Understanding the Nature of Specification Changes and Feedback to the Specification Development Process

Year: 2012
Author: Sudin, Mohd Nizam Bin
Supervisor: Ahmed-Kristensen, Saeema
Institution: DTU Management Engineering, Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark
Page(s): 177
ISBN: 978-87-92706-39-3

Abstract

Today’s competitive market has created an extremely challenging environment for global businesses. The challenges for the companies as to remain competitive are cost and time to market but at the same times able to maintain or increase the quality of product to the highest level. To react to these challenges the reasons for higher cost and delay of time to market must be identified at first and strategies for lead-time reduction must be implemented afterward. In business perspective, a new, more strategic outsourcing model could be necessary for speeding for time to market yet also limiting the development cost of new product. In the product development perspective, organizing the tasks in complex design project is essential as repeating the same tasks due to Engineering Changes (ECs) as the product being developed is one of the reasons for the longer lead-time. Thus, reducing the numbers of Engineering Changes (ECs) could be promising in reducing lead-time. The underlying reason for ECs is changes in specification and these changes are carried out for two objectives namely product improvement or error rectification. ECs occur at any stage of the product development process. As ECs are normal part in the product development process thus good Engineering Changes Management (ECM) practice and developing a better design specification is necessary at the start of the product development process. This research study focuses on the effort to develop a better design specification at the start of the product development process. Thus the objective of the research has two fold: 1) Understanding; the significance of changes in specification to ECs during the product development process; the specification development process, the activities carried by design engineers to clarify the design problem and; 2) Developing a practical design support to facilitate design engineer to formulate better requirements for a product. To support the ‘understanding’ objective, three studies were carried out namely: 1) Study 1-document analysis of change request reports (271 reports): 2) Study 2-evolution of requirements during the design process for new product version (6 interviews) and; 3) Study 3-problem decomposition during the specification development process (document analysis of 3 specification documents).
The contributions of the research study are on the following:
• Provide an insight about the nature of changes in specification during the product’s lifecycle.
• Provide empirical evidence about the signification of a specification throughout the product’s lifecycle
• Provide an insight about the development of a specification, evolution of requirements during the design process and consideration made by design engineers as they formulate requirements for a specification.
• Provide a method to consider issues and formulate better requirements for a specification at the start of the product development process.
The results of the research study shows that the development of a better design specification at the start of the design process is significance for ECs reduction as ECs due to changes in specification contributed 13 % - 40 % to ECs occurrence during the product’s lifecycle. In addition, the capability of design engineers to clarify the design problem by decomposing an issue is an advantage for formulating a better requirement. The thesis is concluded with the conclusion of the literature review, Descriptive Study I (DS I), Prescriptive Study (PS) and the evaluation of design support. Future recommendations on how to further improve the devised design support and research area about the specification is included as well, such that the design support can be push to meet the industrial needs.
Danske Resumĕ
Det konkurrenceprćget marked der eksisterer i dag har skabt store udfordringer for globale virksomheder. Disse udfordringer er relateret til økonomi og tid til markedet men også på same tid at opretholde og forøge kvaliteten af produktet så meget som muligt. For at reagere på disse udfordringer skal baggrundede til højere omkostninger samt forsinkelser i produktudgivelser identificeres og strategier for at adressere disse skal derefter implementeres. Set i et forretningsperspektiv kan en ny og mere strategisk outsourcing model vćre nødvendig for at kunne nå markeder samtidig med at omkostninger ved produktudvikling holdes nede. I et produktudviklingsperspektiv er organisationen af opgaver i et komplekst design projekt essentielt idet at gentagelse af de same opgaver grundet Engineering Changes (ECs) mens produktet bliver udviklet er en af grundede til forsinkelser i produktudgivelser.
Den underliggende grund for ECs er forandringer i specifikationer og disse forandringer sker på grund af (1) produkt forbedring samt (2) fejl rettelse. ECs sker på ethvert stadie af produktudviklingsprocessen. Da ECs er en normal del af produktudviklingsprocessen er god Engineering Changes Management (ECM) praksis og udviklingen af en bedre design specifikation nødvendigt i starten af produktudviklingsprocessen. Dette forskningsstudie fokusere på at udvikle en bedre design specifikation i starten af produktudviklingsprocessen. Der er to forskningsobjektiver 1) Forståelse af betydningen af forandringer i specifikationer til ECs i produktudviklingsprocessen; specifikations udviklingsprocessen samt aktiviteterne som udføres af design ingeniører for at klargøre design problemer og 2) Udvikling af praktisk design støtte til at facilitere design ingeniører til at formulere bedre kravspecifikationer for et produkt. For at støtte ‘forståelse’ objektivet blev 3 studier gennemført. Disse var: 1) Studie 1 – dokument analyse af produkt forandrings forespørgsler (271 reporter), 2) Studie 2- evolution af krav specifikationen i design processen for ny produkt udvikling (6 interviews) og 3) Studie 3 - problem dekomposition i krav specifikation udviklings processen (dokument analyse af 3 krav specifikations dokumenter).
Dette forskningsstudie har bidraget med:
• Indsigt ind i hvilke forandringer der laves i specifikationer igennem produktets liv.
• Empirisk bevis på betydningen af en specifikation igennem produktets liv.
• Indsigt ind i udviklingen af en specifikation, evolution af specifikationer I designprocessen og overvejelser foretaget af design ingeniører når de formulerer krav til en kravspecifikation.
• En metode til at adressere forskellige problemer og formulere bedre krav til en specifikation i starten af produktudviklingsprocessen.
Resultaterne af dette forskningsstudie har vist at udviklingen af en bedre design specifikation i starten af design processen signifikant reducere ECs da forandringer I krav tćller for 13-40 % af ECs igennem produktets livstid. Derudover blev det vist at det er en fordel med hensyn til at lave en bedre krav specifikation at design ingeniører kan tydeligøre et design problem ved at dekomponere det. Denne afhandling består af en litteratur undersøgelse, et Deskriptivt Studie I (DS I), et Prćskriptivt Studie (PS) og udviklingen af et design støtte vćrktøj. Forslag til videre forskning samt videre udvikling af design vćrktøjet er detaljeret så dette kan mode industrielle behov.

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