Robust Product Concepts - An Approach to Assess Concept Suitability for Production in Early Design Phases

Given the growing change of market conditions and customer requirements production engineering is facing new challenges. Flexibility is required since shifted production as well as increasing outsourcing activities lead to different conditions in terms of operating resources, knowledge and quality. Thus especially product design must answer to these circumstances to support the production planning process – ideally already in very early stages. Needed are product concepts that can easily deal with these conditions – robust products. For their analysis first key factors in design concerning the production process have to be identified. Constraints of parameters at certain decision points in the design process, i.e. the abstraction level, are examined, as well as any interaction between these key factors with each other regarding aspects such as complexity, similarity and conflicts of objectives. The analysis of possible alternatives of both product and production design will support the generic evaluation of product robustness. The final aim is to generate a guideline for a Design for Production in very early phases that will help product developers in future to know about effects certain design decisions will have on the production layout, independent from the designer´s experience and special knowledge about manufacturing and assembly technologies.     «

Given the growing change of market conditions and customer requirements production engineering is facing new challenges. Flexibility is required since shifted production as well as increasing outsourcing activities lead to different conditions in terms of operating resources, knowledge and quality. Thus especially product design must answer to these circumstances to support the production planning process – ideally already in very early stages. Needed are product concepts that can easily deal wi...     »