from the provision of after-sales service. The model can also be used to evaluate the asset value of a firm's customer base.

Managing the design factory : a product developer's toolkit

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Revolution in the Factory Into the Witch Doctor's Tent There Are No Best Practices Where Ideas Come From The Organization of This Book PART ONE: THE DESIGN FACTORY 1. INTO THE DESIGN FACTORY Our Goals Are Economic Products vs. Designs Design-in-Process Inventory Rising Cost of Change Late-Breaking News One-Time Processes Expanding Work Summary PART TWO: THINKING TOOLS 2. MAKING PROFITS NOT PRODUCTS Project Models Application Models Models of Process Economics Tactical vs. Strategic Decisions Some Practical Tips Summary 3.ENTERING THE LAND OF QUEUES An Introduction to Queueing Theory The Economics of Queues Depicting Queues Implications of Queuing Theory Dealing with Queues Increasing Capacity / Managing Demand / Reducing Variability / Using Control Systems The Location of Batch Queues Little's Law Typical Queues Summary 4. IT'S ALL ABOUT INFORMATION Information Theory Efficient Generation of Information Maximizing Information: The Magic Number 50 Percent Information Differs in Value Timing: Earlier Is Better / Batch Size Affects Timing / Iterations Generate Early Information / The Potential Profit Impact Do It Right the First Time? Communicating Failures Protecting Against Failure Task Sequencing Monitoring Summary 5. JUST ADD FEEDBACK Systems Theory Systems with Feedback Properties of Systems with Feedback Difficulty in Troubleshooting / Instability and Chaos / Accuracy and Feedback / Variability Within a System More Complex Control Systems Summary PART THREE: ACTION TOOLS 6. CHOOSE THE RIGHT ORGANIZATION The Organization as a System Assessing Organizational Forms Efficiency: The Functional Organization Speed: The Autonomous Team Performance and Cost: Hybrid Organizations Dividing Responsibilities Communications Old Communications Tools / New Communications Technologies Colocation Summary 7. DESIGN THE DESIGN PROCESS Combining Structure and Freedom One-Time Processes / Modular Processes / A Pattern Language Designing Process Stages Input Subprocesses / Technology vs. Product Development / Controlling Queues / Subprocess Design / Output Processes Key Design Principles Sequential vs. Concurrent Processes / Managing Information Profiles / Decentralizing Control and Feedback / Location of Batch Queues Specific Process Implementations Evolving the Process Summary 8. PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE: THE INVISIBLE DESIGN Underlying Principles Modularity Segregating Variability/ Interface Management Specific Architectural Implementations Low-Expense Architectures / Low-Cost Architectures / High-Performance Architectures / Fast-Development Architectures Who Does It? Summary 9. GET THE PRODUCT SPECIFICATION RIGHT It Starts with Strategy Selecting the Customer Understanding the Customer Customer Interviews / Meticulous Observation / Focus Groups Creating a Good Specification The Minimalist Specification / A Product Mission / The Specification Process Using the Specification Specific Implementations Summary 10. USE THE RIGHT TOOLS The Use of Technology Accelerated Information Flow / Improved Productivity / Reduced Delays Implementation Principles Technology Changes Process / Pay Attention to Economics Technologies Design Automation / Prototyping and Testing / Communications / Information Storage and Retrieval Summary 11. MEASURE THE RIGHT THINGS General Principles Drive Metrics from Economics / The Control Triangle / Decentralizing Control / Selecting Metrics Project-Level Controls Expense-Focused Controls / Cost-Focused Controls / Performance-Focused Controls / Speed-Focused Controls Business Level Controls Expense-Focused Controls / Cost-Focused Controls / Performance-Focused Controls / Speed-Focused Controls Summary 12. MANAGE UNCERTAINTY AND RISK Market and Technical Risk Managing Market Risk Use a Substitute Product / Simulate the Risky Attribute / Make the Design Flexible / Move Fast Managing Technical Risk Controlling Subsystem Risk / Controlling System Integration Risk / Back-up Plans World-Class Testing Cheap Testing / Low Unit Cost Impact/Maximizing Performance / Fast Testing / Continuous Improvement Summary PART FOUR: NEXT STEPS 13. NOW WHAT DO I DO? Do Your Math Use Decision Rules Pay Attention to Capacity Utilization Pay Attention to Batch Size Respect Variability Think Clearly About Risk Think Systems Respect the People Design the Process Thoughtfully Pay Attention to Architecture Deeply Understand the Customer Eliminate Useless Controls Get to the Front Lines Avoid Slogans Selected Bibliography Index About the Author

Leveraging on systemic learning to manage the early phases of product innovation projects

Abstract: A number of studies have pointed out the importance of the early phases of new product development projects. In fact, these phases (addressed in the literature with different names, such as pre-project activities, concept generation, product planning, idea generation, investigation, product definition) are concerned with a number of critical decisions that have great impact on the performance of product development. Any fault occurring in these early phases in understanding the market needs, in choosing the product architecture and technology and in defining the product specifications would eventually deteriorate the innovation process, since adjustments in later stages imply reworks that are costly and time consuming. Although the relevance of early project phases has been empirically verified in the literature, the mechanisms that allow these phases to be properly managed are still largely unexplored. This paper investigates the articulated and coherent set of methods, organizational mechanisms and behavioural patterns that successful companies adopt to manage concept generation and product planning. Inferences are based on a field research concerning 19 in-depth case studies of Italian and Swedish companies in the vehicles, helicopters and white goods industries. The paper supports findings of other studies concerning the importance of teamworking and communication. However, teamworking emerges as a necessary, but not a sufficient mechanism. Systemic learning from past experiences is the real keystone toward an effective management of the early phases of product development processes.

Integrated product and process design and development : the product realization process

Abstract: Product Development into the 21st Century. The Integrated Product and Process Design and Development Team Method. Product Cost Analysis. Product Functional Requirements and Decomposition. Translating Customer Requirements into Products. Product Concepts and Embodiments. Design for Assembly and Disassembly. Material Selection. Manufacturing Processes and Design. Design for 'X'. Product and Process Improvement. Index.

Developing Products in Half the Time: New Rules, New Tools, 2nd Edition (Создание новых продуктов за половину времени: новые правила, новые инструменты)

Abstract: In this era of global competition and accelerating product life cycles, the need to get new products to market faster is more compelling than ever. What was once considered fast development is now commonplace. In 1991, the original edition of this book became an instant hit as the leading guide to reducing product development cycle time. The expanded set of tools in this new edition meets the needs of today’s more demanding times. The book’s premise remains solid: time is worth money, and if you quantify this value you can buy time wisely, often to enormous advantage. Rather than pursuing development speed at any price, the authors emphasize subjecting time-to-market decisions to the same hard-nosed business logic used for other management decisions. Developing Products is unique in providing tools for trading off schedule against other business objectives. It integrates powerful methods to manage risk and use resources effectively with proven techniques to accelerate product development. Smith and Reinertsen discuss hundreds of practical tools for reducing cycle time, describing each one’s application and limitations. Countless examples including Black & Decker, Hewlett-Packard, Honda, Motorola, and others illustrate how real companies use the tools. The authors have sharpened the original tools and added new ones. New topics include: •Advanced tools for calculating the cost of delay •A process for shortening the Fuzzy Front End •Alternatives to co-locating a team •How to effectively involve customers in developing product specifications •The role of advanced technology tools in rapid development •Metrics for projects and processes •New methods for managing risk •How to continuously learn from your development projects. The strategies in Developing Products in Half the Time apply to all companies and industries including software and electronics, medical devices, machinery and vehicles, and consumer goods. The authors show how leading companies no longer depend on only a few isolated tools but now integrate a broad array of methods to gain synergy and greater competitive advantage. This is the guide you will need in the trenches if time to market is important to you—or if you are wondering if it should be. It will be equally valuable to new readers and to those who must move beyond the original edition.

Evaluating the end-of-life value of a product andimproving it by redesign

Abstract: As society progresses towards ecological maturity, the issue of reducing the environmental burden imposed by worn-out products becomes increasingly prominent. For a given product, the design stage is the best one at which this issue should be tackled. An algorithmic approach to this design-for-recycling problem is presented, based on a new algorithm for quantitative evaluation of the end-of-life value of a product. Given this algorithm, routines for identifying weak spots in the design, as well as for suggesting possible solutions, are built. In a CAD environment that can verify design against specification, automation of the optimization for recycling is thus possible in a way concurrent with other optimization considerations.

Methodology and computer-based tools for re-engineering a custom-engineered product line

Abstract: An in-depth review of a product line is conducted, including customer interviews, in order to identify customer specifications that are more complex than customer needs. Customer needs are quantified, and a reduced set of standard product configuration classes are selected so that about 80% of customer orders based on actual customer needs can be satisfied by the standard product configuration classes, and the remaining orders can be satisfied by custom design. Major components in the standard products are themselves standardized. Manufacture of the standard product is optimized for a one-day manufacturing cycle and separated from the manufacture of the custom designed product. A sales office and manufacturing plant roll-out schedule is implemented and managed by computer-based spreadsheet tools. A product configuration computer program module is interfaced between a product selector and a materials management (MRP) system in order to automate the process of entering orders, designing the standard product, ordering parts, and scheduling assembly of standard product.

Functional Analysis: A Fundamental Empirical Study for Reverse Engineering, Benchmarking, and Redesign

Abstract: At a basic level, product design composes three primary tasks: specification development, conceptual and configuration design, and product refinement. Customer needs analysis, product benchmarking, and business case analysis are fundamental to specification development, whereas conceptual design and product refinement entail functional analysis, the generation of solution principles and product geometry, concept selection, mathematical modeling, prototyping, and Taguchi analysis for variability. In this paper, we focus on an advanced method for functional analysis, a critical component of this process. This method demonstrates clear ties to customer needs, and is based on an empirical study of approximately 60 household consumer products. As part of this study, a common vocabulary for product functions and flows is developed and applied to the consumer products. House of Quality results are then used to correlate customer importance to the product functions. Data from these correlations provide a basis for determining critical functions and flows across all products and within important product domains, such as material processors and beverage brewers. From this study, we discuss how the results can be applied to product testing and benchmarking, design by analogy, the identification of functional groups and dependencies, and design education.

Product Development in a Collaborative Design Environment

Abstract: This paper reports the development of a collaborative product development environment using multi-disciplinary analysis and de sign (MAD) technology and the information infrastructure of the WWW/Internet. The proposed product development environment provides a two level hierarchical setup for product development within the framework of a collaborative product development (CPD) system through the collocation of product designers (first level) and design services (second level). The prototype CPD system offers the following facilities for web based product development: (1) an environment for the visual presentation, interactive refinement and specification of product specifi cations on VRML based sharable CAD models on the web, (2) web integrated product design data management system for supporting CPD tasks, and (3) web based design and manufacturability analysis. The prototype CPD system has been implemented using a variety of com mercial packages such as I-DEAS and CastCHECK, and programming languages su...

Deliberate Product Definition: Customizing the Product Definition Process:

Abstract: The process of product definition, during which a firm establishes the product specifications, has a vital influence on the success of a product but has attracted little attention from researchers....

Universal viewer/browser for network and system events using a universal user interface generator, a generic product specification language, and product specific interfaces

Abstract: A universal event browser operable for viewing and browsing network and system events for a number of different product specific applications is presented. The universal event browser isolates generic graphical user interface functionality from the implementations of the product specific applications by requiring each product specific application to have a product specific interface operable to communicate with the product specific application to retrieve event data from an event repository specific to the product. In addition, each product specific application is associated with a product specification file which contains window display configuration parameters, preferably written in a generic specification language. The universal event browser provides a universal user interface generator operable to communicate with the appropriate product specific interface to retrieve event data from the appropriate product specific event repository, and to utilize a the window display parameters from the appropriate product specification file to generate a universal interface data for use by a standard internet browser in displaying the event data.

Design for quality: selecting a product's technical features

Abstract: This article concerns the problem of selecting a product's technical features to make it more competitive from the user's global point of view. A heuristic logarithm has been developed to support the designer in this activity. The algorithm, operating i..

A product design production system and method

Abstract: In this product design production system, a product supplier (for exemple, a clock manufacturer) provides consumers on an information communication network with parts digital information representing those constituent parts of a product (for example a watch) that can be offered to the consumers, and design software to combine the constituent parts or design basic information based on the design software. The product supplier accepts original design information of a product that a consumer has designed by combining the parts digital information using the design software supplied. Based on the original design information received from the consumer, the product supplier fabricates a product and supplies it to the consumer who designed it.

Managing product variability by virtual products

Abstract: A new paradigm for customer-oriented production is presented. A complete specification of a product variant is described as a virtual product, a bill of material represented as a data object. This object may be used as a basis for production management. A tool for creating, modifying and processing virtual products is presented, based on a generic product structure. This tool may act as a means to facilitate handling of individual customer-specified products in a serialoriented production environment.

Deriving an SDL Specification with a Given Architecture from a Set of MSCs

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter introduces a new synthesis approach that allows systematic derivation of Specification Description Language (SDL) processes from a set of message sequence chart (MSC). The chapter takes into account the architecture of the target SDL specification, and ensures, by construction, consistency between the SDL specification and the message sequence chart (MSC) specification. The SDL specification generated is free of deadlocks. The chapter explains that the development of distributed systems goes through many phases. The initial phase, requirement analysis and specification, determines the functional and nonfunctional requirements in a specification with a high level of abstraction. In the design phase, the system development starts with an abstract specification of the design which is then refined step by step toward the implementation which is finally tested before its deployment. Formal description techniques play an increasingly important role in the development life cycle of distributed systems, especially telecommunication systems.

Towards innovative, more eco-efficient product design strategies

Abstract: In order to reach the target of a tenfold increase in the average eco-efficiency, more far-reaching, innovative improvements of production techniques are required. When methods and instruments are available to identify and select promising eco-efficient product design strategies, the next question is how to embed environmental issues within the business organisation in a structural way. This chapter deals with this question on the basis of the experiences gained within Philips Sound & Vision and discusses how the efforts to integrate environmental issues into product design strategies relate to developments in environmental management systems. More than most national and regional standards on environmental management systems, the International Organisation for Standardisation 14000 series stresses the importance of product-oriented objectives and supportive tools. Most companies that have already made efforts to improve their environmental performance can no longer obtain high environmental benefits from incremental improvements. However, after initial costs have been incurred, the new but radical changes may lead to substantial cost reductions.

A requirement management database system for product definition

Abstract: This paper presents a database system developed to provide a computerized environment for requirement management during the product definition phase. The scope of this database system is to facilitate and demonstrate a methodology for product definition by recognizing and adopting functional requirement patterns from previous product designs so as to address a broad spectrum of domain‐specific customer requirements and organize requirement information for product specifications. The database system improves the product definition process during design and redesign efforts by integrating customer and design information all together and by reusing this information. A prototype requirement management database system is implemented on a PC platform using Microsoft Access.

Configuring designs for reuse

Abstract: The main problem in developing soflware product fiu-nilies is how to share effort and reuse parts of design and implementation while providing variation of features and capabilities in the products. We discuss the mechanisms that are commonly used to achieve reuse and sharing in product families, and the kind of variance each is best suited for. Our analysis motivates a need for a new mechanism to deal with ad hoc variation of features found in different members of a family. We argue that higher level abstraction and parametrization techniques are not well suited for this task. We propose an alternative approach that enables sufficiently detailed designs for every variant and at the same time achieves a level of design reuse without making designs unnecessarily complex or implementations inefficient.

Restructuring a house of quality using factor analysis

Abstract: Quality function deployment (QFD) is a cross-functional planning tool which ensures that the voice of the customer is systematically deployed throughout the product planning and design stages. Impediments tot he adoption of QFD as a product design aid i..

Integrating process planning and control for flexible production systems

Abstract: The requirements for custom-oriented production lead to demands for increasingly flexible production processes. Flexibility can be interpreted at different time-scales. Object-oriented modeling supports long time-scale flexibility by simplifying the introduction of different equipment within the system without extensive reprogramming of the control system. Distributed product specification, where each (type of) product is specified independently of any other product that may be simultaneously produced, supports medium time-scale flexibility with feasible introduction of new products. Automatic synthesis of control laws, by use of the supervisory control theory, permits on-line recalculation of the control policies and thus supports short time-scale flexibility. We describe an integrated approach to increase flexibility of production-system control, where given a set of object-oriented resource models, and a set of distributed product specifications control-laws are automatically synthesized. Implementation-wise the approach is centered around a database holding all relevant information, such as the product specifications, the current states of the resources, etc.