System suppliers, e.g. original equipment suppliers, are important for the success of many products. They design a unique solution, often in close collaboration with other companies, based on different product concepts and/or core technologies. The solution can then be manufactured in different quantities depending on the client’s need. High level of customization is required as the interfaces are not standardized, the performance is not negotiable, requirements are not initially fixed and the specific system interacts with, is affected by, or affects other systems that are simultaneously developed. A system supplier commonly designs and manufactures solutions for different OEMs and must support many models and variants in their product portfolios. Efficiency, short lead-time, continuous technology development, and adaptability are essential for the competitive edge. A product platform approach has been a success for many companies to enable variety at low cost, however, it is not applicable for system suppliers. This work describes the result from a case study where a platform approach enabling a new way of structuring, publishing and managing design assets and processes was introduced at a company with the purpose to improve the ability to respond to changing requirements in the quotation process and the subsequent product development activities.

Original equipment suppliers (OES) that develop unique products are continuously faced with changing requirements during both the quotation and product development processes. This challenge is a different reality from companies that develop off-the-shelf products for the end consumer, which use fixed specifications and where product platforms have been a strong enabler for efficient mass customization. However, product platforms cannot adequately support companies working as OES. The reason is that a high level of customization is required which means that interfaces cannot be standardized, the performance is not negotiable, requirements are not initially fixed, and the specific system interacts with, is affected by, or affects other systems that are simultaneously developed in a transdisciplinary environment. The design platform (DP) approach provides a coherent environment for heterogeneous and transdisciplinary design resources to be used in product development by supporting both designing and off-the-shelf solutions. This research describes the introduction, application and further development of the DP approach at an automotive supplier to support the development of customized solutions when traditional modularity or platform scalability do not suffice. A computer tool called Design Platform Manager has been developed to support the creation and visualization of the DP. The support tool has a connection to a product data management database to link the platform model to the various kinds of engineering assets needed or intended to support variant creation. Finally, the support tool was evaluated by the case company representatives showing promising results. 

A common strategy which has in many cases become a necessity in product developing companies is to apply platform thinking to some extent. Engineer-to-order (ETO) companies are firms that need to invest in a significant amount engineering time in each product ordered by customers. These companies have in the past been known to not be fully able to apply platform strategies. An area of concern to product development is the design and manufacture of machine tools aimed for part manufacturing which is a large investment and a critical bottle neck. As a response to these challenges the design platform (DP) concept was developed which is founded on the re-use of company assets. This paper aims to investigate the application of the DP in a company designing and producing unique high-pressure die casting tools for different applications and customers. To enable companies of this character to utilize platform thinking to a higher degree and thus increase the efficiency in product development, a focus is set on modelling and managing relations within the DP. In addition, a PDM system setup is proposed together with an integrated support application for the realisation in industry.

Companies developing highly customised products are continuously faced with fluctuating requirements during the early and late stages of the product development (PD) process. This differs from companies that develop end-consumer products, which uses fixed specifications and where product platforms have been a successful enabler for efficient customisation. However, in the past, product platforms have not been able to fully support companies working in an engineer-to-order business environment. This article outlines the results from a three-year collaborative research project between academics within the area of engineering design and practitioners from the engineer-to-order industry. The research introduces a design platform (DP) that aims to support the development of customised products when traditional platform concepts do not suffice. The platform approach provides a coherent environment for heterogeneous design assets to be used in PD by supporting both the design activity and the finished solutions. The needs and abilities regarding such a platform were investigated through a series of interviews and workshops at four companies. Then, the DP was modelled and support tools were developed. Finally, company representatives evaluated the complete DP and its applications, reporting promising results.

Industrialized house-building (IHB) is a sector offering unique products by adopting an engineer-to-order (ETO) strategy. Customer satisfaction is achieved by adaptation of product solutions and the fast-paced introduction of new technology in combination with short lead-times and cost-efficient production. Product platforms is acknowledged as a strategic enabler for mass customization and increased competitiveness. The strategy has been a necessity in the mechanical industry for several decades. However, for IHB, platforms have only gained interest in recent years. In general, ETO companies struggle with adopting the common product platform approach, set by pre-defined modules and components. Predefinitions require standardization of the product offer which reduces the customization ability which is regarded as a competitive edge. The Design Platform (DP) approach was developed aimed to support ETO companies by utilizing different types of engineering assets in a coherent transdisciplinary model enabling efficient customization. The long-term aim of this work is to investigate and support the DP applicability in IHB to increase efficiency in development and delivery. For this article, data were gathered from a single case study, including workshops with company representatives combined with interviews and document analysis. Based on the data analysis, engineering assets were identified and characterized. Further, a conceptual PLM solution is proposed and outlined to support the DP application combined with the assets. The results suggest that a PLM system can host parts of the DP and that it is applicable in IHB.

Companies developing highly customized products within the supplier industry are continuously faced with fluctuating requirements during both the quotation process and continued development. This research proposes a platform approach to aid suppliers when modularity or platform scalability do not suffice. The platform approach, Design Platform, focuses on descriptions that not only contain information about tangible components and systems but also information, knowledge and methods supporting the actual design of the product. A support system called Design Platform Manager has been developed to aid in using the platform approach and is introduced at a supplier active in the automotive industry. The system enables creation of generic product items that can be structured and instantiated to become product variants as well as Design Elements that are blocks of knowledge that describe a design or supports the activity of designing. A first evaluation is made that overall shows good result according to the company representatives.

Product platforms has been widely accepted in industry as a means to reach both high product variety while maintaining business efficiency. For suppliers of highly customised products, however, the development of a platform based upon predefined modules is a challenge. This is due to the large differ-ences between the various systems their products are to be integrated into and the customer's individual preferences. What is common for most platform descriptions is the high level of concretisation, such as predefined modules, they are built upon, but how can companies act when that is not possible? Are there other principles that can be used for the definition of a product platform? This paper presents a concept to incorporate other types of descriptions of different levels of concretisation into a product platform. Parts of the concept has been realised in a computer support tool and tested at a case company in order to improve their quotation process.

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.

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. 

Changing customer requirements, regulations, technology and regulations, shift to automated assembly and product variety are common challenges faced by many manufacturing industries and alignment between product and production system is critical for business success. Design engineers should be aware of production constraints and capabilities to ensure efficient manufacture and assembly of products that are developed. This requires different and detailed support to guide the work, evaluate different design solutions, enable continuous and concurrent work with design for producibility and production preparation. A study was conducted in three companies to understand alignment and integration of product development and production preparation processes. Also, utilization of production requirements, design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) and failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) to support design for producibility (DFP) was studied. Currently, production preparation is done through discussions between design and production engineers. Production preparation and work with DFMA and FMEA is skill and experience dependent. Definition, structuring and sharing of production requirements on different system levels, from production and product perspectives are identified as critical to supporting design for producibility and production preparation. The work with FMEA and DFMA can be developed and improved with systematic and structured way of working with production requirements.

New business opportunities are created when the advantage of changeable manufacturing systems expand beyond increased freedom in production location to increased freedom in product design. However, there are new challenges to overcome, including improved ability to design and adapt products when requirements from stakeholders quickly change and/or new technology rapidly evolves. Simultaneously, the producibility of each design must be ensured while keeping the lead-time of the whole process to the minimum. Changeable product platforms (both flexible and adaptable platforms) are gaining attention in both research and industry. However, the level of alignment and integration of product development and production is critical for the efficiency of the product realization process. In this study, we map the state of practice in five companies with an initial literature review. The companies had no formal platform strategy and faced challenges with variant management and development time, had manual processes for production preparation and reuse of technical solutions and knowledge happened through components and documents. The production preparation and reuse were dependent on the engineer’s competence. Future work will concentrate on identifying how manufacturing inputs can be added as a design asset in a changeable product platform to enhance producibility and production preparation.

Demanding markets and complex products are only some of the reasons that make changes and variations inevitable through different stages of product realization. From early phases of product development to downstream production phase, these changes or variations cause failure either directly or by propagating to other phases, triggering more fluctuations like the well-known butterfly effect. In this paper, first, the definition of changes in product realization will be reviewed and then different papers and their classification on change related system properties (illites) will be discussed and compared. It was argued that considering a system-level view, one could trace these propagations in the systems as a result of not being robust, flexible, or adaptable, etc. Some of the ambiguity in this semantic field demonstrated and most repeated definitions are identified as the unanimous and agreed-upon definitions in the literature. In the end, a historical comparison of the three identified properties presented. The results of this study help us to understand the multidisciplinary nature of these propagations and identify their stemming turbulent environment. This will be used as a foundation for forthcoming research either to prevent these propagations or utilize their attributes in the product realization.

To ensure and improve the competitiveness of SMEs acting in an environment of distributed engineering and globalisation, four important factors are low cost, short lead-time, improved product performance, and the possibility to adapt products to different costumer specifications. One way of gaining these competitive advantages is to adopt an approach where products are based on prepared design. If some of the work related to these products and design tasks are automated, the design process can become more effective and efficient. This allows for shortened lead-time of product designs, cost estimates (Elgh and Sunnersjö, 2003), more optimised product designs, and customer tailoring, while giving the designers more time for creative problem solving. Companies have to consider the advantages of design automation, its realisation and implementation, as well as its applicability. Other issues of importance are: scope of implementation, how far to push the automation level, procedure for development, identification of information needed, definition of information models (Elgh, 2004), strategy and procedure for handling and storing design process information (Cederfeldt, 2004), selection of suitable application software (Amen et al, 1999), initial cost, maintenance cost, and the use of internal and external expertise. To support companies in choosing appropriate type and level of design automation, there is a need to address the important questions about potential, wishes, requirements, constraints and actual need of design automation. This paper addresses these questions from a SME standpoint. Other issues addressed are the current state of design automation in industry and the companies’ views regarding some important aspects and criteria of design automation characteristics, realisation and implementation.

Cost is one of the most important criteria for the evaluation of product variants. In this paper, a framework for building systems for cost evaluation of product variants and fabrication plants is presented and discussed. These systems have the purpose of governing the design work towards solutions having an optimal balance between product and production properties. The starting point of the proposed procedure is the cost structure of a manufactured product: the identification of information needed for the evaluation of different product variants, fabrication plants, or both; where the necessary information can be derived from; and how information accessibility and extraction can be supported. The creation of information models for product cost, plant resources, process plans and product geometry is introduced, and the relationships between models are examined, supporting system development. Important guidelines for the creation of a parametric solid model that will serve as the foundation for an automated cost evaluation system are presented.

A rapidlygrowing approach in product design and manufacture, with great potential toimprove customer value, is mass customization. The possibility to design andmanufacture highly customer adapted products brings a competitive edge tomanufacturing companies and is in some areas a necessity for doing business. In this paper, an approach for documentation andknowledge management of systems supporting the design and manufacture ofcustomized products is explored. As the governing framework and models are updated and refined due toshifting prerequisite, the system and hence the solutions generated for asingle specification will change over time. This affects product management andthe ability to meet legislation and customers’ requirements regarding documentationand traceability, as well as the company’s ability to provide services,maintenance and supply spare parts. A solution has been developed for an industrialcase with required functionality for capturing, structuring, searching,retrieving, viewing, and editing a system’s embedded information and knowledge.The objective is to enable and facilitate system maintenance and updating andsupport the reuse of functions and system encapsulated generic designdescriptions in future systems.

The estimation of product cost is a central activity in the design process. Most companies act in an environment of high competition where the market sets the product price. This, in combination with a focus on satisfying the shareholders’ demand for return on investment, results in a focus on cost as a constraint. Hence, cost is one of the most fundamental criteria for the evaluation of design proposals (French, 1999). However, the manufacturing cost is often calculated late in the product development process when most details are fixed. This means that cost information feedback often arrives too late to be taken into account. That feedback could otherwise have guided the design towards cost-effective, easily produced solutions. Cost estimation is also commonly a task separated from product design and performed by cost accountants. This work distribution requires resources and can be afflicted with loss of information, leading to low quality in the estimations. This subdivision is also not efficient in the search for the best solution, where a number of variant designs are to be evaluated and compared in a short time. When different courses of action are to be evaluated, small changes in customer requirements, product design and production properties have to be handled with caution. Even seemingly small changes can result in undesired effects, such as: low level of conformability with the production system, highly increased cost, and extended manufacturing lead-time.

The fact that application software is getting more and more adaptable enlarges the possibility of in-house-developed cost estimation systems that can be used as a means for enhanced producibility. This calls for systematic methods for system development that ensure system functionality, quality and longevity.

This work has resulted in a framework supporting the development of automated systems encompassing the entire workflow: the design of the product variant, the process planning, the cost estimation, the analysis of the effects on the producibility metrics and, finally, the selection of the most favourable course of action. The framework consists of: the procedure for system development, the definition of information models, the clarification of the relations between information models, the guidelines for parametric solid models, and the means for automated process planning and cost estimation.

The framework has been used when implementing an industry demonstrator. The system can act as a means for enhanced producibility. Different product, production and cost aspects can be studied through the use of multi-objective optimisations, sensitivity analysis, and what-if scenarios enabled by the system. The system can serve as a decisions tool that enables the evaluation of different courses of action in the early stages in the development of product variants. This can imply better decisions and, in the long run, a better company understanding and awareness of the relationships between the product properties, the manufacturing resources requirements/constraints, the manufacturing processing, the cost structure, and the cost level.

Mass customization is a rapidly growing business model that enables companies to deliver products with increased customer value. The ability to design and manufacture highly customer adapted products brings a competitive edge to manufacturing companies and is required for business success in some areas. In this paper, an approach for documentation and knowledge management of systems supporting the design and manufacture of customized products is explored. A system’s encapsulated rules and models have to be updated and refined due to shifting prerequisite and both the system and the solutions generated for a single specification will change over time. These changes affect product management and the ability to meet legislation and customers’ requirements regarding documentation and traceability, as well as the company’s ability to provide services, maintenance and supply spare parts. This work addresses this challenge and introduces a concept with required functionality for capturing, structuring, searching, retrieving, viewing, and editing a system’s embedded information and knowledge. The concept has been developed and applied to a real case in collaboration with a company acting as a sub-supplier in the automotive industry. The objective was to enable and facilitate maintenance and updating of existing system and support the reuse of functions and system encapsulated generic design descriptions in the development of future systems.

The quotation preparation in the manufacturing industry is very important. From a subcontractor view, it is initiated by a customer request for quotation and precedes the order preparation where detailed manufacturing and cost information are generated. Customers are continuously seeking for lower bids and cost reduction and despite the lack of detailed information a fixed price has to be set. Commonly, subcontractors are also acting on a market where the competition of staying in business and submitting a winning bid is intense and the result of the quotation process has a direct influence on the final business success. Hence, it is essential to enable quotations to be based on a higher level of detailed information and introduce support to increase the efficiency in quotation preparation. The purpose of this work is to investigate, explore, and develop a computerized method, i.e. an application system, to support the process planning and cost estimation in the quotation process. The main objective is to reveal concepts and principles to support application system development and utilization. The results are based on the experiences from a case study at a subcontractor of turned components.

For many products, the adaptation to customer specifications is essential and requires flexible product design and manufacture while maintaining competitive pricing. Engineering design is often concerned with striking a good balance between product properties, e.g. performance, and the resources required to manufacture and assemble the product. When different courses of action are to be evaluated, even seemingly small changes in customer requirements, product design, and manufacturing properties have to be handled with caution. Small changes can entail products with: low level of conformability with the manufacturing system, highly increased cost, and extended manufacturing lead-time. For most companies, the manufacturing system is a valuable asset that is more or less fixed and only minor adaptations are allowed. This implies that the product design has to be adapted to the manufacturing system to a large extent.

Design for producibility (DFP) is the process in which a systematic method is used to reach the required functional properties of the product at the same time as good compliance with the manufacturing system is ensured. The DFP process usually needs to involve several persons simultaneously for the purpose of sharing information and knowledge. For many manufacturing companies, the collaboration between engineering design and production engineering is a critical issue and they have to improve their methods and tools for ensuring and enhancing producibility. This can be achieved by introducing computer-supported design for producibility. The present research is intended to contribute to the development and utilisation of different application systems that can be used as such computer support. The aim is to provide companies with support in application system development and to show how different application systems can be used in a systematic way as means to ensure and enhance producibility.

The competitive advantages to gain from introducing computer-supported design for producibility are: product designs with high level of conformability with the production system, shortened manufacturing lead-time, and decreased manufacturing cost. This work contributes to the achievement of these advantages by introducing a framework with principles and models supporting application systems development. Three types of application systems are presented and their practical usefulness is examined, showing practitioners how producibility aspects can be assessed systematically. The main scientific and theoretical contribution of the work comprises: the descriptions concerning how to structure and describe the product and product-related information (manufacturing requirements, costs, process plans and production resources), the foundation of different information models, and the clarification of the models’ interrelationships. This is perceived as a contribution to a better understanding of the domains and how they relate to each other.Design for producibility (DFP) is the process in which a systematic method is used to reach the required functional properties of the product at the same time as good compliance with the manufacturing system is ensured. The DFP process usually needs to involve several persons simultaneously for the purpose of sharing information and knowledge. For many manufacturing companies, the collaboration between engineering design and production engineering is a critical issue and they have to improve their methods and tools for ensuring and enhancing producibility. This can be achieved by introducing computer-supported design for producibility. The present research is intended to contribute to the development and utilisation of different application systems that can be used as such computer support. The aim is to provide companies with support in application system development and to show how different application systems can be used in a systematic way as means to ensure and enhance producibility.

Sub-suppliers acting in the supply chain of the car industry have to adopt a strategy of products customization to be at the competitive edge. This is caused by the diversity of client’s requirements that entails customer engineered products with a high level of variety. A business strategy based on engineered-to-order products requires systems for efficient generation of product variants. This also includes a need of decision support in the order preparation process as well as in the quotation preparation process. Decision support that gives access to detailed and accurate information in the quotation preparation enables a high level of product adaptation while ensuring company efficiency. By the introduction of a design automation system, this can be achieved. However, means to manage different application domains, projects, task knowledge and design information are required together with a possibility to perform detailed analyses on the system generated information. The objective of this work is to contribute in that area. Initially, a number of success criteria were identified and explorative work was conducted for the purpose to develop a conceptual model and principles that an application system would reside upon. The result is a framework consisting of an information model and underlying principles to be used when developing a design automation system for quotation preparation. A system founded on the framework supports management and analysis of quotations and product variants. The functionality and usefulness has been demonstrated and validated by a system implementation developed in collaboration with an industry partner.

Many small and medium sized companies base their business strategy on their manufacturing processes. They are highly specialized in areas such as: die-casting, extrusion, machining, sintering, injection molding etc. The specialization is usually also focused on a limited number of material and alloys for the manufacturing process in question. These companies are commonly acting as subcontractors to other companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For the OEMs to be able to provide affordable products in a short time and to be at the competitive edge, every new design must be adapted to existing production facilities. In order to ensure this, collaboration between engineering design, at the OEM, and production engineering, at the subcontractors, has to be supported. With the dispersed organizations of today and the increasing amount of information that has to be shared and managed in the product realization process, this collaboration is a critical issue for many companies. A more intense collaboration is sought by many subcontractors as it will strengthen the business relation. To provide manufacturing knowledge and to be a partner in the product realization process is a means to outplay competitors.

The purpose of this work is to investigate, explore, and develop a computerized method, i.e. an application system, to support the process planning and cost estimation in the quotation process. The main objective is to reveal concepts and principles to support application system development and utilization. The results are based on the experiences from a case study at a subcontractor of turned components.

Design automation is an important means for efficient product configuration within an engineer-to-order business strategy. Commonly, the development of a design automation system is an iterative process alternating between top-down and bottom-up approaches. An overall strategy is a necessity for successful system development. However, to successfully structure the design process, retrace all the necessary knowledge and to close gaps in both the process and the knowledge definitions require a complete and detailed understanding of the design problem at hand. The objective with this work is to promote an iterative system development process characterized by the alternation between domain levels and to provide means for ensuring system completeness and functionality. The means introduced in this paper concern knowledge modelling and analysis in design automation systems. An information model, incorporating the concepts KnowledgeObject, Variable and KnowledgeObj_Parameter for knowledge modelling, and a database for the persistent data storage together with the principles of dependencies structure matrices (DSM), supports an iterative system development approach. Further, the quality of a design automation system, in terms of completeness and functionality, can be viewed and analysed continuously during system development, and system deficiencies can be traced by the use of different DSM views.

To adopt an engineer-to-order (ETO) business model when competing on a market where competitors’ products are mass-produced is a challenge. However, a competitive edge can be gained if the principles of ETO and mass production successfully can be combined. High level of customer adaptation requires systems for efficient generation of product variants with associated specifications for automated manufacturing. To maintain these systems’s usefulness over time, frequent updating will normally become a necessity. Of equal importance, is the reuse of the system encapsulated generic product family objects when developing a new product family. In this paper a case study is presented with the main objective to provide a system foundation for modeling and management of product knowledge supporting reuse, expansion and maintenance of system embedded objects. One of the central parts of the framework is the Meta-Knowledge Containers, labeled Descriptions for the case company. A Description contains both a definition of system embedded objects as well as the rationale behind their design. Traceability is gained by linking of Descriptions, individually and to documents, models and items.

Initially, when implementing a design automation system the focus is on successfully developing a system that generates design variants based on different customer specifications, i.e. the execution of system embedded knowledge and system output. However, in the long run two important aspects are the modelling and management of the knowledge that govern the designs. The increasing emphasis to deploy a holistic view on the products properties and functions implies an increasing number of life-cycle requirements. These requirements should all be used to enhance the knowledge-base allowing for correct decisions to be made. In a system for automated variant design these life-cycle requirements have to be expressed as algorithms and/or computational statements to be intertwined with the design calculations. The number of requirements can be significantly large and they are scattered over different systems. The aim of the presented work is to provide an approach for modelling of manufacturing requirements, supporting both knowledge execution and information management, in systems for automated variant design.

A business strategy based on customized products with a high level of variety requires systems for efficient generation of product variants. An area identified in near collaboration with five industrial partners that has not been subject for extensive research is how to support management of different application domains, projects, task knowledge and design information together with the possibility to perform detailed analyses on the data generated by a design automation system implementation. Initially, a number of success criteria were identified and the functionality of a database was perceived as a promising approach. Explorative work was conducted for the purpose to reveal the conceptual model and the principles that a system would reside upon. The work has resulted in an approach, consisting of an information model and underlying principles, presented in this paper to be used when developing a design automation system for quotation preparation. The functionality and usefulness has been demonstrated and validated by a system implementation developed in collaboration with an industry partner. It can be concluded that a system founded on the presented approach supports management and analysis of quotations and product variants.

Many companies base their business strategy on customized products. To enable a high level of product adaptation in an engineer-to-order approach companies invest time and resources to develop design automation systems. Initially, when implementing a design automation system, the focus is on successfully developing a system that generates design variants based on different customer specifications (i.e. the execution of system embedded knowledge and system output). However, in the long run, two important aspects are the management and maintenance of the knowledge that governs the designs. Further, the increasing emphasis on deploying a holistic view of a product’s properties and functions implies an increasing number of life-cycle requirements. The knowledge to adapt the product to fulfil these requirements should also be used and consequently incorporated into the knowledge-base, allowing for correct decisions to be made. In a system for automated variant design, the implications on the product of these life-cycle requirements have to be expressed as algorithms, production rules and/or computational statements to be intertwined with the design calculations. The number of requirements can be significantly large, and the knowledge scattered over different application systems used for the realisation of the design automation system. This makes it difficult to manage and maintain the system as the product life-cycle environment changes and evolves. In this article, the focus is on the requirements related to manufacturing. For that, an approach for the modelling of manufacturing requirements, supporting both knowledge execution and information management, in systems for automated variant design is introduced. The approach has been applied and refined when developing a design automation system in cooperation with a company to demonstrate and verify the approach’s usability.

Subcontractors are commonly involved in several quotation processes and new requests for quotation are continuously received from clients. To be able to respond with feasible design solutions at competitive price, new ways of working has to be adopted, especially when it comes to quotation preparation. High levels of accuracy of the preliminary design solutions and the cost estimations generated in the quotation process are a necessity. The purpose of this work is to investigate, explore, and develop a computerized method to support quotation preparation. The main objectives are to reveal concepts and principles to support application system development and evaluate the applicability of automated quotation preparation. The results are based on experiences from a case study at a sub-supplier to the car industry. In the case study, a design automation system for quotation preparation of seat heaters was developed. The system supports the pursuit of a valid design solution and the best solution in the individual case enabling the company to respond quickly with a competitive price when receiving a new request. In this paper, principles and concepts supporting system development are introduced and the system’s applicability as a means in quotation preparation explored.

Subcontractors are frequently involved in quotation processes and the main objective of this work is to provide an integrated system foundation for quotation preparation that enables detailed analyses of product, process, and cost information. The technology, models and principles for successful system realization are described and a case example illustrating system functionality and utilization introduced. The system foundation enables flexible access to stored information supporting analyses across orders and product variants as well as on a more detailed level for individual product items.

For many companies, it is a challenge to balance product variety and cost, i.e. external and internal efficiency. Product platforms has been the dominant solution for a business targeting mass-customization. The main idea is to dived the product into modules that can be shared among different product variants. This has been a success on the consumer market, however, many manufacturing companies are engineer-to-order (ETO) oriented, such as original equipment suppliers (OES). They design a unique solution, often in close collaboration with other companies, based on different product concepts and/or core technologies. For these companies, there is a strategic need for a platform model influenced by the principles of masscustomization, although, not limited to only include modules. In this work, a novel platform model, called Design Platform is described. The model has been developed and applied in cooperation with four companies. The Design Platform provides a coherent environment for management of heterogeneous design assets to be used in product development and supports an improved ability to master fluctuating requirements and systematic introduction of new technologies.

Product platforms has been a successful enabler for efficient mass customization. However, they cannot fully support suppliers working in an engineer-to-order business environment. This work identifies the need and scope of a different platform model that supports customization and management of fluctuating requirements. A novel plaform model is introduced entitled Design Platform. The model is based on the current state and future target condition at four companies. The model provides a coherent environment for heterogeneous design assets to be used in product development.

The fact that application software are getting more and more adaptable extends the possibility of in-house developed design systems supporting design for cost. This calls for systematic methods for system development that ensure system functionality, quality and longevity.

In this work, a method supporting the development of automated systems for product design, process planning and cost estimation is introduced. The method has been the foundation on which an automated system for variant design has been developed. The system applicability as a means of gaining cost effective design is presented through studies of: multi-objective optimisation, what-if scenarios and sensitivity analyses. The work is completed by an evaluation of the three types of studies. This is followed by an evaluation of the variant design system and its underlying method (that supports in-house development of automated systems), with respect to a number of presented underlying general criteria supporting realisation of systems meeting companies’ needs.

The paper aims at presenting the thoughts behind concurrent cost estimation as a tool for engineering companies to obtain enhanced producibility for their products by the possibility of performing producibility studies. The two main parts of the paper are: the presentation of a method for system development, focusing on a number of general criteria of system development; and how such a system can act as a support in the product development process by providing the possibility of performing different types of producibility studies.

The demand on high levels of reliability and accuracy of cost estimation increases in a competitive environment and as the products are getting more optimised. When different courses of action are to be evaluated, changes in customer requirements, design features and parameters, and production properties have to be handled with caution. Even small changes can imply: low level of conformability with the production system, highly increased cost, and extended manufacturing lead-time. It is of paramount importance for the product success and the company’s profit that a system for automated producibility assessment is sensitive and can reflect these effects. Two central tasks in the development of such a system are the definition of a cost model and the modelling of producibility rules. Each organisation is very different and therefore has to define their individual cost model and set of producibility rules. This work presents an approach that provides a framework for the development of company specific automated producibility estimation systems. Further, the concepts of analysis driven and synthesis driven producibility estimations are described and some examples of their use are given.

A business strategy based on customized products with a high level of variety requires systems for efficient generation of product variants. The development of a system for automated variant design is a significant investment in time and money. To maintain the system’s usefulness over time, frequent updating of design rules and execution control will normally become a necessity. Significant efforts are required for maintenance and adapting an established system to changes in product technology, new product knowledge, production practices, new customers and so forth. Another important aspect that has been identified, is the reuse of the system encapsulated generic product family descriptions, for example design rules, when developing a new product family. In this paper a case study is presented with the objectives to provide an understanding and an insight into a real industrial case. A focus is put on the documentation and management of product related knowledge for the purpose of revealing problems related to the current state of practice at the company to identify areas for improvements. The results are based on the experiences from a case study at a company with long experience of systems for automated variant design.

The demand on the level of reliability and accuracy of cost estimation increases in a competitive environment and as the products are getting more and more optimised. When different courses of action are to be evaluated small changes in customer requirements, design features and parameters, and production properties has to be handled with caution. Small changes can imply: low level of conformability with the production system, highly increased cost, and extended manufacturing lead-time. It is of paramount importance for the product success and the company’s profit that a system for automated cost estimation is sensitive and can reflect these effects. Design automation system incorporating producibility and cost estimations support either analysis driven or synthesis driven producibility estimation, or both. The later is an approach that allows for decreased recourse and time demand as the system only generates design proposals which the company can produce with its manufacturing resources. This work presents some of the views on which a design automation incorporating producibility and cost estimations should by developed. It also presents the concepts of analysis driven and synthesis driven producibility estimation and gives some examples of there use.

The ability to design and manufacture highly customer adapted products brings a competitive edge to manufacturing companies acting on a business-to-business market as suppliers to OEMs. A vital means for success in quotation and order preparation is advanced system support in design, process planning and cost estimation based upon the automation of engineering tasks. A design automation system encapsulates these tasks which are to be executed for specific customer specifications in a sequence specified either by a predefined order or resolved by an inference mechanism in run-time. Commonly, the development of a design automation system is an iterative process alternating between a top-down and a bottom-up approaches. An overall strategy is a necessity for successful system development, however, to successfully define the tasks, retrace all the necessary knowledge and to close gaps in both the tasks and the knowledge definitions require a complete and detailed understanding of the specific domain. In this paper, the concept of Knowledge Object is described together with examples of its use in both the development and system realization of design automation systems enabling product customization. The concept has shown to be useful for modelling of design processes, tasks, and engineering knowledge as well as in system development and realization. It also supports traceability and understanding by relations to other concepts describing associated requirements and design rational.

A rapidly growing strategy in product design and manufacture, with great potential to improve customer value, is mass-customization. The main idea is to divide the product into modules that can be shared among different product variants. This will support a wide range of options for the end customer to select among, while an internal efficiency, similar to mass-production, can be achieved. This has been a success for many companies acting on the consumer market. However, many manufacturing companies are engineer-to-order (ETO) oriented, such as original equipment suppliers (OES). They design a unique solution, often in close collaboration with other companies. The solution can then be manufactured in different quantities depending on the client’s need. For these companies, there is a strategic need for developing high quality engineering support to further utilize and exploit the information and knowledge produced during product development and to succeed with a strategy influenced by the principles of mass-customization. This has to include the implementation and management of systems enabling highly custom-engineered products to be efficiently designed and manufactured. One challenge when introducing such flexible support is to enable traceability of decisions taken, tasks executed, knowledge used and artefacts developed throughout the whole lifecycle of an individual product. In this chapter, it is shown that traceability can be achieved by introducing support for capturing, structuring and mapping between decisions and resulting outputs, such as geometrical building blocks, knowledge implemented as rules, and the argumentation for the selection, design and specification of these. Three examples are presented where the concept Design Description has been modelled based on an item-oriented, a task-oriented, and a decision-oriented perspective which show the generality of the Design Description concept. The three examples demonstrate how to use the Design Description to enable traceability in platform design, product design, and manufacturing development processes.

Custom engineered products require an engineer-to-order approach in development, quotation preparation and order processing. This work reports the result of a three-and-a-half-year project were the objective was to develop means for implementation and management of computer support for engineering design and production engineering of customized products. Efficient re-use is essential for success and decision is identified as the core concept to trace tasks executed, knowledge used, design rationale and artefacts developed throughout the product realization process.

Many manufacturing companies are suppliers that deliver unique solutions to different business customers. Intense quotation work, with a high demand on accuracy and quick response, and development projects executed in close collaboration with customers and other actors characterize these companies. The projects can run for years or a few weeks depending on the business. Changes of requirements are frequent and technology development required for improved functionality, sustainability and competitiveness. The use of a product platform has been acknowledged as a strategic enabler for product family development and mass customization. However, companies struggle with adopting the common platform approach building upon pre-defined modules and components as it constraints the fulfilment of unique customer requirements and the introduction of new technology at high pace. This work reports the results from case studies conducted in collaboration with four companies. They are in many ways different but face the same challenges when it comes to customization, fluctuating requirements and need of high pace in technology advancement. The focus of this paper is on their initial states; including how they work with their product concept before the customer entry point, the work that is initiated when an order is accepted, the character of requirements and the adoption of product platforms. Criteria on, and identification of, new platforms models, termed Design Assets, are presented followed by a mapping to the Design Platform concept pointing out areas upcoming work, both scientifically and at the companies.

The ability to efficiently and quickly design and manufacture highly customized product can provide a competitive advantage for companies acting on a market with shifting customer demands. A business model based on highly customized product requires advanced application systems for automating the work of generating product variants based on different customer specification. The establishment of a system for automated design and production preparation is a significant investment in time and money and is expected to give revenues over many years. To maintain a design automation system’s usefulness over time, frequent updating of design rules and execution control will normally become a necessity. Reuse of the system encapsulated generic product family descriptions when developing a new product family is also perceived to significantly increase the efficiency in system development. The scope and the purpose of this research originate from industrial problems and needs which have been identified within research projects carried out in near collaboration with industrial partners. New concepts, perceived as prescriptive models, are in this work introduced, evaluated, and refined which is in accordance with the design modelling approach [Duffy, Andreasen, 1995]. The focus of this paper is a case study carried out at a company with long experience of systems for automated variant design. The main objective is to provide a system foundation for modelling and management of product knowledge in design automation systems to support reuse, expansion and maintenance.

For many products, the adaption to customer specifications is essential and requires flexible product design and manufacture while maintaining competitive pricing. A large category of design work in industry has the character of the redesigning of an existing product concept in terms of dimensional changes, topology variations and the configuration of components. In order to evaluate design proposals, costs, controlled by the product design, selected materials and manufacturing processes, need to be estimated. Cost estimates are normally based on the manufacturing process plans. They, in turn, can only be formed when production preparation is finalised. The widespread industrial use of solid modelling opens up new possibilities for automating this process. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate and test a method of extracting product information from a CAD model in order to allow process planning and cost calculation to be carried out automatically for a given class of products. With such a system, cost estimates can be made available to the designer the instant a design proposal has been presented. This allows design iterations to be carried out, in order to govern the design work towards solutions with an optimal balance between product and production properties.

With today’s high product variety and shorter life cycles in automobile manufacturing, every new car design must be adapted to existing production facilities so that these facilities can be used for the manufacturing of several car models. In order to ensure this, collaboration between engineering design and production engineering has to be supported. Sharing information is at the core of collaborative engineering. By implementing an ontology approach, work within domains requirement management, engineering design and production engineering can be integrated. An ontology approach, based on an information model implemented in a computer tool, supports work in the different domains and their collaboration. The main objectives of the proposed approach are: supporting the formation of requirement specifications for products and processes, improved and simplified information retrieval for designers and process planners, forward traceability from changes in product systems to manufacturing systems, backward traceability from changes in manufacturing system to product systems, and the elimination of redundant or multiple versions of requirement specifications by simplifying the updating and maintenance of the information.

Many companies base their business strategy on customized products with a high level of variety and continuous functional improvements. For companies to be able to provide affordable products in a short time and be at the competitive edge, every new design must be adapted to existing production facilities. In order to ensure this, collaboration between engineering design and production engineering has to be supported. With the dispersed organisations of today combined with the increasing amount of information that has to be shared and managed, this collaboration is a critical issue for many companies.

In this article, an approach for sharing and managing product and production information is introduced. The results are based on the experiences from a case study at a car manufacturer. By ontology-based integration, work within domains engineering design, production engineering and requirement management at the company was integrated. The main objectives with the integration were: support the formation of requirement specifications for products and processes, improve and simplify the information retrieval for designers and process planners, ensure traceability from changes in product systems to manufacturing systems and vice versa, and finally, eliminate redundant or multiple versions of requirement specifications.

With today’s high product variety and shorter life cycles in motor car manufacture, every new car design must be adapted to existing production facilities so that these can be used for several car models. Sharing information is at the core of collaborative engineering. With an ontology approach, the work within the domains requirement management, engineering design and production engineering can be integrated. An ontology approach based on an information model implemented in a computer tool supports the work in the different domains and their collaboration. In our work we make use of the existing structures and link those using appropriately named links. We also propose the introduction of a new structure describing the generic functions of the manufacturing system, MSF. This tree structure is a suitable tool to link product related objects to their associated production equipment at varying levels of detail. The manufacturing requirements are modelled using a concept for the definition of the requirement content, called Manufacturing Requirement (MR). To enable the MR to cover different ranges and levels, and enhance the maintenance of the system integrity, the concept of Requirement Object is introduced. The RO is used to collect the instances for which a specific MR is valid. We also use the rule inference facility to reduce the number of explicitly defined relations.

This work strives to support companies overcoming their challenges in the New Product Development (NPD) by enhancing the co-development of product and production with the integration of Design and Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (respectively DFMEA and PFMEA). A literature review and a case study with two Swedish manufacturing companies help identifying challenges and opportunities to integrate DFMEA and PFMEA reviewing companies’ templates and guidelines and performing two workshops. The results contribute to the knowledge in the field of co-development of product and production.