A reference model to support introducing product lifecycle management

A reference model to support introducing product lifecycle management G.D. Cunha, C.O. Buss, A.M.F. Danilevicz, M.E. Echeveste, P.S. Kuyven Industrial Engineering Dept., Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

ABSTRACT: This work presents an overview of Model-R - a business process support system conceived to support introducing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) at the companies. This model is mainly based on the Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) approach. It will be briefly described in terms of its activities, information flow, timeliness, and intervention mechanism. The model is intended to be flexible enough to be applied at companies from different sizes and belonging to diverse branches. The research team is currently running application tests of this model at a few companies with some promising results so far. 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Product Development Fundamentals Competition within the Globalization has led the industries to increase the search for continuous innovation and improvement regarding products and manufacturing processes. This has made the companies realize that product-related activities should start to be considered on a systematic basis. But structuring these activities as a continuous process is not straightforward. Throughout the time the task of generating new products has been somewhat considered an isolated event happening occasionally at the companies with the frequency varying according to the company and market conditions. Nevertheless the battle to sustain or raise the companies market share has led most of them to realize there is a consistent need to offer products of innovative characteristics continuously. On the other hand the existence of multiple viewpoints concerning the product has become a new reality after the analysis on the design-manufacture integration took place. Once considered a typical (and solely) engineering-based activity lately the product development has been supported by analysts from diverse areas such as Marketing, Economy, Rights, and Management sciences. These facts have recently led many corporations on a worldwide basis to consider the product development as a potential continuous process, which must be actively managed. It has raised the product

development process (PDP) concept. Later on this concept was extended to cover aspects related to the after-sales (as technical maintenance, minor design changes, product discard and project discontinuing) leading to the elaboration of the product lifecycle management (PLM) concept. This has also being recently extended to comprise the decision-making process related to the management of the portfolio of products and to some business main strategies. The product lifecycle management concept itself may be based on some other achievements from the last decades as the Concurrent Engineering (CE) and the Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) methodologies. The first has offered a way to bridge the gap between the product design and its manufacture thus making feasible time-tomarket reduction. It has also introduced the principles of cross-functional collaborative team working at the engineering environment. Furthermore professionals from other areas were brought to the development team, devising the IPPD concept. 1.2 A reference model for the PLM During a 4-years period the research group led by the main author of this article has made an extensive survey on over than 100 Brazilian companies concerning their product development activities. A brief overview on this situation is summarized next in terms of the main recurring problems found at the companies concerning formalization and structuring of their product & process development procedures:

§ Lack of strategic definitions as an input to the management of the portfolio of products; § Development of products lying out of the scope/focus of the business; § Absence from stakeholders/managers at the product & process development procedure definitions - technicians participation only; § Product & process development not defined as a logical sequence of stages or activities, which may be documented, disseminated or even understood by company members; § Lack of activities definition or detailing within the product & process development; § Lack or inadequacy of mechanisms for the responsibilities definition within the product & process development procedure; § Lack of verification/evaluation points regarding product & process development stages; § Lack of product development specific methodology - empirical procedure; § Absence of generic terminology related to the product & process development management to be used by the personnel; § Lack of market evaluation mechanisms (both in terms of clients requirements or sales forecast analysis); § Product development based on external expertise; § Lack of integration with other departments and areas from the company; § Lack of acknowledgement referring crossfunctional team management; § Lack of comprehension on the role and responsibilities of the diverse functions; § Inadequacy of human resources selection/use in order to fulfill the diverse functions requirements; § Lack of capabilities to operate on incomplete information - as possibly required for the concurrency of tasks and activities; § Lack of acknowledgement referring the applicability of techniques along the product & process development, on a stage by stage basis; § Lack of acknowledgement referring the application of newly developed engineering technologies.

two different parts named Model-S and Model-I (as seen in Figure 1). One of the basic motivations for the research group to work upon the model elaboration was the need to give some orientation to the companies professionals on the main issues regarding the establishment of innovative product generation as a continuous process. Model-R may be considered a kind of business process support (BPS) system since it supports introducing a new way of organizing work. The introduction of the PLM paradigm at a company requires such a support tool because all the components related to its product & process development procedure is affected as the (re-) structuring process takes place.

Notice Patterson (1993) has set an interesting analysis and classification regarding the maturity level of a company regarding the kind of problems mentioned above. The perception on this situation has led the research group to the elaboration of a reference model to help the companies introduce, enhance or revise their product & process development procedures. This model is named Model-R and it is composed of

Next it will be given an overview of the Model-S in terms of a framework of stages, timeline description, and basic information flow. From the origin, ModelS was intended to be flexible to comply with the different types of companies and products to be developed. Thus it was conceived as a complete set of stages to which the companies may refer to establish their own PLM-based procedure. But it is not compulsory the companies shall adopt the complete set

Model - S

PLM Structure

Model - R Model - I

Intervention Mechanism

Figure 1. Model-R: basic structure. Model-S gives the basic framework for the company to structure its product & process development activities according to the fundamentals previously discussed. In fact it is a development from a research previously discussed by Buss & Cunha (2002). Model-I may be applied as a reference for the intervention at the company, which is supposed to manage its products lifecycles based on a procedure devised from the framework provided by Model-S. Model-R is currently under test at diverse companies. Some documented case studies of its implementation are given at Teixeira (2002), Pinotti (2003) and Echeveste (2003). The ongoing research includes some other cases currently – most of them related to medium-sized enterprises.

2 A BRIEF DESCRIPTION ON MODEL-S

2.1 The Model-S stages

of stages to structure their own procedures. The choice depends very much on their degree of internal organization and technological development. The Model-S considers a generic set of stages to structure the PLM, namely: • Business Planning – establishment of alignment between the development of (new) products (or family of products) and the business focus; • Project Planning – establishment of the method/techniques of control and the allocation of resources to develop the products; • Product Planning – market evaluation in terms of the clients perspectives and the potential sales forecasting; • Product Technology Research & Development – development of specific base technologies, and evaluation of available ones to support product design requirements; • Production Technology R&D – development of specific base technologies, and evaluation of available ones to support product manufacturing requirements; • Design – establishment of product features according to every desired functionality; it comprises both conventional engineering design and the accomplishment of other functions as aesthetic/ergonomic/symbolic ones; • Production Logistics Planning – establishment of production logistics in terms of materials handling methods, shop-floor lay-out design and also the adoption of specific production methodologies; • Manufacturing Process Planning – establishment of manufacturing operations procedure on a step by step basis; • Marketing Planning – establishment of marketing/vendors actions from the product launching to the accomplishment of target sales rates; • Marketing & Sales Monitoring – establishment of strategies, tactics and actions to support/maintain/raise the sales rates and the vendors operation; • Engineering Monitoring – establishment of monitoring actions to keep track of the product technical performance and maintenance requirements. Notice the model considers all stages referring to the product development phase - except by the two first and the two last ones. The information flow at the model may be represented at two levels: inter-stages information flow (scheme represented at Figure 2) and intra-stage information flow (Figure 3 for the developing stages, and figure 4 for the monitoring stages).

The model supposes each piece of information generated at any stage must be transferred to the information repository where it shall remain at disposal by means of a blackboard data structure. This is presumably best supported by the product data management (PDM)/workflow technologies. The interconnection with other software technologies or with product development techniques nonconventionally available as software packages is an issue yet to be addressed. The model is intended to cope with the different levels of innovation the companies intend to establish referring the accomplishment of each stage of technology, products and manufacturing processes development. This is enabled by means of adopting a flexible structural scheme for each stage. This means the execution of each stage may follow three different levels of innovativeness. For a breakthrough approach the strategic activities may be activated first. For a moderate innovation level the tactic activities are fired first. And for a minor Business Planning Project Planning Product Planning Product Technology R&D Production Technology R&D Design Production Logistics Planning Manufacturing Process Planning

Marketing Planning Marketing & Sales Monitoring

Engineering Monitoring

Tasks & Messages Controller

Overall Information REPOSITORY

Figure 2. Inter-stages information flow.

innovation level only the operational activities are activated. Once again the company shall define the

level of innovativeness to be endorsed according to its needs and capabilities. Notice the basic sequence of activities was inspired both by the strategic planning fundamentals and the approach suggested by Pahl & Beitz (1996) for the structuring of engineering design activities. It is also noticeable the tasks corresponding to each activity described at Figures 3 and 4 will be fired and controlled according to the company capaVariant Approach

Breakthrough ?

Entrypoint

N Generative Approach

Y

Market & State-of-the art Surveys

Concept Settlement

points for a more rigid kind of control. Some techniques, which can possibly support this evaluation, are referred in the model description table next. The two last stages correspond to the product release to market, thus leading to the sales management phase within the PLM. The base technology stages refers either to the product design or to its production - which in turn comprise both manufacturing and logistics, factory, production method. A discussion on the decision-making process based on the IPPD approach supported by Model-R shall be provided in another work. Notice a relevant previous analysis on this issue was discussed by Krishnan & Ulrich (2001).

Strategic Activities Level

Monitoring Activities Level

Market & State-of-the art Surveys

Concept Evaluation

Process Data Acquisition Information Evaluation

Details only ?

Y

Tactic Level

Stage Plans Retrieving

N Surveys on Methods & Techniques

Surveys on Methods & Techniques

Concept Embodiment

Concept Detailing

Elaboration Activities

Situation Evaluation

Model Evaluation

Operational Level

Control Level

Approval ?

Y

N

Action Level

Adjustment Experiences Retrieving

Feasibility Evaluation

Preparation Activities

Information Processing

Analytical Level

Adjustment Actions

Evaluation Activities

Information transfer & deployment Activities Outputs

Preparation Activities

Information transfer-only

Elaboration Activities

Adjustments Evaluation

Evaluation Activities

Information transfer & deployment Activities Outputs Information transfer-only

Figure 3. Development stages information flow.

bilities and resources availability - but this should be executed based on the time concurrency principle. It is also possible to consider each evaluation activity either a stage gate or a more simple evaluation point according to the company requirements. Nevertheless it is always advisable to establish some

Figure 4. Monitoring stages information flow.

Product Elaboration Phase

Product Release Phase

Business Planning Project Planning Product Planning Base Technology Development

Product Development Stages

Product Technology R&D Production Technology R&D Design Production Logistics Planning Manufacturing Process Planning Marketing Planning Marketing & Sales Monitoring

Sales Management Phase

Engineering Monitoring

Figure 5. Product lifecycle stages within Model-S.

T

Table 1. Model-S: summary of stages. Stage

Business Planning

Input Concept Survey Corporation Strate- Strategic gic Planning’ Evaluation support techniques

Project Planning

Allocation resources constraints

Product Planning

Market constraints and opportunities evaluation

Design

Consumer, technological, economic analysis

Production Logistics Planning

Product, technological, economic analysis

Manufacturing Process Planning

Product, technological, economic analysis

Strategic Level Concept Settlement Product-based Business; Balanced-Score Card; Hoshin kanri (policy deployment)

Survey on Risks and Opportunities Management methods Analysis on consumer behavior and product ideas generation

Risks and Opportunities Assessment; Stakeholders Management Brainstorming; Delphi method; Synetics; Focus Group; Market research (client needs); Projective techniques Design conQFD (house of cept solutions quality); TRIZ; (including PR Morphological databases) matrix; Modular design JIT; TQM; Production concept solu- TPM; Virtual tions (includ- Enterprising ing PR databases)

Manufacturing concept solutions (including PR databases) Marketing Planning Consumer, product, Search of economic analysis Marketing Strategies

Concept Evaluation Evaluation on internal, financial, clients and apprentice perspectives.

Embodt. Survey Strategic Planning’ support techniques

Evaluation Survey on on Risks and project Opportunities planning techniques

Tactic Level Concept Embodiment Product-based Business; Balanced-Score Card; Hoshin kanri Earned Value; PERT - Critical Path Method

Model Evaluation Evaluation on targets regarding the financial, clients and apprentice dimensions. Analysis on timing accomplishment

Detailing Survey Strategic Planning’ support techniques

Survey on project planning tools

Operational Level Concept Detailing Product-based Business; Balanced-Score Card; Hoshin kanri

Output

Feasibility Evaluation Evaluation on figures regarding the financial, clients and apprentice dimensions. Conflict manResources agement; Project plan evaluaControl software tion packages

Portfolio of Products definition

Allocation of resources and elaboration of chronograms

Analysis on product usability and benefits

Market Product positionevaluation ing; Sales foreTechniques casting (Regression techniques; Structural Equations)

Conjoint Analysis; qualitative techniques for market research

Product evaluation techniques

Market research (product attributes)

Product use testing

Sales forecast and Consumer requirements analysis

Evaluation on working principles; Virtual prototyping Product concept evaluation

Engineering embodiment techniques

Value Analysis;

DesignManufacture approaching techniques

CAD; DfM; DfA; DfD

FMEA

Product design

Factory production simulation

MHS design; factory & shopfloor design; production method definition

Manufacturing Manufacture processes analy- processes sis economic evaluation

Survey on process planning techniques

Manufacturing process plan

Establishment of Marketing Mix concept

Search of Marketing policies

Evaluation on detailed manufacturing Process plan Analysis on Marketing actions

Analysis on Marketing strategies

Survey on Production models

CAD; Group Technology; Taguchi method; embodiment fundamentals Factory lay-out design; MHS specification; Inventory control method specification

Survey on Shop-floor layproduction out design; Maplanning tools chinery specification; MHS detailing; Inventory control detailing Evaluation Survey on Manufacturing CAPP; route sheets and tool- on rough-cut process plan- processes drawing; auxiliary ing specification manufactur- ning tools route sheets; techniques ing Process plan tooling design Establishment of Analysis on Search of Marketing Mix Marketing Mix Marketing Marketing in- detailing (product admini- policies novative acstration, price tions policy, promotion, distribution logistics) Factory production simulation

Marketing plan

The figure 5 shows the timeliness for the diverse stages. It is remarkable that development stages shall not be compulsory terminated after product is released to the market as possibly product changes may require any stage to be occasionally reactivated. The Model-S description of stages is summarized at Table 1 where some information concerning most stages is provided in terms of expected input, output information; tasks and analysis to be performed; and some product- and context-dependent techniques, which may possibly be generically applied. The base technology development stages are not included in Table 1 as regular and inherent R&D methods and techniques are supposed to be applied within the related tasks. These stages may possibly just evaluate existing technologies in order to apply them to the product concept or to the productionmanufacturing concepts. In this sense it might always be reasonable to remind the possibility of consulting available property rights (PR) databases as a source of solutions. Normally the main input information relates to the technological and economic constraints, and the expected output leads to the results on tested and approved technologies. The monitoring stages are not included in Table 1 as well. The input to the activities is the feedback information from the product released to the market concerning both sales or engineering performances. Lifecycle-analysis techniques either from marketing or engineering may apply to the information processing. The output from these activities is mainly the evaluation on the input information and possible corrections like the engineering change orders or marketing actions to support the vendors. There are non-specifically stages-related techniques underlying the LPM-based procedure. For instance accounting techniques like Activity-Based Costing (ABC) are applied along all stages execution. This technique matches very properly the model structure. Some fundamentals on the use of some methods and techniques mainly required for the implementation of Model-S are analyzed at Crawford & DiBenedetto (2000), Kotler (1997), Patterson & Fenoglio (1999), Kuyven & Cunha (2001). 3 MODEL-I: INTERVENTION MECHANISM Model-I shall be used as a reference to introduce a Model-S-based procedure at the company. Its implementation occurs progressively during five different stages as summarized at Table 2. Notice the proposal stage requires participation of key actors (e.g. stakeholders, managers). The training stage is mainly based on a coaching approach while the

monitoring stage is more likely to be performed as a mentoring action.

4 INITIAL APPLICATION RESULTS The first results on the application of the Model-R seems to be promising in terms of achievements experienced by the companies while introducing PLM based on the Model-R. Some of the problems addressed at item 1.2 proved to be overcome by its implementation. The following successful actions may be outlined: • • • • • •

Introduction of effective analysis on market and clients requirements; Establishment of cross-functional working teams; Relevant changes on information transmission mechanisms – including more adequate use of existing channels; Introduction of process evaluation tools and metrics into the procedure; Introduction of the time concurrency principle and the required ability to work upon incomplete and fragmented information; Successful introduction of norms, rules, instructions and overall framework at the product & process development environment.

5 CONCLUSIONS This work has briefly introduced a reference model conceived to enable the introduction of PLM at the companies. Its main objective is to support the companies establishing the generation of new products as a continuous process. This is necessary as the companies may introduce innovation in their products on an ordinary basis nowadays. The results achieved so far are promising as considerable advances were detected at the companies’ organization structure with respect to the performance of product lifecycle management activities. Further discussion on the integration of techniques may be provided as well as an analysis on the crossfunctional work and the responsibilities attribution scheme within the model. Also additional work will be required to fully validate Model-R. REFERENCES Buss, C. O., Cunha, G.D., Luce, F.B. 2001. Coordenação de Equipes Multidisciplinares no Desenvolvimento Integrado de Produtos. In Proceedings of XXI Encontro Nacional de Engenharia de Produção. Salvador, Brazil.

Buss, C. O. & Cunha, G.D. 2002. Modelo Referencial para o Desenvolvimento de Novos Produtos. In Proceedings of Simpósio de Gestão da Inovação Tecnológica. Salvador. Brazil. Crawford, C.M. & DiBenedetto, C.A. 2000. New Products Management. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Echeveste, M.E. 2003. Projeto de Estruturação do Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos da Xalingo S/A. Project report. Industrial Engineering Dept. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Kotler, P. 1997. Marketing Management - Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control. 9th.ed. London: PrenticeHall. Krishnan, V. & Ulrich, K. T. 2001. Product Development Decisions: a Review of the Literature. Management Science, vol.47, n.1. pp. 1-21. Kuyven, P.S. & Cunha, G.D. 2001. Proposta de uma Abordagem para a Previsão de Demanda por Produtos. In Proceed-

ings of 3º Congresso Brasileiro de Gestão do Desenvolvimento de Produtos. Florianópolis. Brazil. Pahl, G. & Beitz, W. 1996. Engineering Design – A Systematic Approach. London: Springer-Verlag. Patterson, M.L. 1993. Accelerating Innovation – Improving the Process of Product Development. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Patterson, M.L. & Fenoglio, J.A. 1999. Leading Product Innovation – Accelerating growth in a Product-Based Business. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pinotti, S.E. 2003. Proposta de Implantação da Engenharia Simultânea no Desenvolvimento de Produtos no Setor de Modelagem de uma Empresa de Calçados. Master Thesis. Industrial Engineering Dept. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Teixeira, G.S. 2002. Apresentação de uma Abordagem para o Desenvolvimento de Produto e suas Ferramentas de Apoio Aplicadas a uma Empresa do Setor Eletro-Eletrônico. Master Thesis. Industrial Engineering Dept. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

Table 2. Model-I: summary of stages. Stage Assessment

Objective Expected results Diagnosis on the company situation re- Items to be evaluated: § Business-orientation regarding the portfolio garding its current product & process of products; development procedure, business focus § Market requirements adequacy; and external market conditions. § Execution mode; § Control mode; § Cross-functional team working orientation. Proposal Propose changes according to Model-S, Elaboration of a revised/enhanced/new PLM-based IPPD principles and the company re- procedure for the company. quirements/capabilities/overall status. It may lead to an updated/enhanced or even totally new structure. Formalization Establishing the PLM-based procedure Documentation regarding: in terms of working rules, instructions, § Overall procedure - rules, instructions, terminology, action framework, and resources, stages framework (including gensponsibilities. eral tasks); § Formal definition of internal responsibilities; § Definition of control parameters; § Definition of stages evaluation rules and specific procedures. Training Provide basic training on PLM, IPPD Training on basic principles regarding: Productprinciples to all the company personnel; Based Business, Sales Forecasting, Costumer beprovide specific training for personnel havior and Marketing, Cross-functional team having a leading role on the changes to working, Project Management, Property Rights, be introduced. Concurrent Engineering, IPPD, PLM. Monitoring Provide guidance to the LPM-based Adjustments to PLM procedure; additional training procedure implementation. on basic or specific concepts.