<p>Due to different engineering background and limited technical prerequisites, trade-offs are needed when managing information in complex product development. The challenges faced with information management for complex product development are as much of organizational as technical character.</p><p>Information management has in this thesis been analyzed from both a technical and organizational dimension in order to obtain an integrated view and holistic understanding. The technical dimension focuses on information management systems, such as product lifecycle management systems. An information management system in itself does not solve problems in an organization; it manages at its best all types of business data while storing and retrieving information. In order to succeed, information management needs to be aligned with different needs and with a variety of domain-specific work procedures. The organizational dimension includes organizational structures, work procedures, and the designer and management perspectives on needs and benefits with information management.</p><p>Perceived benefits with integrated information management are identified as support for SE, work procedure mapping, use of disciplinary support tools, and data integrity and availability. Five technical and organizational key success factors for efficient information management are presented; usability, integration of information, motivation, information structure and organizational support. It is concluded that structured information, management support and motivation among designers are more important than customization of information management systems in order to achieve integrated information management.</p>

yes / Product design decomposition and synthesis is a constant challenge with its continuously increasing complexity at each level of abstraction. Currently, design decomposition and synthesis analytical tasks are mostly accomplished via functional and structural methods. These methods are useful in different phases of design process for product definition and architecture but limited in a way that they tend to focus more on ‘what’ and less on ‘how’ and vice versa. This paper combines a functional representation tool known as System State Flow Diagram (a solution independent approach), a solution search tool referred as Morphology Table, and Design Structure Matrix (mainly a solution dependent tool). The proposed approach incorporates Multiple Domain Matrix (MDM) to integrate the knowledge of both solution independent and dependent analyses. The approach is illustrated with a case study of solar robot toy, followed by its limitations, future work and discussion.

Incorporating electronics and software systems into manufactured goods is becoming very common in manufacturing companies. New technical functions, increased flexibility, and compensation for mechanical design weaknesses are some key drivers of this technological change in our everyday products. The automotive industry exemplifies this trend, since approximately 80–90% of new functions in cars are based on electronics and software, and it is expected that at least a third of the total cost of a car will eventually be accounted for by electronics and software. However, one of the main downsides of this technological trend is the increasing number of quality issues related to these new technologies, something usually claimed to be a result of the increased product development complexity. Previous research into product development management has mainly concentrated on either physical products or software systems, but not concurrently on both. Additionally, much of the research has concentrated on issues of integrating marketing, R&amp;D, and manufacturing in these companies, and has treated the engineering disciplines in R&amp;D as a homogenous group. Motivated by this change in technology content and the lack of research into complex product development and especially into integration between engineering disciplines, the present work investigates how to increase operational performance in multidisciplinary engineering organizations. This work has especially focused on interdisciplinary integration and the feasibility of various so-called integration mechanisms, such as building common physical facilities, job rotation programs, the implementation and use of information and communications technology, and computer-aided engineering tools. Both qualitative and quantitative research has been performed, involving 11 different companies and over 300 respondents. Supported by the present findings, it is demonstrated that interdisciplinary integration is a crucial factor to consider, and it is concluded that certain integration mechanisms stand out as more important than others. Organizational structure, work procedures and methods, training, social systems, and computer-aided engineering were the five types of mechanisms that displayed the greatest potential for improvement. It is further concluded that the ability to successfully match the body of practices to current products is essential, since there is a high risk of current practices becoming out-dated with respect to the technology content. Furthermore, inadequate identification of or managerial ability to establish the currently most important interfaces complicate the choice of trade-offs between various technologies that are found to be essential to cope with the inherent dynamic complexity. The organizational powerbase is often re-positioned in the studied organizations, and the loss of decisive power can result in a demoralizing ignorance of newly established disciplines and their design practices. Additionally, rigid structures and counterproductive traditions can reduce the potential gains accruing from new boundary-spanning innovations, so organizational responsibilities and mandates must be declared unambiguously, in many cases differently from how they have been in the past. Based on these conclusions, it is suggested that managers in organizations like those studied must be able to do the following: cultivate software knowledge in all parts and levels of the product development organization; reassess their recruitment strategies; organize for interdisciplinary collaboration; articulate and communicate the technology fusion strategy to all disciplines; and realize and disseminate the fact that product launches do not only concern manufacturability. / QC 20100621

In any organization, formal and informal face-to-face meetings make up a profound part in the daily life of its members. Meetings are played out continuously, some formal, such as a management board meeting, an information meeting, or a project meeting. The formal meetings people “attend to”, “participate in”, or “are in charge of” depending on a person’s position within them. Other meetings are less formal, such as a desk-side discussion, a chat in the hallway, or a private conversation between two colleagues. The latter often just appear, seemingly by chance. This dissertation examines meetings, as a way of observing the organizing process of complex product development projects. More specifically, organizations engaging in complex product development can be viewed as tension systems, where the dominant tension is between innovation and control. From this perspective, a critical challenge for a product development project becomes one of managing a balancing act between individual action and creativity, on one hand, and collaboration and control, on the other, ensuring that ideas and knowledge retrieved by their parts can be pooled into an integrated whole. By studying the interplay between different types of face-to-face meetings that took place in two projects developing telecommunication systems, this thesis engages in an inquiry of how this balancing act was played out in practice. The findings of the study suggest that the informal meetings comprised occasions that facilitated the perception of complex and ambiguous issues and gave rise to innovative interpretations of how to deal with them. When issues have been defined and interpreted, formal meetings were used to “elevate” and “enter” them into a formal existence. Then, formal claims for action could be established in which people in the projects were organized around the task of solving a specific and recognized problem.  Thus, formal meetings served as a controlling and structuring function. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2002</p>

Complex number is a major mathematical discovery. It can be used in many scientific fields, including engineering, electromagnetism, quantum physics, applied mathematics, and chaos theory. The aim of this paper investigates the problems of algebra, trigonometry and geometry, which can be solved cleverly by the properties of complex numbers.

This study investigates product development of complex products in a modular environment at the paver manufacturer Dynapac. It is determined how the complexity of a modular product constrains product development.Product development in a modular enviornment is a popular research topic in previous literature. However there is limited literature regarding in what ways the complexity of a modular product constrains product development in form of new product variants demanded by the market. A more comprehensive research within this field is interesting for manufacturing companies producing complex products in a modular environment since it could ease and optimize their product development processes. An efficient product development process is crucial to stay competitive and to be able to serve the market rapidly with qualitative and desired products, which increases the importance of this study.With the aim to address the limitations of the existing literature on product development based from modular complex product systems a case study was conducted. The constraints of developing a new paver model demanded by the market caused by the complexity of the paver design were identified.The findings of the research have both theoretical and managerial implications. The theoretical contribution consists mainly of the identification of a new type of overall constraints in modular complex product systems which I call ‖architectural functional constraints‖. These constraints cause an unexpected chain reaction of affected modules in the product system when a change to one module is made, even if the change ostensibly only should affect the module in question. The results show that the effects of this type of constraints is a constraining factor on product development of new product variants in a modular environment. The effects of the architectural functional constraints constrain product development since they trigger time consuming activities in order to avoid a dysfunctional product, or a product that has a high level of commonality with other product offerings. Further the effects oppose a rapid and cost-efficient product development which is regarded to be two of the main benefits with modularity.The managerial implications include a decision process for new product development projects that can be used when architectural functional constraints are found in a product in order to ensure an economic sustainable development of new product variants. Hence managers can use the decision process as a tool to both make and communicate current and future decisions in a structured way.The study is a starting point for further studies investigating how the complexity of modular products might constrain product development efforts. It is expected that the results of the study can be used by other manufacturing companies operating in a similar context, producing complex product systems in a modular environment.

Increased use of data is influencing the existing practices in the engineering domain,including that of systems engineering. Complex products and systems (CoPS), along with its predominant methodology of development, Model-based systems engineering(MBSE), is no exception to this. This thesis explores the possible integration of the emerging data driven methods and the established model-based methods in the context of CoPS development. It also explores what the implications of such an integration could be for the organizations building such systems, the system integrators. To analyse the current state of the art in CoPS development and model based methods as well as the emerging trends in data driven methods, this research employs an integrative literature review method. The literature search concluded in 71 selected articles to be reviewed. These articles where divided over three main categories, CoPS, Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and data driven methods.The results of the analysis suggest that data driven methods and the model-based methods complement rather than compete throughout the innovation life cycle of CoPS. The findings indicate that an integration of the methods is beneficial to the architectural, systemic, and component level innovation in CoPS. MBSE and data driven methods could however have different levels of influence in these three types of innovation. The findings indicate that MBSE could have more influence in architectural innovations, while data driven methods could be more influential in systemic and component innovation. The continuous innovation in the use phase of system is also seen to be improved by this integration. The system integrators benefit from the improved project to project learning resulting from the integration which enhances their economy of repetition. An integrated method could also increase the speed of which decisions can be made while still maintaining reliability in the system. The results indicate that the number of iterations could increase due to the increased feedback of data and the learnings gained from it, which could pose some challenge to the existing project management methods. Further research is needed to find out what are the full benefits of an integrated method and identify other potential conflicts.

Due to different engineering background and limited technical prerequisites, trade-offs are needed when managing information in complex product development. The challenges faced with information management for complex product development are as much of organizational as technical character. Information management has in this thesis been analyzed from both a technical and organizational dimension in order to obtain an integrated view and holistic understanding. The technical dimension focuses on information management systems, such as product lifecycle management systems. An information management system in itself does not solve problems in an organization; it manages at its best all types of business data while storing and retrieving information. In order to succeed, information management needs to be aligned with different needs and with a variety of domain-specific work procedures. The organizational dimension includes organizational structures, work procedures, and the designer and management perspectives on needs and benefits with information management. Perceived benefits with integrated information management are identified as support for SE, work procedure mapping, use of disciplinary support tools, and data integrity and availability. Five technical and organizational key success factors for efficient information management are presented; usability, integration of information, motivation, information structure and organizational support. It is concluded that structured information, management support and motivation among designers are more important than customization of information management systems in order to achieve integrated information management. / <p>QC 20101112</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to New Product Development-literature by expanding the analysis of the R&amp;D-manufacturing interface in complex product development in three areas, i.e. the outsourcing of manufacturing, uncertainty and time-criticality, and field service. The thesis focuses on interface challenges and solutions which concern three questions: How does the level of outsourcing of manufacturing affect the management of the R&amp;Dmanufacturing interface in complex product development? How does the presence of uncertainty and time-criticality affect the management of the R&amp;Dmanufacturing interface in complex product development? How does the need to consider field service requirements affect the management of the R&amp;Dmanufacturing interface in complex product development? The background and point of departure is the realization that there are three areas which influence the management of the important, dynamic interface between R&amp;D and manufacturing. First, the level of outsourcing of manufacturing is increasing in many industries, which makes it even more demanding to manage the R&amp;D-manufacturing interface in complex product development. Second, complex product development may also be characterized by uncertainty and time-criticality, and previous research indicates that these factors need to be handled differently. Third, it is increasingly important to consider not only R&amp;D and manufacturing, but also field service requirements. The research methodology rests on a multiple case study approach where the main case used in this thesis is an extreme case in terms of uncertainty, R&amp;D intensity and volume levels, i.e. Micronic Laser Systems. The main findings of the thesis revolve around the identification of the challenges and solutions involved in complex product development. Based on five research papers, the thesis identifies challenges associated with each of the three research questions, and all challenges identified revolve around how to identify and understand conflicting requirements, to establish an understanding of changing prerequisites and their implications, and to ensure active involvement and a certain degree of competence overlap between organizational functions (internal as well as external). The solutions identified for handling these challenges have one thing in common, namely a focus on achieving controlled responsiveness and flexibility based on an understanding of tradeoffs, interaction, and informed decision-making. These solutions differ from those prescribed in conventional product development literature which tends to focus on upfront planning techniques and how to follow plans. The findings may be of value to a variety of managers in different environments, in particular for project managers who are involved in complex product development. The main reason is that this kind of product development exhibits challenges and solutions different from those described in conventional literature on new product development, at least in cases where there is some degree of uncertainty.

Mit der zunehmenden Bedeutung von virtuellen Prototypen in den frühen Phasen der Produktentwicklung wachsen ebenso die an die verwendeten Softwarelösungen gestellten Anforderungen. Sollen unterschiedliche Faktoren wie Funktionalität, Design oder auch Ergonomie getestet werden, so muss die verwendete Software Module bereitstellen, welche die Erstellung von ganzheitlichen Produktmodellen ermöglichen. Zu den benötigten Modulen zählen zum Beispiel Simulation, Grafik, Eingabeschnittstellen oder Sound. Mit der steigenden Komplexität der zu erstellenden Prototypen wächst jedoch auch der Aufwand für die Entwickler und Anwender, sich in diese einzuarbeiten, diese zu konfigurieren und zu verwalten. An dieser Stelle setzt das Forschungsprojekt GENIAC an. Sein Ziel ist es, die Konfiguration von hochkomplexen Software-Frameworks mit Hilfe natürlicher Benutzeroberflächen zu vereinfachen. Hierzu werden die zu untersuchenden Konfigurationen als Netzwerke auf großflächigen Multi-Touch Bildschirmen dargestellt und mittels natürlicher Gestensteuerung bearbeitet.