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Improving Engineering Design: Designing for Competitive Advantage (1991)

Chapter: Appendix A Examples of Product Realization Processes

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Examples of Product Realization Processes." National Research Council. 1991. Improving Engineering Design: Designing for Competitive Advantage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1774.
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Appendix A

Examples of Product Realization Processes

POLAROID'S PRP

Polaroid's PRP, the Product Delivery Process, is a strategy for assuring that the essential business and technical considerations related to a product's development are considered, evaluated, and understood by the total corporation.

Each of the following elements is essential in the product realization process, and each requires attention and commitment by all levels of the company. The sequence of steps is important. It assures that the product specification be defined and agreed to before the design phase begins and that the product does not require scheduled inventions to stay on schedule.

  1. Explore the business, marketing, and technical opportunities.

  2. Define the customers' needs while continuously improving the product development process.

  3. Define a long-range, customer-focused product line strategy and define the system's architecture for the family of future products.

  4. Clearly and fully define the product performance specification with the product development team (manufacturing, marketing, engineering, finance, led by the program manager).

  5. Insure that the product definition does not require inventions.

  6. With clearly defined and agreed-to product specifications up front, there should be no performance specification changes during the design process (other than ones critical to customer needs).

  7. Establish a benchmark process containing goals and driven by the need for continuous process improvement.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Examples of Product Realization Processes." National Research Council. 1991. Improving Engineering Design: Designing for Competitive Advantage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1774.
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  1. In parallel, continuously develop core technology building blocks for future products.

  2. Design the first system layout with CAE/D/M tools from the start, utilizing multidisciplined, professionally trained engineers and designers.

  3. Concurrent with the product design process, design the manufacturing process.

  4. Build a reusable math model base for the product technology and use it for simulation, analysis, and modeling of future product designs.

  5. Develop an information process for tracking world-class engineering design practices and share successful generic design processes with universities and other U.S. companies.

HEWLETT-PACKARD'S PRP

An important part of Hewlett-Packard's PRP is the Phase Review Process which assigns responsibilities to appropriate individuals at each stage in the development of a product. Senior managers are involved and made responsible for approving product designs. System team members can reside in different divisions and at different locations within the company. This puts the decision making in the right hands and reduces delay and contention. (AT& T uses a similar process, which it calls the checkpoint process.) The full PRP is designed to include all the important participants. For example, the designers are involved through the Break-even Metric described on page 23 and in Figure 8 .

The process has a defined structure. Major management milestones and commitments are identified, including phase exit objectives and functional activities and deliverables. Signed agreements are required from approvers at each system phase exit. An escalation process is defined for issue resolution.

The process defines roles and responsibilities. System management 's role focuses on company business issues and risks. Functional reviewers identify issues and commit to system readiness to exit. Senior management approvers agree upon system advancement and make corporate commitments.

The phase review process has 7 phases:

  1. Requirements/Plan

  2. Study/Define

  3. Specify/Design

  4. 3. Develop/Test

  5. User Test/Ramp Up

  6. Enhance/Support

  7. Maturity

They are defined and related to each other as shown in Figure 9 .

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Examples of Product Realization Processes." National Research Council. 1991. Improving Engineering Design: Designing for Competitive Advantage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1774.
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Figure 9: Phase Review Process Themes

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Examples of Product Realization Processes." National Research Council. 1991. Improving Engineering Design: Designing for Competitive Advantage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1774.
×
Page 75
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Examples of Product Realization Processes." National Research Council. 1991. Improving Engineering Design: Designing for Competitive Advantage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1774.
×
Page 76
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Examples of Product Realization Processes." National Research Council. 1991. Improving Engineering Design: Designing for Competitive Advantage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1774.
×
Page 77
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Effective design and manufacturing, both of which are necessary to produce high-quality products, are closely related. However, effective design is a prerequisite for effective manufacturing. This new book explores the status of engineering design practice, education, and research in the United States and recommends ways to improve design to increase U.S. industry's competitiveness in world markets.

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