Identification of Critical Building Blocks in PLM System Implementation in the Automotive Supply Chain

In today’s industrialised world, manufacturers must adapt and evolve their Product Development (PD) processes through the adoption of bespoke ICT tools. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and its associated tools are one option manufacturers may choose to assist in this change. However, PLM tools are not always viable due to costs associated and system integration issues; therefore, careful selection and consideration of the most appropriate tool, which meets company requirements, needs to be taken before selection and implementation. This paper presents a case study of a Tier 1 supplier in the automotive industry, identifying the critical building blocks for successful implementation and integration of a PLM system in to their manufacturing operations. A framework is proposed to assist manufacturers in identifying and ranking the building blocks which should be considered when implementing such PLM tools

Development of a knowledge sharing framework for improving the testing processes in global product development

As identified by Griffin (1997) and Kahn (2012), manufacturing organisations typically improve their market position by accelerating their Product Development (PD) cycles. One method for achieving this is to reduce the time taken to design, test and validate new products, so that they can reach the end customer before competition. This paper adds to existing research on PD testing procedures by reporting on an exploratory investigation carried out in a UK-based manufacturing plant. Exploring the organisational and managerial factors that contribute to the time spent on testing of new products during development. The investigation consisted of three sections, viz. observations and process modelling, utilisation metrics and a questionnaire-based investigation, from which a proposed framework to improve and reduce the PD time cycle is presented. This project’s main focus is the improvement of the utilisation of product testing facilities and the links to its main internal stakeholders - PD engineers

Supporting Global Automotive Product Development Projects through the Integration of Systems Engineering Knowledge

Global automotive companies are vast extended enterprises of geographically dispersed teams that collaborate on the concurrent development of new technologies and multiple vehicle programs. Consequently, it is challenging to effectively capture all new knowledge generated during continuous innovation. Furthermore, current knowledge management tools fail to adequately organise vital new explicit knowledge captured during vehicle development programs and then make it widely accessible for future re-use throughout the product lifecycle. This paper reports the findings of an investigation exploring the current knowledge management practices in a large-scale multinational automotive company, and proposes an integrated framework to address the industrial challenges

Using Web 2.0-Based Groupware to Facilitate Collaborative Design in Engineering Education Scheme Projects

Employee collaboration is vital for manufacturing organisations wishing to be successful in an ever-changing global market place; it is commonly referred to as the joining of people and interests to meet a common goal via visual or oral interaction, information and knowledge sharing and the coordination of tasks; product development teams operating within the aerospace and defence industry rely extensively on this. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of a validation study carried out during an Engineering Education Scheme (EES) project initiated by a leading aerospace and defence manufacturing organisation, to confirm the benefits of using bespoke Web 2.0-based groupware to improve employee collaboration between dispersed teams. The results of a cross-sectional survey concluded that employees in the collaborating organisations would welcome greater usage of Web 2.0-based technologies. The study confirmed that groupware offers the potential to deliver a more effective collaborative environment with additional communication channels on offer to end users

An Investigation into the Potential Use of Social Media Technologies to improve the Product Development Functions within the Aerospace and Defence Industry

Competition in global markets has resulted in increased demands for improvements in manufacturing processes. Enterprises have to re-engineer work practices and have shown that the effective communication of knowledge is fundamental to Product Development (PD). It is vital that cross-functional internal and external collaboration is optimised within PD processes and this should be facilitated through early, frequent and effective communication of information and knowledge. Social Media sites represent a new stage in the evolution of the Internet. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter, offer users the ability to stay connected online with friends and colleagues around the world in real-time; similarly, they offer the ability to locate expertise, knowledge and solutions to problems. The results of an industrial investigation, carried out within a leading aerospace and defence organisation, are commented upon and an interactive groupware solution is introduced, which aims to facilitate collaboration between dispersed product development teams

A new paradigm for virtual knowledge sharing in product development based on emergent social software platforms

The UK Government considers its Aerospace Industry a remarkable success story, enjoying a global market share of 17% in 2015. The capture, management and sharing of employee knowledge is seen as vital if the industry is to remain highly innovative and retain its pre-eminent position internationally. Aerospace manufacturers, such as BAE Systems, often have to re-engineer business processes routinely to ensure their survival. Knowledge sharing in the industry is seen as challenging due to the dispersed nature of its operations and multi-tier supply chains. This article, through a 5-year participant-observation study at the World’s second largest aerospace and defence organisation, BAE Systems, proposes a new paradigm for virtual knowledge sharing in dispersed aerospace product development based on emergent social software platforms such as Enterprise 2.0 technologies. The developed framework and methodologies are applied to the bespoke BAE Systems’ engineering lifecycle process to validate its effectiveness with results indicating that Enterprise 2.0 technologies offer a more openly innovative environment in which employees may share and interact with knowledge more effectively and easily across geographical and functional boundaries, compared with conventional engineering information systems

Knowledge Management for Maintenance, Repair and Service of Manufacturing System

Manufacturing equipment, such as numerical controlled machines and assembly cranes, requires constant maintenance and service in their operating lifecycle. Equipment maintenance plays an important role in avoiding unexpected failures and ensuring production efficiency. During maintenance operations, much data is generated and stored in databases. It is essential for manufacturing companies to develop a system to integrate equipment condition monitoring, fault prediction and knowledge base to support maintenance decisions. A case study, carried out within a power generator manufacturing organisation, was conducted to understand what the maintenance process is and how maintenance knowledge is currently managed. It was concluded that maintenance process is less efficient, and maintenance records, stored within internal databases, are not consistent, which makes knowledge hard to share, learn from and reuse. This paper proposes a Knowledge Management System for Maintenance, Repair and Service in Manufacturing Systems to support better maintenance decision and improve maintenance efficiency

Integrating social knowledge and collaboration tools into dispersed product development

Employee collaboration and knowledge sharing is vital for manufacturing organisations wishing to be successful in an ever-changing global market place; Product Development (PD) teams, in particular, rely heavily on these activities to generate innovative designs and enhancements to existing product ranges. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of a validation study carried out during an Engineering Education Scheme project to confirm the benefits of using bespoke Web 2.0-based groupware to improve collaboration and knowledge sharing between dispersed PD teams. The results of a cross-sectional survey concluded that employees would welcome greater usage of social computing technologies. The study confirmed that groupware offers the potential to deliver a more effective collaborative and knowledge sharing environment with additional communication channels on offer. Furthermore, a series of recommended guidelines are presented to show how PD teams, operating in globally-dispersed organisations, may use Web 2.0 tools to improve employee collaboration and knowledge sharing

Investigating the use of social media in improving knowledge management within a collaborative product development and testing environments

During the last three decades, the manufacturing industry has witnessed the growing benefits of incorporating knowledge management practices in to business processes, which has been documented in research literature worldwide. However, companies operating in the manufacturing industry still struggle to successfully manage and extract the full potential of their in-house knowledge, both at organisational and individual levels, and are often unable to fully capture and utilise lessons learned into their new products. This research, through an exploratory survey conducted with an industrial partner operating in the power generation sector, explores the possibility of using alternative methods for knowledge management purposes, such as social media tools and video sharing, as a means of capturing, sharing and discussing company knowledge in a product development engineering environment. This paper presents the results of the investigation which explored employee usage and tendencies of social media tools, preferred learning methods and their knowledge sharing habits

A modular product structure based methodology for seamless information flow in PLM system implementation

Product development process deals with large amount of information generated from market survey, concept design, manufacture, test, limited production, production, service, and obsoleting. The information should be stored systematically so that it is easily traceable and reusable for future product development. This paper presents a methodology for seamless product information flow between the three main enterprise information systems such as Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), Product Data/Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) used in the process of innovative product development while implementing PLM. PLM implementation deals with various existing product data and information generated over years both from CAD and ERP systems. Data integration is very challenging in multi-national engineering companies and has important impact on future decisions while creating new processes. The aim is to define a modular product structure that can be used to connect the product information throughout the life cycle that can be reused effectively and efficiently for future similar products