Managing product development within a design chain

Abstract

This paper examines the product engineering relationships between a vehicle manufacturer and six key suppliers which contribute to the final design of products. The interaction of design information between each supplier and customer is termed a design chain. The paper presents findings of the engineering design relationship between these companies and compares the different project management approaches used. Various mechanisms are used to coordinate these inter‐firm design operations. The paper emphasises a need for customers to differentiate between suppliers, based on their respective design contributions, in order to develop effective and appropriate coordination for the exchange of design and development information. The paper concludes that suppliers need to focus their project management skills on their customers’ processes to assist effective coordination, and finds that suppliers are promoting the use of guest engineers as one mechanism to deliver early participation.

Development of a design performance measurement matrix for improving collaborative design during a design process

“…Because of the great complexity and uncertain features of the product collaborative design process (Twigg, 1998), there is a necessity for implementing performance measurement to control the project development, minimize collaboration conflicts, and reduce management risk during the design process, and, in turn, improve the final performance of the project.…”

“…68.23 per cent (N¼48) of the participants regarded decision making as the most important criterion for measuring design management skill. This Design performance measurement is probably because the decision making in a design process always requires a degree of management ability to deal with a large amount of information (Twigg, 1998), a dynamic and fast changing market, and multiple alternatives and criteria in an uncertain environment (Feltham and Xie, 1994). Therefore, a good decision maker can drive a design project team to achieve the ultimate project goal more efficiently and effectively.…”

Collaboration in the Design-Manufacturing Chain: A Key to Improve Product Quality

“…Effective integration of suppliers into the product value chain is a key factor in the improving competitiveness of many manufacturers. Early involvement can occur in any of the stages of product development, as summarized in Table 1 (Dowlatshahi 1997, Hartley et al 1997, Twigg 1998, Lyu & Chang. 2007).…”

“…2007). Increasingly, suppliers are becoming involved much earlier (Appleby & Twigg 1988;O'Neal 1993, Sleigh 1993, Twigg 1998, Liker et al 1996. Today, outside suppliers represent increasingly important members of the new product development team.…”

Creators, Composers and Consumers: Experiences of Designing a Digital Library

“…[7]), but the core concern there is typically with ensuring that components from different suppliers can be integrated seamlessly into a product. In contrast, Blandford et al consider how concepts are propagated through chains of system development, as decisions made by the creator constrain or influence the behaviour of the composer.…”