1,544 research outputs found
Design project planning, monitoring and re-planning through process simulation
Effective management of design schedules is a major concern in industry, since timely project delivery can have a significant influence on a companyâs profitability. Based on insights gained through a case study of planning practice in aero-engine component design, this paper examines how task network simulation models can be deployed in a new way to support design process planning. Our method shows how simulation can be used to reconcile a description of design activities and information flows with project targets such as milestone delivery dates. It also shows how monitoring and re-planning can be supported using the non-ideal metrics which the case study revealed are used to monitor processes in practice. The approach is presented as a theoretical contribution which requires further work to implement and evaluate in practice
Recommended from our members
CAN CHANGE PREDICTION HELP PRIORITISE REDESIGN WORK IN FUTURE ENGINEERING SYSTEMS?
Future design environments will necessitate improved management of the propagation and impacts of changes. To ascertain whether change prediction can assist in making better work prioritisation decisions, this paper develops a new simulation approach and applies it to a model of a complex aerospace product, which was elicited from industry. We use an accepted technique to generate potential change propagation trees and apply Monte Carlo methods to generate a sample space within which multiple scheduling policies could be evaluated and compared. The experiments reveal that poor coordination of change activity can result in significant process inefficiencies, that the potential for inefficiency increases for larger change networks, and that a modest ability to accurately predict change propagation in the specific case at hand could have a dramatic effect in reducing unnecessary rework. The experiments also suggest that the capability of predicting multiple steps of change propagation would provide only minimal additional improvement.International Design Conference - DESIGN 201
Recommended from our members
Design of robust service operations using cybernetic principles and simulation
Information flows in a service organisation allow business units to co-ordinate their response to changes in the operating environment. Processes and interactions can be designed so that the right information flows to the right people, at the right time to make effective decisions regarding job priorities and allocation of limited resource. This paper develops an analysis framework and simulation approach to identify the internal information flows an organisation needs to âtune itselfâ for changing conditions, thus making itself more robust to uncertainties. The ideas are developed and illustrated through a case study with a major telecoms company.International Design Conference - DESIGN 201
Recommended from our members
Simulating intertwined design processes that have similar structures: A case study of a small company that creates made-to-order fashion products
The authors use simulation to analyse the resource-driven dependencies between concurrent processes used to create customised products in a company. Such processes are uncertain and unique according to the design changes required. However, they have similar structures. For simulation, a level of abstraction is chosen such that all possible processes are represented by the same activity network. Differences between processes are determined by the customisations that they implement. The approach is illustrated through application to a small business that creates customised fashion products. We suggest that similar techniques could be applied to study intertwined design processes in more complex domains.The case study was carried out as part of Considerate Design for Personalised
Fashion funded by the EPSRC/AHRC Design in the 21st century programme. The
context of a multi-project environment was analysed as part of the EU Framework 7
CONVERGE project CP-FP 228746-2.Post-prin
HOW CAN PD PROCESS MODELLING BE MADE MORE USEFUL? AN EXPLORATION OF FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE MODELLING UTILITY
In what sense is PD process modelling useful? and how can the utility of modelling be improved?
In this paper, we approach these questions through an analysis of PD process modelling âutilityâ â which in broad terms we consider to be the degree to which a model-based approach or modelling intervention benefits practice. We view the utility of modelling as a composite characteristic which depends both on the properties of models and on the way they are applied. The paper draws upon
established principles of cybernetic systems in an attempt to explain the role played by process modelling in operating and improving PD processes. We use this framework to identify eight key factors which influence the utility of modelling in the context of use. Further, we indicate how these
factors can be interpreted to identify opportunities to improve modelling utility.International Design Conference - DESIGN 201
Modelling iteration in engineering design
This paper examines design iteration and its modelling in the simulation of New Product Development (NPD) processes. A framework comprising six perspectives of iteration is proposed and it is argued that the importance of each perspective depends upon domain-specific factors. Key challenges of modelling iteration in process simulation frameworks such as the Design Structure Matrix are discussed, and we argue that no single model or framework can fully capture the iterative dynamics of an NPD process. To conclude, we propose that consideration of iteration and its representation could help identify the most appropriate modelling framework for a given process and modelling objective, thereby improving the fidelity of design process simulation models and increasing their utility
Recommended from our members
The P3 platform: an approach and software system for developing diagrammatic model-based methods in design research
Many issues in design and design management have been explored by building models which capture the relationships between different aspects of the problem at hand. These models require computer support to construct and analyse. However, appropriate modelling tools can be time-consuming to develop in a research environment. Reflecting upon five design research projects, this paper proposes that such projects can be facilitated by recognising the iterative and tightly-coupled nature of research and tool development, and by attempting to minimise the effort of solution prototyping within this process. Our approach is enabled by a software platform which can be rapidly configured to implement many conceivable modelling approaches. This configurability is complemented by an emerging library of modelling and analysis approaches tailored to explore design process systems. The platform-based approach enables any mix of modelling concepts to be easily created. We propose it could thus help researchers to explore a wide range of questions without being constrained to existing conventions for modelling â or for model integration
Recommended from our members
Designers and manufacturersâ perspectives on inclusive/universal design
Inclusive design in the U.K. and its U.S. counterpart, universal design, present opportunities and challenges to industry. In order to encourage manufacturers and design companies to adopt more inclusive design practices, the research has been carried out to gain an understanding of why and how companies adopt inclusive design practices, what are the barriers when implementing them and what are the key strategies for facilitating inclusive/universal design in an industrial context.
Based on interviews with a number of U.K. design consultancies and an investigation among manufacturers in the U.S., a comparison between U.K. consultant designers and U.S. consumer product manufacturersâ perspectives on inclusive/universal design was made. It was found that designers are reluctant to sacrifice the aesthetics of the brand to design for inclusion, but nevertheless would like to have practical tools to help them develop more inclusive solutions. For manufacturers, the key motivation for such practices is that of government regulation and legislation requiring the accessibility of products and services
Recommended from our members
An introduction to the Cambridge advanced modeller
Complex products and their development processes may be viewed as systems,
whose different aspects can be modelled as networks of interactions between
elements in different domains. Many approaches have been proposed to explore,
support or improve engineering processes by building such models. Developing
these approaches, and applying them to problems of realistic complexity, often
requires specialised computer software suitable for manipulating large data sets.
However, creating suitable tools can be difficultâbecause software development is
time-consuming and requires skills that many researchers and practitioners do not
possess.
We developed an approach which aims to address this problem by recognising the
iterative nature of modelling research and its often tight coupling with prototype
software development, and by reducing the effort of software prototyping and
revision within this process. The approach is enabled by, and embodied in, the
Cambridge Advanced Modeller (CAM)âa configurable software platform we have
developed, refined and applied over several years and through a number of
research projects
Recommended from our members
Industrial evaluation of FBS Linkage â a method to support engineering change management
Engineering changes are raised throughout the product lifecycle and their management can determine the commercial success of products. A well-established method to support engineering change management is the Change Prediction Method (CPM). The FBS Linkage method enhances CPM with a function-behaviour-structure (FBS) scheme and allows more detailed modelling and analysis of engineering changes. The goal of this paper is to provide an industrial evaluation of the FBS Linkage method. For that purpose, we provide first an overview of the FBS Linkage method, before applying it to a diesel engine design and evaluating it by a group of ten experienced engineers from the diesel engine manufacturer. Overall, the engineers favoured the FBS Linkage method and ranked it on average 3.7 out of 5.0 against a set of 25 different requirements for ECM methods. The evaluation underlines the benefits of the method in terms of a systematic way for capturing, explaining and transferring knowledge about the product and effects of engineering changes on it. Identified improvement areas include more guidelines on the scope of the method, reduction of the effort required to build FBS Linkage models, and an integration of the method into other applied systems.This research was funded by a UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Doctoral Prize, awarded to the first author.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09544828.2015.101578
- âŠ