On Knowledge-based Development: How Documentation Practice Represents a Strategy for Closing Tolerance Engineering Loops

AbstractKnowledge from multiple sources is required for defining tolerances in new product development (NPD). Successful outcomes in product development (PD) depend on the collective ability to integrate this knowledge into the product. Assessing variability and tolerance capabilities are essential parts of PD-knowledge as they represent limits of specifications with wide-ranging impact. Reducing the engineers time spend on (re)defining tolerances and searching for the right information can prevent substandard NPD performance in terms of quality, lead time, cost and product innovation. Hence, two topics of significant importance for achieving leanness (i.e., effectiveness and efficiency) in PD are towering tolerance knowledge and associated documentation practices. This paper presents the results of a survey among engineering professionals of two industrial companies made to study documentation and tolerance practices in different industrial environments. The results reveal similarities between the challenges that the companies face, including implementation of effective documentation (e.g. Knowledge-Briefs, A3 reports), visualization of physical relationship between product performance attributes and design parameters (e.g. trade-off curves) and the transfer of knowledge between projects for organizational learning. This paper makes a contribution to the body of knowledge related to (lean) NPD by documenting current industrial challenges and practices in achieving viable internal tolerance engineering routines and processes, along with the needs for documentation tools

Using a Living Lab Methodology for Developing Energy Savings Solutions

It is becoming increasingly important to create a sustainable environment. One important step is to reduce the energy consumption. In Europe, 25% of the energy used is consumed by private households. How energy is produced and consumed in different European countries varies a lot, thus it is hard to develop general solutions based on country-specific traits. The aim of this paper is to describe an approach to cross-country development of an energy savings solution. This paper reports on the usage of a method based on collecting users needs related to their current energy consumption, the actions they can take, and the possible future solutions they want to see

Beyond Lean and Six Sigma; Cross-collaborative Improvement of Tolerances and Process Variations-A Case Study

Good tolerance- and variation management is essential to achieve high value adding products with cost-effective processes. The link between Tolerance Engineering and popular manufacturing improvement philosophies such as Lean and Six Sigma is, however, not always that clear. The possibilities and limitations of these two approaches on Tolerance Engineering are discussed in this paper. The case describes cross-collaborative improvement work within industry on tolerance and variation management which is similar to a work model called “Closed Loop Tolerance Engineering” (CLTE). The case is focused on the process of revising existing drawings and tolerance specifications for the manufacturing of products with a long lifetime. Although both Lean and Six- Sigma have been important for the improvement work in the case company for several years, there is still a gap to be filled on tolerance and variation management. The novelty of this paper is found in the link between an industrial case on improvements and an academic model (CLTE) for cross-collaborative engineering on variation and tolerances