Product development is multidisciplinary with high uncertainties necessitating coordinated decision-making between design and production. This paper presents a method to work with production requirements to support production preparation during product development aligned with different product and production maturities. The work was conducted in collaboration with two global manufacturing firms. The method supports identification, definition, and structuring of production requirements and the collaboration between design and production engineers for requirement prioritization and follow-up. 

Management innovations are an important source of competitive advantage, but we lack knowledge on the implementation process, not least in small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Recognising that psychological ownership (PO) represents a crucial aspect of the implementation process, we address micro-foundational characteristics of the implementation process. PO and critical incident theory (CIT) provide a lens enabling this micro analysis. The empirical setting is the implementation of Hoshin Kanri, a strategic management system in eight small companies. From the analysis of the eight cases, we operationalise four dimensions that characterise how PO evolves in the implementation process: types of PO incidents, frequency of PO incidents, incidents indicating an increase or decrease in PO, and incidents addressing individual or collective PO. Looking at how PO is developed both among CEOs and managers in SMEs, we use the four dimensions to characterise the evolvement of PO within the focal organisations. In doing so, our article elaborates on PO as a driver and, if insufficiently developed, an impediment to effectively implementing management innovations.

To achieve relevant research results, collaborative research is deemed essential in several engineering and management disciplines. When the addressed research questions are associated with larger societal challenges the need for collaboration between various actors and disciplines becomes even more urgent. In this paper, the development of a transdisciplinary research initiative aiming at supporting long-term ability for the manufacturing industry to succeed with the green transition, is described. The transdisciplinary research programme ´GRACE - Green acceleration through integrated and platform-enabled product realisation´ is an eight-year project (4+4 years), involving eleven manufacturing industries and four industrial networks. The research programme GRACE is the result of a close collaboration between industrial partners and academic researcher for almost one year. We have through workshops and various meetings jointly formulated a research agenda, based on eight research issues: (1) requirement specification and management, (2) platform principles and lifecycle strategies on different system levels, (3,4) product design and production solutions supporting circular strategies, (5,6) product and production information management, (7) shared understanding and visions, and (8) knowledge integration, operationalisation and implementation. Based on these research issues, and the priorities among the industrial partners, three initial research projects have been developed. The development of the research programme applied a co-production process, including a distinct pre-project phase. The creation of the transdisciplinary programme GRACE required trust among the involved partners, an open atmosphere, structure, joint understanding among the participants, time to read and think, and some stubbornness.

There are several recent developments in technology and methods for the design, manufacture and operation of tooling for sheet metal forming. Technologies such as electric presses with accurately controlled motions and design tools such as forming simulations and AI technologies for knowledge capture and reuse are actively progressing. Manufacturing processes such as additive manufacturing and materials are advancing. There are advancements in the operation of the tooling via for example sensor technology. In this paper, a structured literature search is presented to understand the state of the art in sheet metal forming tooling. In addition, the paper presents an interview study with staff and management from five different industrial companies that are active in tooling design, manufacture, and operation. The objective is finding the current challenges for the companies and to what extent new technologies and methods are considered or being implemented to meet the current challenges. The interviews show that there are challenges concerning the lead time for tooling design and manufacture as well as the availability of the tooling in production. Although the companies have made recent investments, they are lacking the knowledge to fully exploit the potential of the new technologies. The paper strongly advocates for the utilization of technology to address the challenges within the tooling industry, aiming for enhanced efficiency and improved tooling design processes.

In this paper, a work procedure developed to support the collaboration and progress in the research project IDEAL - Integrated product and production platforms supporting agile and demand-driven industrial product realisation - is presented and its functionality discussed. The research project involved in total 13 researchers, five manufacturing companies and one software supplier. The research project was organised in four sub-projects, covering various aspects of a joint research question. The project started in April 2020 and ended in January 2024. The work procedure, called the ´IDEAL work procedure´, was developed based on the overall principles from interactive research combined with the framework for design research methodology (DRM). The developed work procedure provided a structure for the project, connecting the four subprojects, and thereby supported fulfilment of the joint research question. During the research project, the functionality of the ´IDEAL work procedure´ has been assessed in different ways, both in terms of how it was perceived and to what extent the planned results have been achieved. During the project we have carried out workshops to follow-up on the progress and the work procedure. In addition, follow-up interviews have been conducted with participants from involved companies. The results from the different assessment activities are synthesised and presented in this paper. To expand the applicability of the ´IDEAL work procedure´, the potential of the procedure to support transdisciplinary research is elaborated on in this paper.

Design of sheet metal forming tooling is currently based on that experienced tooling designers with good knowledge of how stamping tools previously have been designed and operated in production, apply their knowledge when making a new design. For retrieving former designs, they often need to rely on their good memory. In this paper, an automatic method for retrieving relevant former cases is presented. A major challenge is defining the similarity between the current and the former cases i.e., finding the relevant parameters to include in the CBR (Case-based reasoning) search. This is here addressed by using CAD model parameters both from former components and the tooling for their production. By interviewing tooling designers in industry, a set of relevant parameters has been identified. To arrive at the correct weight of each parameter, a genetic algorithm has been used to optimize the search results. This resulted in a quick and automated way of retrieving the most relevant former cases and presenting them to the designer. The method has been tested on actual cases with promising results. This has the potential of making sheet metal part and tooling design less reliant on memory and experience.

The production preparation process (3P) enables collaboration between design and production engineers during product development but its efficiency is limited by the abundance of documentation of manufacturing constraints and capabilities. Empirical studies showed that use of production requirements can increase the efficiency of 3P, however, the support for production engineers to capture and share production requirements is scarce. A method to support production engineers in identifying, defining, structuring and sharing production requirements and collaborating with design engineers is presented. The method has three major parts - focus areas and requirement categories, a worksheet for production requirements capturing and prioritization, and a workflow for using the worksheet. The method was developed in collaboration with practitioners and contributes to the existing knowledge by providing production engineers with a structured way of working with production requirements. Evaluation of the method in the case company showed its usability when developing product variants and that additional work is needed to support the development of new product families and assembly lines.

Industrialized housebuilding (IHB) is a sector within the construction trade where product platforms have been introduced from the mechanical industry to manage the product architecture and allow mass customization. The aim of this study is to analyze product development projects connected to the product platform and the production. For IHB, the backbone is a technical platform where components are designed and combined. Clients are satisfied, avoiding compromising the technical platform and the product architecture of the different variants. However, the adaptation to production is decisive and production has increased automation, with less flexibility in relation to the products. Still, product development has focused on the engineering view and the development of building components which fit in the predefined or well-established production facility while at the same time satisfy customer demands, i.e., maintaining the balance between distinctiveness and commonality. The study has observed one IHB company and two of their development projects focusing on changes in the product architecture for components across several of their product families. The development has been carried out in a bottom-up fashion. The results indicate difficulties in finding solutions, which fit production. An integrated design of production obstructs product development; the selection of project participants may affect the project results, both in terms of prior experience but also the problem-solving ability; the lack of project documentation is costly since experience is not captured, which could be recycled in future developments.

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to support the customization ability for industrial house building companies striving to offer individualized products but with a strategy which includes a production facility. This is accomplished by analyzing the as-is state in terms of existing engineering assets and by proposing a to-be state using the design platform and product lifecycle management (PLM) support.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on design research methodology and collected data are in-depth interviews, document reviews and workshops and method development. The theoretical baseline is product platforms and the design platform.

Findings

The analysis showed that despite use of a platform, inherent assets are disorganized. Still, the identified object-based engineering assets were possible to include in a conceptual proposal for better management, both in the process and product view, using an asset relationship matrix and a PLM system.

Practical implications

The results should be applicable for industrial house building and off-site construction companies and offers an approach to identify and manage their assets and platforms which are crucial to stay competitive.

Originality/value

Previous research on design platforms has focused on engineer-to-order companies within the mechanical industry. The contribution of this paper lies in the application and support of the design platform for industrial house building and the introduction of PLM system support.

A vast body of research has described product platforms as strategic enablers for increased business competitiveness, but there is a lack of empirical research describing what types of assets that are used in industry as elements in a platform. Previous research has suggested a platform as a “collection of assets shared by a group of products” and also classified these assets into four transdisciplinary categories: Components, Processes, Knowledge and People and Relationships. This categorization is, however, too imprecise to identify the core assets needed to build a platform, and better guidance is needed. This paper presents a cross-case study of assets used in the product development process at two case companies. These represent two different product disciplines: Industrialized housebuilding, a sector within the construction trade, and Outdoor Power Equipment producing forest and gardening tools. The main contribution of the paper is a comparison of what formal and informal design assets that are used in the two disciplines.