Review of value and lean in complex product development

Approaches are being developed to improve complex product development from the perspective of value generation. However, the ideas and their relationships are still not fully articulated. We provide a structured literature review, with a primary but not exclusive focus on value ideas relating to lean in complex system product development. A framework organizes the concepts, methods, and their relationships. It clarifies the value delivery mechanism and could help to understand and thus improve value systems. Areas deserving further research attention are identified.We wish to thank the reviewers and editor for their valuable feedback, which helped to substantially improve early ver-sions of this articleThis is the accepted manuscript for a paper published in Systems Engineering Volume 18, Issue 2, pages 192–207, March 2015, DOI: 10.1002/sys.2129

Development of a lean design framework for enhancing the application of product design

Substantial benefits can be achieved through the adoption of lean type thinking earlier at the design stage to create more viable products. A complex design cannot be easily leaned out in production; therefore, the production of affordable and sustainable products requires effective lean design considerations at the conceptual level. The research presented in this thesis investigates and demonstrates the application of lean design for product enhancement. The aim of the research was to develop a novel lean design framework that would support the generation of product design with attributes such as maximise value, manufacturable, and operable with minimum waste and resources ensuring avoidable harm is eliminated. The framework consists of a systemised process which is organised in to phases and activities that provides a unique practical manner to lean out a design. The construction of the framework initiated with an extensive literature review and proceeded with an industrial field study which consisted of 34 interviews with 11 manufacturing companies in Europe. The findings were amalgamated to generate a lean design definition and principles which would form the foundations of the framework. A real-life industrial case study of an offshore oil/water separator was used to validate the framework. In conclusion, the lean design framework provides the necessary means by which a lean design can be achieved. As a result a functionally viable and enhanced design that is cheaper to manufacture through controlling waste and eliminating avoidable harm occurrence can be realised with minimal effort. The research makes the following contributions: (1) identification of essential elements in lean design, (2) generation of a lean design definition and principles, (3) Lean Design Framework development and (4) illustrative guidelines based on the framework to be used by designers in realising a lean product design

Context characterization for synthesis of process architectures

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118).Analysis steps are proposed as an aid for establishing Lean Product Development (LPD) activities in an organization. The proposal is offered as an aid to engineering managers and process designers for coping with the unique challenges of implementing processes from their inception - for example, at a new enterprise. As such, the thesis focuses on the creation of LPD, as opposed to traditional Lean improvement activities which benefit from the perspective of hindsight of a legacy process. Without established product development processes to improve upon, the implementation of product development activities at a new venture relies on the use of foresight to instance a LPD environment in new organizations. Therefore, the paper stresses stakeholder value delivery within the specific context that an enterprise operates and competes. A generic framework for context characterization is proposed and discussed. The framework is then evaluated for its usefulness in process design activities. The analysis steps are based on literature review and case study interviews. The proposed analysis steps include: * a comprehensive definition of the business context in which the enterprise operates and competes, * a statement of goals and objectives for the product development organization based on this context, and, * a determination of appropriate behaviors to meet these goals. Traditional Lean research has typically been approached from a large-scale, complex systems, for-profit perspective.(cont.) Unique insights are gained from the perspective of small, privately funded, new ventures. The benefits include foresight-only value objectives for product development (process creation) and uniqueness of context (i.e. resource limited, mindshare-driven). The analysis method was validated by examining process design case studies within three contexts: large-scale aerospace, industrial process monitoring, and high-technology start-up.by Christian LaFon.S.M

Разработка гидравлической системы автоматизированной линии К155-ЦЛ по производству мелкоштучных бетонных изделий в рамках одного производства

Remanufacturing is an environmentally sound material recovery option which is essential to compete for sustainable manufacturing. The aim with remanufacturing at a majority of companies is to prolong physical product performance by delivering the same or betterthan-original product quality. In general, remanufacturing is an industrial process that brings used products back to useful life by requiring less effort than is demanded by the initial production process. Consequently, from a product life-cycle perspective, remanufacturing generates great product value. Remanufacturers lag behind manufacturers since they often face complex and unpredictable material and information flows. Based on a review of remanufacturing research, remanufacturing challenges in material and information flows can be classified into three groups: insufficient product quality, long and unstable process lead times, and an unpredictable level of inventory. While some remanufacturing researchers state that manufacturing and remanufacturing are significantly different, they have more in common than many other processes operations. Therefore, to sustain competitive remanufacturing, companies investigate an opportunity for improvement through the employment of lean production that generates significant benefits for manufacturers. In order to investigate the potential to address remanufacturing challenges by lean production, a Minimum time for material and information flow analysis (MiniMifa) method was developed. This method originates from the value stream mapping (VSM) method, broadly practiced to bring lean to manufacturing companies. The focus of MiniMifa was to collect empirical data on the identified groups of remanufacturing challenges from the remanufacturing perspective, and to provide a basis for the development of improvements originating from lean principles. Lean production was selected for this research due to its system perspective on material and information flows. Among the defined lean principles in remanufacturing, a pull principle was investigated at the case companies. The suggested principle demonstrated a reduction in lead time, followed by improvements in inventory level and product quality. However, in order to become lean, remanufacturers have to overcome three levels of lean remanufacturing challenges: external and internal challenges as well as lean wastes. Finally, this research reduces the gap between academia and industry by contributing with a possible solution to the identified remanufacturing challenges in material and information flows

Moving on - beyond lean thinking

Lean Thinking is currently often positioned as the underlying theory of lean production among practitioners and academics, although its originators, Womack and Jones, seem not to have presented it as a theory. This paper endeavors to analyze whether Lean Thinking can be viewed as a theory of lean production. For this purpose, a critical assessment of Lean Thinking is carried out. Lean Thinking is argued to lack an adequate conceptualization of production, which has led to imprecise concepts, such as the term “value”. The five principles of Lean Thinking do not orderly cover value generation, and they do not always encapsulate the core topics in their respective areas. The failure to trace the origin of lean concepts and principles reduces the opportunity to justify and explain them. Despite claims for generality, the application area of the five lean principles is limited to the transformation of mass production, with, for instance, one-of-a-kind production and construction being largely out of scope. It is concluded that it is opportune to move on beyond Lean Thinking, towards a generic theory of production, for acquiring a solid foundation for designing, operating and improving production systems

Performance optimization of a leagility inspired supply chain model: a CFGTSA algorithm based approach

Lean and agile principles have attracted considerable interest in the past few decades. Industrial sectors throughout the world are upgrading to these principles to enhance their performance, since they have been proven to be efficient in handling supply chains. However, the present market trend demands a more robust strategy incorporating the salient features of both lean and agile principles. Inspired by these, the leagility principle has emerged, encapsulating both lean and agile features. The present work proposes a leagile supply chain based model for manufacturing industries. The paper emphasizes the various aspects of leagile supply chain modeling and implementation and proposes a new Hybrid Chaos-based Fast Genetic Tabu Simulated Annealing (CFGTSA) algorithm to solve the complex scheduling problem prevailing in the leagile environment. The proposed CFGTSA algorithm is compared with the GA, SA, TS and Hybrid Tabu SA algorithms to demonstrate its efficacy in handling complex scheduling problems

Complexity in Designing Energy Efficient Buildings: Towards Understanding Decision Networks in Design

Most important decisions for designing energy efficient buildings are made in the early stages of design. Designing is a complex interdisciplinary task, and energy efficiency requirements are pushing boundaries even further. This study analyzes the level of complexity for energy efficient building design and possible remedies for managing or reducing the complexity. Methodologically, we used the design structure matrix for mapping the current design tasks and hierarchical decomposition of lifecycle analysis for visualizing the interdependency of the design tasks and design disciplines and how changes propagate throughout the system, tasks and disciplines. We have visualized the interdependency of design tasks and design disciplines and how changes propagate throughout the system. Current design of energy efficiency building is a linear and one-shot approach without iterations planned into the process. Broken management techniques do not help to reduce the complexit

Principles for aerospace manufacturing engineering in integrated new product introduction

This article investigates the value-adding practices of Manufacturing Engineering for integrated New Product Introduction. A model representing how current practices align to support lean integration in Manufacturing Engineering has been defined. The results are used to identify a novel set of guiding principles for integrated Manufacturing Engineering. These are as follows: (1) use a data-driven process, (2) build from core capabilities, (3) develop the standard, (4) deliver through responsive processes and (5) align cross-functional and customer requirements. The investigation used a mixed-method approach. This comprises case studies to identify current practice and a survey to understand implementation in a sample of component development projects within a major aerospace manufacturer. The research contribution is an illustration of aerospace Manufacturing Engineering practices for New Product Introduction. The conclusions will be used to indicate new priorities for New Product Introduction and the cross-functional interactions to support flawless and innovative New Product Introduction. The final principles have been validated through a series of consultations with experts in the sponsoring company to ensure that correct and relevant content has been defined

The interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction

Lean construction and Building Information Modeling are quite different initiatives, but both are having profound impacts on the construction industry. A rigorous analysis of the myriad specific interactions between them indicates that a synergy exists which, if properly understood in theoretical terms, can be exploited to improve construction processes beyond the degree to which it might be improved by application of either of these paradigms independently. Using a matrix that juxtaposes BIM functionalities with prescriptive lean construction principles, fifty-six interactions have been identified, all but four of which represent constructive interaction. Although evidence for the majority of these has been found, the matrix is not considered complete, but rather a framework for research to explore the degree of validity of the interactions. Construction executives, managers, designers and developers of IT systems for construction can also benefit from the framework as an aid to recognizing the potential synergies when planning their lean and BIM adoption strategies