Modeling and managing engineering changes in a complex product development process

Abstract

Today's hyper-competitive worldwide market, turbulent environment, demanding customers, and diverse technological advancements force any corporations who develop new products to look into all the possible areas of improvement in the entire product lifecycle management process. One of the areas that both scholars and practitioners have overlooked in the past is Engineering Change Management (ECM).The vision behind this dissertation is to ultimately bridge this gap by identifying main characteristics of a New Product Development (NPD) process that are potentially associated with the occurrence and magnitude of iterations and Engineering Changes (ECs), developing means to quantify these characteristics as well as the interrelationships between them in a computer simulation model, testing the effects of different parameter settings and various coordination policies on project performance, and finally gaining operational insights considering all relevant EC impacts.The causes for four major ECM problems (occurrence of ECs, long EC lead time, high EC cost, and occurrence frequency of iterations and ECs), are first discussed diagrammatically and qualitatively. Factors that contribute to particular system behavior patterns and the causal links between them are identified through the exploratory construction of causal/causal-loop diagrams.To further understand the nature of NPD/ECM problems and verify the key assumptions made in the conceptual causal framework, three field survey studies were conducted in the summer of 2010 and 2011. Information and data were collected to assess the current practice in automobile and information technology industries where EC problems are commonly encountered. Using a numerical example, different project-related model features (e.g., learning curve effects, rework likelihood, and level of dependency of product configuration) and coordination policies (e.g., overlapping strategy, rework review strategy, IEC batching policy, and resource allocation policy) are tested and analyzed in detail concerning three major performance indicators: lead time, cost, and quality, based on which decision-making suggestions regarding EC impacts are drawn from a systems perspective. Simulation results confirm that the nonlinear dynamics of interactions between NPD and ECM plays a vital role in determining the final performance of development efforts.

Análise da aplicação da gestão de projetos por corrente crítica no processo de desenvolvimento de produtos e na gestão de portfólio de um fabricante de aeronaves

“…This study confirms the views of Zanatta (2010) and Li & Moon (2012) regarding the growing need to address the pertinent challenges of managing multi-project environments and project management solutions that are different from the classical ones. To this effect, the study throws light on PDP and PPM field of knowledge, contributing to the principal methods recommended by the literature.…”

“…According to Li & Moon (2012), the PDP is a process for the generation of ideas, through production project and manufacturing, with the objective of bringing a new product to the market.…”

“…and are very often delivered late, over-budget, or their requirements and specifications are cut to meet original deadlines. In this environment of uncertainty, conventional project management practices are no longer adequate (Li & Moon, 2012).…”

Rework Quantification and Influence of Rework on Duration and Cost of Equipment Development Task

“…Jensen et al, [15] constructed a model of the relationship between projects and the environment caused by uncertainty factors, identified the main factors that cause project uncertainty, and analyzed their influence on project structure, process, and operational effect. Li et al, [16] analyzed three uncertainties: the activity, the design plan, and the environment. Their model quantitatively described the impact of these three uncertainties on rework probability in the development of new products.…”

SI model of measuring the success of strategies and decisions in construction projects using system dynamics

“…It is now well established that SD is effectively examines strategies and policies. However, Much less still exists about the relationship between SD and its integration with other techniques [9] . It could be used with the Delphi questionnaire to support it with the structure index (SI) model to evaluate strategies, policies, and scenarios according to it.…”