scholarly journals A Survey of Design Reviews: Understanding Differences by Designer-Roles and Phase of Development

Author(s):  
James Chen ◽  
Gustavo Zucco ◽  
Alison Olechowski

AbstractIn this paper, we present the results of a survey of new product development practitioners regarding their design review experiences. We surveyed 128 product development professionals on their experience and preferences in design reviews. We found that the goals and type (location / synchronicity) of design reviews change over the course of a product development project. We found that the majority of design review meetings continue to be held as co-located, live, in-person meetings. For reviewing 3D models, we found that a native CAD package (rather than a viewer, or fixed views, or a physical prototype) is the most commonly used tool. We found a difference between Designers (more likely to be product engineers) and Non-Designers and their access to CAD software, as well as their preference for which tool to use at the design review for 3D model evaluation. We hope that our findings spark future work related to better understanding design reviews and design reviewers in context. Design reviews are an important part of industrial product development processes, so we believe future studies have a large potential to improve these design activities

Author(s):  
M S Cross ◽  
S Sivaloganathan

New product development is a complex process that requires industry-specific knowledge to produce commercially viable solutions, and it is this specialist knowledge that enables organizations to develop competitive advantage in their marketplaces. This research, conducted over 3 years at a UK capital equipment manufacturer, investigated the role of specialist knowledge in the design and development of products. The study concluded that, although different knowledge components are required for different projects, it is possible to adopt a generic approach to specialist knowledge identification, classification, and usage in new product developments. The current paper presents five methods that were used to identify specialist knowledge from engineering projects. The knowledge was then classified into ten categories that describe the specialist knowledge types used during commercial design projects. A model is presented illustrating when each specialist knowledge category is required in a typical development project. Organizations can use this approach to capture and structure the specialist knowledge components for a given product type, thus making available the knowledge to the wider organization and improving the organization's competitive advantage. The study was conducted as part of a project ‘Developing company-specific design models’, described in an earlier work.


Author(s):  
Kurt Beiter ◽  
Kosuke Ishii ◽  
Harshavardhan Karandikar

Design reviews are one of the most established product-development project management techniques to identify and eliminate errors in product design before they physically manifest themselves either in a prototype or in the final product. Design reviews are typically embedded within an overall product-development project management process consisting of multiple stages separated by decision gates. The specific goal, structure and content of a design review depend upon the stage and time at which it is performed. In the process of working with a number of large companies on their technology and product development processes we observed that the actual practice of design reviews often falls well short of the companies’ own stated objectives. We examine the reasons for this in our paper, the chief among them being the often misleading application and lack of clarity and brevity in the review process. These problems can be clearly highlighted and rectified by the application of the CVCA and FMEA tools to the design review process itself. Thus, design reviews can be made more efficient and effective and made to count!


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiu-Chi Wei ◽  
Agus Andria ◽  
Houn-Wen Xiao ◽  
Chiou-Shuei Wei ◽  
Ting-Chang Lai

Author(s):  
Bak Aun Teoh ◽  
Wei Hong Ling ◽  
Amlus Ibrahim

The growth in new knowledge and technology has substantially increased the complexity of the projects that is strongly influencing the time, cost, and quality of the project management. Due to the volatility of the current market, the effectiveness of knowledge management (KM) could reduce the project uncertainties, project life cycle costs, and risks of new product development (NPD). Since NPD is regarded as the key to innovation due to its strong connection between the knowledge and core competence, the ways how the knowledge will be captured, created, and shared among the project teams is important to remain competitive in today's business and market competition. Hence, the modes of how they are created and shared between the project team members as well as the impact of KM towards NPD will be discussed in this paper. KM are normally created and transferred through the conversion between explicit and tacit knowledge, which can be further applied into the project management. Furthermore, the existing knowledge of the organisation can be evaluated by the actions of decision makers, hence, it is undoubted that a better knowledge can lead to measurable efficiencies in production and product development. The key success factors of KM that have been implemented will be discussed in this paper as well, which help to increase the probability of project success. Keywords: New Product Development; Project Management; Knowledge Management; Globalisation


Author(s):  
Maria Manuel Mendes ◽  
Jorge F.S. Gomes ◽  
Bernardo Batiz-Lazo

This chapter uses key concepts in the knowledge management literature to analyse the procedures and practices used by a team during a new product development project. More precisely, the knowledge process or knowledge cycle is used as a means to examine issues relating to knowledge identification, creation, storage, dissemination, and application in new product development. Results from the case study also suggest that the knowledge process may be valuable in assessing the structural elements of knowledge management, but fails to provide a more comprehensive explanation of the dynamics and complexities involved. This suggests that more elaborate models are needed to explain how knowledge is created, shared and used in knowledge-intensive processes.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document