Impact of product design decisions within product development on the supplier selection process at the automotive industry

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian G. H. Behncke ◽  
Katrin Abele ◽  
Udo Lindemann
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Automotive Industry ◽  
Supplier Selection ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Design Decisions

Understanding the Needs of International Customers: Applying the Contextual Inquiry Method in Asia

2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (37) ◽  
pp. 662-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Compton Rishel ◽  
Rhonda Grindstaff ◽  
Orhan Beckman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Product Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Team Members ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Companies ◽  
Inquiry Method ◽  
Office Equipment

As product markets become more global, companies need to understand their customers around the world. Asia is a growing market, but little information exists that describes how people use their office equipment. We conducted a study to look at how our Asian customers work with paper documents so we would have information to help us make product design decisions. We used the Contextual Inquiry method to collect data during visits with customers in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea. In preparation for our trip, we learned as much as possible about each culture. Following each visit, we modeled the data, and after returning to the United States, we consolidated all the models by country. We collected feedback from team members who represented a number of product development disciplines, and we conducted brainstorming sessions to determine how we might improve our products to meet the needs of our customers. Throughout this paper we describe lessons we learned for conducting contextual inquiry visits in Asia and make some recommendations on how to improve the process. In conclusion, we found the Contextual Inquiry method a useful tool for collecting information about our Asian customers and helping us identify ways to improve our products.

Automotive Product Design and Development: The Current State and Looking Into the Future

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhiren Verma
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Automotive Industry ◽  
Cost Containment ◽  
Design And Development ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Ideal

This paper shall present the details of recently conducted studies that examine the criteria for success and the future of product development in the automotive industry. A majority of the forecasts predict increasing globalization, cost containment, dependence on suppliers and increase in electronics content. Correspondingly, OEM’s and suppliers are adopting and implementing CAD and PLM strategies that shall be explored together with the ideal PLM strategy for OEM’s and suppliers.

An Approach to Assess Value of Component Commonality by Integrating Product Design and Supply Chain Decisions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shun Takai ◽  
Sankar Sengupta
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
Supplier Selection ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Inventory Policy ◽  
Component Commonality ◽  
Delayed Differentiation ◽  
Product Models ◽  
Electric Bicycles

Delayed differentiation enables firms to cost effectively offer a large variation of the same product by using common components until the products need to be differentiated for regional requirements. Using the same components in different product models (component commonality) is the key to enabling delayed differentiation. The objective of this paper is to propose an approach to evaluate the value of component commonality by integrating product design decisions and supply chain decisions. We propose an approach to assess the value of component commonality by simultaneously optimizing product design (i.e., component commonality) and supply chain decisions including supplier selection (replenishment lead time) and inventory policy. The proposed approach is illustrated in motor commonality decisions for electric bicycles. The optimum component commonality and supply chain decisions are investigated under various conditions including different demand variabilities, component costs, inventory tracking costs, and inventory ordering costs.

Truck Redesign Case: Simulating the Target Costing Process in a Product Design Environment

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Everaert ◽  
Dan W. Swenson
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Cost Reduction ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Target Costing ◽  
Design Environment ◽  
Goal Setting Theory ◽  
Setting Theory

ABSTRACT This active learning exercise simulates the target costing process and demonstrates how a management theory (goal setting theory) is relevant to a business improvement initiative (target costing). As part of the target costing simulation, student participants work in teams to address a business issue (product development) that moves across functional boundaries. The simulation begins with students learning how to assemble a model truck and calculate its product cost using activity-based costing. Students are then divided into teams and instructed to reduce the truck's cost through a redesign exercise, subject to certain customer requirements and quality constraints. Typically, the teams achieve cost reduction by eliminating unnecessary parts, by using less expensive parts, and by using less part variety. This exercise provides a unique opportunity for students to actively participate in a redesign exercise. It results in student teams creating a wide variety of truck designs with vastly different product costs. The case ends by having a discussion about target costing, goal setting theory, and the implications of the target costing simulation. This simulation contains a number of specific learning objectives. First, students learn how the greatest opportunity for cost reduction occurs during the product design stage of the product development cycle. Second, students see firsthand how design-change decisions affect a product's costs, and the role of the cost information in guiding those decisions. Third, students experience the cross-functional interaction that occurs between sales and marketing, design engineering, and accounting during product development. Finally, this exercise helps students understand the concept of target costing. The simulation is appropriate for undergraduate or graduate management accounting classes. Data Availability:  For more information about this case, contact the first author at [email protected].

scholarly journals Making design decisions under uncertainties: probabilistic reasoning and robust product design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Christoph Gembarski ◽  
Stefan Plappert ◽  
Roland Lachmayer
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Probabilistic Reasoning ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Product Development Process ◽  
Bayesian Decision ◽  
Rotary Valve ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Decision Network

AbstractMaking design decisions is characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, especially in the early phase of the product development process, when little information is known, while the decisions made have an impact on the entire product life cycle. Therefore, the goal of complexity management is to reduce uncertainty in order to minimize or avoid the need for design changes in a late phase of product development or in the use phase. With our approach we model the uncertainties with probabilistic reasoning in a Bayesian decision network explicitly, as the uncertainties are directly attached to parts of the design artifact′s model. By modeling the incomplete information expressed by unobserved variables in the Bayesian network in terms of probabilities, as well as the variation of product properties or parameters, a conclusion about the robustness of the product can be made. The application example of a rotary valve from engineering design shows that the decision network can support the engineer in decision-making under uncertainty. Furthermore, a contribution to knowledge formalization in the development project is made.

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