Integrated Product Development in Internet Surroundings

Igor Fuerstnerifurst@vts.su.ac.yuVisoka tehnička škola SuboticaVojvodina, Serbia

Introduction

Recently, new product development has been widely performed in networked environment of several different companies. There is a huge advantage in cooperation among companies, for example, shortening of the product development process, using common resources, knowledge or technology, and cost and risk sharing.

Real and efficient communication among the participants in the product development process is the key for project success, and the project is more successful if the connection among all the participants (both internal and external) is stronger.

Introduction

Besides these, there are team work requirements involved in the product development process, as well as time-dependent information flows not only within a company (e.g. between members of the development team and the production process), but also between the suppliers and customers.

Connecting the participants in the process of product development in internet surroundings enables the companies to reduce costs and to shorten the time necessary for developing new, or improving present products.

Introduction

The basic aim of this lecture is to show a developed methodology, based on the unique geometric model of the product, defined functional requirements, information about the production system and surroundings, current internet technology (software and hardware), and existing DFx tools.

On one hand it provides an efficient communication among all the elements of the development process (systems for data interchange, pooling and updating). On the other hand, based on defined relevant parameters of existing DFx tools (time and cost as quantitative parameters, environmental impact as qualitative parameters) and the defined time limit, decision making criteria are defined (results verification and optimum solution determination).

By this, time for product development is reduced, and also error occurrence is minimized, therefore costs are reduced and higher profits and bigger market share is made possible.

Developed methodology

The developed methodology assumes that all participants of the development process use the same type of CAD format, or do not use it at all. It is independent from commercial product development software. Participants are connected on the level of previously defined representative product of the production program (project).

The developed methodology enables a parallel work on several projects and in each of them a simultaneous and parallel work of all the participants, regardless of their location. The methodology defines the connection method and the hierarchy among the participants, and it determines the decision making process, based on multi-criteria analysis.

The participants of the process

The participants of the product development process are classified into three groups:

– The manager of the product development process, who represents the head of the development team, the development process administrator. His competence is to administrate the developed database of the participants, companies, projects and parts, to define the projects, and participants of the project, to define the level of participants’ access priority, to analyse and eventually to accept the proposed changes made by the other participants, based on multi-criteria analysis;

– The chief constructor, who makes the product’s first version and includes the accepted changes in new product’s versions;

– The other members of the product development process, who are the DFA analyst, DFM analyst and DFE analyst. They propose several changes with the corresponding results from the analysis, and also analyse and eventually confirm all the other changes proposed by the other team members.

Relevant parameters

The developed methodology derives the following relevant parameters, based on DFX tools analysis:– The overall estimated assembling time and cost; – The overall estimated manufacturing time and

cost;– The overall estimated environmental impact.

Acceptance criteria

The developed method defines several acceptance criteria based on the derived relevant parameters obtained from analysis of several DFX tools (DFA, DFM and DFE tools):

– Criterion of respecting the deadline of the project;– Criterion of minimizing the determined overall time necessary for the

production and assembly of the product;– Criterion of minimizing the determined overall costs involved in the

production and assembly of the product;– Criterion of minimizing the determined overall effect of the product on the

environment. The first criterion is independent of the others and the overstepping of

the time limit deactivates the development process, and thus the project. The other criteria are used by the project manager as a form of advice to ease the process of decision making, considering the acceptance or rejection of proposed improvements.

Proposed algorithm for the acceptance of the proposed solutions

Start

Activation of the productdevelopment process

Oversteppingof the firstcriterion

Paralell process

Solutionproposal

Acceptanceof proposed

solution

Proposed solutionis accepted

Yes

No

No

Deactivation of theproduct development

process

End

Yes

Decision making bythe project manager

considering the 2., 3.and 4. criteria

The phases of the developed method (Initial phase)

The developed method for connecting the participants in the product development process in internet surroundings has two phases.

During the initial project analysis phase all participants of the development process simultaneously define the relevant parameters for all elements of the project depending on field in which they analyze the project and the results are transferred into the developed database. The phase of initial project analysis ends when all the participants have defined and transferred all the relevant parameters.

The level of access priority

The developed method supposes the simultaneous and parallel work of all participants in the development process, but depending on the requirements of the project manager different levels of access priority can be assigned to certain participants during the altering the project (second phase). The level of access priority of the participants in the product development process determines the possibility for the participants to access the analysis and suggest improvements to the product.

The phases of the developed method (Second phase)

At the beginning of the second phase the highest level of access priority is activated, when participants with active access priority analyze the project and suggest appropriate improvements, which are then transferred to all the other participants in the development process for confirmation. After confirmation, the results of the suggested improvements are transferred to the project manager who, based on the defined criteria for acceptance, accepts or rejects the suggested product improvements. Once all the participants with active level of access priority have finished the product analysis, the following, lower level of access priority is activated, and this process is repeated until all levels of access priority have been activated. If the project is still active, the highest level of access priority is activated again and process is repeated.

The phases of the developed method (Second phase)

Any participant with an active level of access priority has the possibility to reserve a number of parts that could be involved in a future improvement. Reserved parts are not accessible for other participants until the proposed improvement is accepted or the reservation cancelled. Parts that are included in improvement proposals are inaccessible until the improvement is confirmed by all the other participants and accepted by the project manager.

Second phase

Example of the developed methodology

Client-server architecture

In the internet, clients use internet browsers to access the data. Browsers let the user form a request and forward it to the server. Browsers also show the result from the server. Servers receive and confirm the request, arrange the data and forward it to the client. The client-server model describes the communication between clients (users of the service) and servers (providers of the service).

Since product development is involved, the basis of communication is comprised of data connected to the product. Information about the products can be grouped into specialized and open structures. Specialized structures are connected to CAD formats. The deficiency of specialized formats is the fact that typical CAD formats are difficult for presentation in internet browsers, thus open formats need to be created which can be presented in the internet browser. Two of the used open formats are DFW (Design Web FormatTM) and VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language).

Client-server architecture

The used client-server model is based on three-tier client-server application. In this model, the server contains information connected to the product, which can be accessed by the client. Depending on the need, on the client side, one can use a CAD system or an internet browser for the representation. To show a DWF format inside of the internet browser, Autodesk® DWFTM Viewer application is to be used. To show a VRML format inside of the internet browser, Cortona® VRML Client is to be used.

Server side is divided in two tiers:– Application server, which consists of Apache Server software, within the PHP

program language for creating dynamic internet application is used;– Database server, which consists of MySQL system for managing the developed

relational database. The developed database includes data of the possible participants in the product development process, data of companies possibly involved in the product development process, data of the projects, data of the parts, subassemblies and assemblies, and needed information regarding the altering process of a project.

Client-server architecture

Developed internet application

The project shown (next slide) consists of one assembly, two subassemblys and eight parts), where one can see the application for the product manager, when a new project structure is created.

Application for the participant with the active level of access priority (next slide).

Part06 is currently not accessible, but the other parts and subassemblies can be accessed.

Case study

The developed methodology is applied on the improvement process of a mechanical bathroom scale. An exploded view of the original product is shown in next figure (left).

The product has 26 different parts and 10 different used materials.

An exploded view of the improved product is shown in next figure (right).

The improved product has 21 different parts and is made of five different materials. During the improvement process, seven proposed improvements were accepted by the project manager. Numbers from 1 to 7 show the accepted improvements.

Results of improvements

The results of improvements after seven accepted solution proposals (four of which were given by the DFA analyst, two by the DFM analyst and one by the DFE analyst) concerning the reduction of the production time, reduction of the production costs and improvement of the product’s effect on the environment are shown in next figure.

0

20

40

60

80

100Product development process

DFE [%] 69 69 72 72 75 75 82 85

Time [min] 27.1 27.0 26.3 25.3 22.0 21.8 21.8 19.2

Costs [Euro] 8.8 8.7 8.5 8.3 7.8 7.8 7.8 7.5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Conclusion

The developed methodology assumes project flows in internet surroundings. By that, distributed environment for the participants in the development process is provided. To make the methodology functional, an appropriate client-server model is developed. The basic communication in the product development process is connected to the product; therefore open standards (DWF and VRML) are used for specialised data presentation. The developed methodology is applied on the improvement process of a mechanical bathroom scale. The results show that production time and costs are reduced and the product’s effect on the environment is improved.

Conclusion

The use of the developed methodology shows that future research should be done considering the connection of different CAD applications without any data loss because of data incompatibility. An easy way of involving the end users into the process of integrated product development in internet surroundings should be obtained. An expert system that would automate different DFX tools and would provide solution proposals to the manager of the product development process should be developed to enhance and shorten the development of new or existing products.