This Individual Research Project (IRP) is the extension research to the group design project (GDP) work which the author has participated in his Msc programme. The GDP objective is to complete the conceptual design of a 200-seat, flying wing civil airliner—FW-11. The next generation aircraft design demands higher reliability, safety and maintainability. With the development of the vehicle hydraulic system technology, the equipment and systems become more and more complex, their reliability and maintenance become more difficult for designers, manufacturers and customers. To improve the mission reliability and reduce life cycle cost, there is strong demand for the application of health management technology into airframe system design. In this research, the author introduced diagnostic, prognostic and health management (DPHM) concept into the aircraft hydraulic power system development. As a brand new technology, it is a challenge to apply the DPHM techniques to on-board system. Firstly, an assumed hydraulic power system was designed for FW-11 by the author and used as the case in his IRP research. Then the crucial components and key parameters needed to be monitored were obtained based on Function Hazard Analysis and Failure Modes Effects Analysis of this system. The writer compared a few diagnostic and prognostic methods in detail, and then selected suitable ones for a hydraulic power system. A diagnostic process was applied to the hydraulic power system using a Case-based reasoning (CBR) approach, whilst a hybrid prognostic method was suggested for the system. After that, a diagnostic, prognostic and health management (DPHM) architecture of the hydraulic power system was designed at system level based on the diagnostic and prognostic research. The whole research work provided a general and practical instruction for hydraulic system design by means of DPHM application.

Detta examensarbete, med inriktning mot produktutveckling, vid Högskolan Väst i Trollhättan, behandlar konceptutveckling avseende ett städhjälpmedel för att underlätta städningen under entrémattor för lokalvårdare. Städhjälpmedelet skall vara billigt, användarvänligt samt tåla de belastningar och den miljö anordningen kan antas utsättas för. Det skall uppfylla de krav som ställs av användare, kunder samt andra intressenter. Produktutvecklingsprocessen har omfattat faktainsamling, konceptgenerering och utvärdering, feleffektanalys, kostnadsuppskattning samt detaljkonstruktion av produkten. Det slutgiltiga konceptet 4 hade sådan konstruktion att produkten kunde bäras med för hand eller hängas på städvagnen vid förflyttning. Dess funktion gjorde att den bedöms lätthanterlig och användarvänlig för lokalvårdare. Det valda konceptet har dokumenterats i form av bilder, ritningar och beräkningar. En CAD-ritning används som underlag för prototypframtagning då denna skickas till tillverkare för utvärdering. På grund av möjlig patent ansökan beskrivs inte exakta resultat, men utförliga beskrivningar av tillvägagångssätt och metoder framställs.

Traditional project management has been implemented by most of the companies in today’s business world in order to monitor and control the projects (Tonnquist, 2008). Project management techniques have been proven for decades and its performance has been maximized (Heldman, 2011). We think that the PM techniques have gradually reached its limits. For today’s companies, it is vital to find a more effective and innovative method which can be integrated into the project management in order to maintain their competitive advantages (Pyzdek, 2003).   As a relatively new business management approach and strategy, Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of the product and process by using some quantitative methods and tools (Michalski, 2003). Actually, Six Sigma has been broadly implemented in many companies and received a positive effect (Pande et al., 2000). However, most of the Six Sigma usage happens just in the Six Sigma projects and these projects need the great support from the top-management level and require plenty of resources for training and maintain (Pande et al., 2002).   The purpose of this thesis is to suggest an approach/methodology for how simple Six Sigma tools and methods can be combined with the traditional project management. In this case, those non-Six Sigma projects can still use some easy Six Sigma techniques to maximize the benefits. In order to achieve this purpose, the following methodologies are implemented: literature review to identify relative factors including quality, time, cost, communication and customer satisfaction, surveys and interviews to find out the current situations and problems in Siemens Industrial Turbo machinery (SIT) project management, empirical studies to develop some models and methods in which Six Sigma tools are integrated in the project management in SIT.   In this thesis, based on the empirical research of the case company of SIT, we are going to suggest some Six Sigma tools to be integrated into project management. The research questions include:   How can the selected Six Sigma tools improve the project management? The Pros and Cons of implementing Six Sigma methods and tools in the project management. What tools of Six Sigma are suitable to increase the performance of the project management in SIT   As the result of this thesis work, once it is testified it is feasible and fit in the SIT project management process, we think that there is a great chance it should be amplified and spread to many more business areas.

In this study, a tool is developed for determining priorities of quality improvement activities for manufacturing operations, for the purposes of both quality and throughput improvement. This tool utilizes Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Theory of Constraints (TOC), Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) methodologies. The use of the tool is demonstrated on an example problem. The results obtained under different experimental conditions are compared with solutions of more popular, simple decision-making measures, and the optimal solutions obtained from a mathematical model. The analysis shows that the proposed tool gives close solutions to optimal, and it can easily be applied in a typical manufacturing setting. This study also demonstrates how various different methodologies can be integrated for the purposes of quality and throughput improvement in shorter times.

Zugl.: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Zugl.: München, Techn. University, Diss., 2009.

Essen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Duisburg.

Zugl.: Erlangen-Nürnberg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2002--Stuttgart.

Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2004--Berlin.