ASSIGNMENT

1) Write short notes on CAD and concurrent engineering.

Answer:

Computer-aided Design (CAD)

Computer-aided Design (CAD), also known as Computer-aided Drafting, is the use of computer
software and systems to design and create 2D and 3D virtual models of goods and products for
the purposes of testing. It is also sometimes referred to as computer assisted drafting.
Advantages of CAD In the field of product development there are often immense costs
associated with the testing of new products. Every new product must undergo at least a small
measure of physical testing – not only to ensure that it meets minimum safety standards but
also to ensure that it will successfully operate under the range of conditions to which it can
expect to be exposed. Example: The wing of an airplane must undergo stress tests to ensure
that it will retain its integrity even under the most grueling weather and turbulence conditions
before it is approved for use. Unfortunately, this testing can be ruinously time-consuming and
expensive. If an aeronautical company has to physically build dozens of wings in the course of
testing a new design then the final cost and time scale of the project can be far higher than
projected. Fortunately, there is no need to physically test all of these designs. Instead,
developers can run virtual stress tests using computer-aided design, substituting a wind tunnel
for a CAD application that can simulate the same conditions. The benefits of virtual simulations
are obvious. In addition to a reduction in the cost of product development and the time
required to run tests there is also the advantage that conceptual designs can be modified
instantly as the tests progress. Perhaps one of the best examples of this versatility can be seen
in the design of the airplane wing. The science of aerodynamics is complex, and it is often the
case that certain wing shapes can create unexpected turbulence under certain conditions.
When this occurs during physical testing it can be a challenge to discover the problem and
make alterations. When running virtual tests using CAD, however, alterations to the design can
be made quickly and easily, so new designs can be tested and retested until the problem is
resolved. Business Applications for CAD Idea Generation With the limiting factor of prototype
manufacture removed, CAD allows the process of idea generation to become much more
flexible. Enterprises can afford to be more open to new ideas and suggestions than in the past
– from both employees and potential customers. Suggestions for new products can be quickly
tested at a much lower cost than in the past. Augmentation CAD opens up the possibility to
make slight improvements on new product designs instantly. While this can be of great benefit
in the design of a new product it can also be extremely useful for investigating possible
improvements to existing products – or even reverse engineering and augmenting the
products of competitors. Market Testing Through designing new products using CAD it
becomes possible to begin the process of market testing much earlier than in the past. Focus
groups can be presented with virtual mock-ups of new products more quickly than would be
possible with physical prototypes, and alterations can be made based on their feedback
almost instantly. Since modifications can be made simply by entering new data into the CAD
software, updated virtual mock-ups can be presented to the same audience for further
feedback during the same session.

CASE STUDY: Designing Maruti 800 This note was given by the General Manager of Maruti
Udyog Ltd. to its Vice Chairman, as a basis for selection of the product that needed to be
selected for manufacture. The nationalization of Maruti in 1981 created an opportunity for the
government to revamp the Automotive Industry in the country. The challenge of revamping
the Automotive Industry could be met if Maruti could manufacture quality products at
competitive prices. The most important decision before the new company was the selection of
the right product and product mix, as many projects falter due to the choice of inappropriate
technology or product mix at the start of the project. The positioning of Maruti Udyog was
reflected in the key words: modern and contemporary; lower operating costs; commercially
viable products; modern process technology. Its objectives were:

1. To offer vehicles which are modern and contemporary in design so as to raise the level of
automotive technology within the country;

2. To manufacture these vehicles with operating costs comparable to world standards and
lower than that of existing vehicles, for improved consumer values;

3. To generate economies of scale and thereby create commercially viable products,

introducing modern process technology in the engineering industry. The price difference
between a passenger car and scooter/motor-cycle was over 60,000 per unit. There was an
extremely large market of scooter/motor-cycle owners, who could be developed into car
owners. No manufacturer had been able to service this market. In case, this market could be
serviced, it would create a totally new demand segment and would be independent of
conventional demand for passenger cars, which had been stationary for quite some time. The
new demand would generate primarily from the high-income group owners of two wheelers.
To capitalize on this market segment, the traditional concept of cars would need to be
abandoned and the approach to the passenger car would have to be unique and revolutionary.
I have looked at compacts and noticed the following points:
1. Have superior performance characteristics, compared to existing cars manufactured in
India.
2. Around 15-20 per cent more fuel-efficient than the medium cars of the same manufacturer.
3. Around 25 per cent less expensive than the medium car of the same manufacturer
We need to look at subcompacts and not compacts. Sub-compacts have further advantages in
terms of fuel efficiency and price over the compacts. Compacts have traditionally been
manufactured by high production volume technology. The manufacturing cost of this type of
vehicle is highly dependent upon the volumes that can in order to reach BEP and start
generating surplus be generated. Sub-compacts do not need to be manufactured in very large
numbers; the sub-compact is, therefore, less sensitive to volume requirements than other
categories of passenger cars. If volume is not the predominant criteria in the manufacture of
sub-compacts, export of these vehicles is not a very important requirement. An inexpensive,
fuel-efficient and modern car catering to the needs of the middle and upper-middle class can,
therefore, be designed with specifications relating to Indian needs.

Concurrent engineering is a method of designing and developing engineering products in

which different departments simultaneously work on the different stages of engineering
product development. If managed well, it helps to increase the efficiency of product
development and marketing, considerably reducing the time and contributing to the reduction
of the overall development cost while improving the final product quality.

Concurrent Engineering interactions

Concurrent Engineering interactions
This streamlined approach towards an engineering product forces several teams within the
organisation, such as product design, manufacturing, production, marketing, product support,
finance, etc., to work simultaneously on new product development.

For instance, while engineering product designers begin to design the product, the sales team
can start working on the marketing, and the product support department can start thinking
about the after-sale support. While the mechanical designers work on the packaging design to
incorporate the PCB developed by the electrical engineering team, the software engineers can
start looking at the software code.

Concurrent engineering, also known as integrated product development (IPD) or simultaneous

engineering, was introduced a few decades ago to eliminate the issues from sequential
engineering or the so-called “over the wall” process. This systematic approach is intended to
force all the stakeholders to be involved and the full engineering product cycle to be
considered from concept to after-sale support. There are plenty of incentives to choose
Concurrent engineering over sequential engineering product development.

The popularity of integrated product development has grown recently, thanks to the ever-
increasing demand for expeditiously quality products at affordable prices.

Although managing a simultaneous engineering process is very challenging, the techniques

and practices followed as part of concurrent engineering benefit from several competitive
advantages to the company and to the final engineering product itself.

Elements of concurrent engineering

Concurrent engineering presents an environment that encourages and improves the
interaction of different disciplines and departments towards a single goal of satisfying
engineering product requirements. A PPT framework or the Golden Triangle can summarise
key elements of concurrent engineering.

2) Why do you think concurrent engineering is more critical in high clock-speed industries?

Answer:

Concurrent engineering or simultaneous engineering is a discipline of integrated product

development whereby all the life cycle aspects of a single product are considered
simultaneously right from the start. Even at the conceptual phase, engineers are already
working on solving everything possible that comes after the product launch.

In concurrent engineering, the various stages in product design (from conception to after-
sales support) are approached and analysed, discussed and optimised at the initial stage to
prevent undue wastage of time, effort, and money in the long run.

For example, while the design engineers are finalising the product design:

The marketing team can start creating ad campaigns

The sales team can create suitable pitches
The manufacturing team can choose the appropriate production methods
The supply team can start optimising methods of delivery
The support team can create the infrastructure for installation and post-sale support
Sequential vs Concurrent Engineering
For comparison, let’s outline the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional sequential
engineering method. This systematic approach dictates that only after finishing one stage,
the product would be sent to the next stage.

Sequential vs concurrent engineering.

Sequential or waterfall method vs concurrent engineering

The process is also known as “over the wall” approach as each department completes the
assigned task and passes it over a hypothetical (or actual) cubicle wall.

With simpler products that don’t require much collaboration and communication, this
method works well. The sequential engineering method is also easy to track. Bottlenecks
and underperformers can be easily picked out and rectified. A highly complex product line
was made simple, fast, and efficient.

But issues always arise. If one of the departments makes a mistake in their assigned task,
the product would be sent back over the wall for rectification. This is known as ‘reverse
flow’ and is one of the major reasons for its inefficiency.

Elements of Concurrent Engineering

Over time, as products became more and more complex, some of these walls came down
naturally due to necessity. More collaboration in product development became imperative
to avoid errors that could prove expensive if allowed to occur.

Gradually, as the benefits of this new method became more apparent, smart companies
started actively pursuing ways to develop it. Overall, concurrent engineering can be divided
into three main elements: people, process and technology.

People
People form the backbone of any organisation. Choosing the right design team at the initial
stages of product design concept generation is of paramount importance. The product
development in concurrent engineering necessitates that plenary meetings be held of
people from different job functions.

The multidisciplinary team meetings are necessary to reduce development time and
improve overall product quality. The right team will have a certain set of qualities that
promote co-operation, sharing and trust.

Information and feedback sharing by employees must be a regular part of all meetings. Any
changes in design or tolerance limits must be conveyed to all concerned departments at the
earliest.

The people have to be open to criticism and quick changes. Bringing in different
departments at an early stage means that ideas that are knowingly not ripe for production
are open for everyone to comment and make suggestions on.

Process
The process is the most important element in concurrent engineering. It defines the
different product development stages that must be achieved in order to reach the end goal.
Each stage is then further divided and optimised.

As every product and organisation is different, the general philosophy of concurrent

engineering must be moulded to fit the project at hand.

Even the most qualified design team will become ineffective and confused if a well-defined
process is not put in place. The process refers to the group of different methods used to
reach the common goal of the organisation.

The different processes should be capable of functioning in sync so that relevant job
functions can keep each other updated about developments and discuss problems should
any arise.

Some of the processes that need to be determined are:

Workflow management and project planning processes

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) – for translating customer needs to appropriate
technical requirements at each development stage
Design evaluation parameters and methods
Failure analysis and design modification
Technology
As concurrent engineering requires much more communication and collaboration than the
traditional methods, new technologies are necessary to enable and encourage information
sharing. There are many amazing technologies available that promote collaboration and
instant information sharing.

Any changes requested by a department will be notified to other pertinent departments.

The relevant departments, through these technologies, can then collectively assess the
impact of these changes on the final design. Alternate iterations can be suggested and easily
compared and analysed. Some of these tools are:

Rapid prototyping technologies

Project management software for integrated product development
3D CAD/CAM tools
Tools for FEA
Communication and collaboration technologies
Failure mode analysis tools
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Why Use Concurrent Engineering?
The three most important factors that affect the market share and profitability of an
organization are product quality and design, unit cost, and manufacturing lead time.
Concurrent engineering (CE) helps companies achieve a competitive edge by improving
every one of these factors. Let’s take a look at how this is achieved.

Highly Innovative Solutions

Many times, the skills of employees from different departments overlap. An engineer
responsible for shop floor efficiency might have a good eye for aesthetics. A sales executive
could have beneficial knowledge regarding design changes that can boost demand from a
specific demographic.

Sure, a person whose speciality is in solving a particular issue will have great solutions but
since the problem is open for all to see and ponder solutions, valuable input can be
obtained from employees who are directly or indirectly affected by it.

Cross-discipline meetings take advantage of this fact to identify possible issues and
brainstorm solutions that are mutually acceptable. This prevents big mistakes later in the
production line, ultimately saving time and money through open information sharing.

Most Modifications Occur in the Initial Stage

Concurrent engineering is developed to identify and resolve issues early on. Every single
stage from market research to after-sales support is discussed in the beginning to see how it
fits together.

A large number of iterations take place at this stage. These iterations reduce scrap
production, minimise the number of future changes, reduce manufacturing lead times, and
practically give us the final product control characteristics.

Sequential engineering, on the other hand, goes through few changes in the initial stages
while many more changes are almost inevitably required later to improve efficiency. These
changes have a large impact on the time it takes to bring a new product to the market.

Decreased Risk of Loss

As almost all teams are involved in multiple facets of the product development process,
there is more overlapping. More than one person has the necessary information about the
new product and its life cycle.

Therefore, losing a single employee does not bear a large risk on the overall success of the
project. Also, adding new members is easier because of the free flow of information.

Shorter Time-to-Market
Simultaneous engineering
This is probably the biggest win concurrent engineering has to offer. By working on many
facets of the project simultaneously, there is a lot of time to be saved. This can result in a
significant advantage over competitors through entering the market with a new product
earlier.

Challenges of Concurrent Design

In order to successfully implement concurrent design, one needs to know about the
challenges that come across product managers. An adequate understanding of these
barriers can help reduce or completely eliminate them. When it comes to concurrent
engineering, the two main barriers are organisational and technical.

Organisational barrier refers to the management style, values, and culture. These can be
 improved upon with sufficient training of the workforce.

The technical barrier refers to the lack of technological resources for effective data sharing
and communication. The following challenges need addressing in order to successfully
implement concurrent design:
Workforce training and skill development
Insufficient support from management
Impractical schedules
Unreasonable reward systems
Lack of IT tools
Inufficient knowledge and expertise in concurrent engineering application
Lack of proper coordination among team members

3) Critically analyse the concept of delayed differentiation.

Answer:

As a result, fewer products are made unnecessarily, cutting costs for companies that may
have otherwise overproduced particular items. This process of postponement is also
effective in helping companies produce customized products.

Delayed differentiation is a technique commonly used by companies that create generic and
family-based products that need to be differentiated into specific end products. Paint is a
commonly used example. Naturally, paint companies need to offer hundreds of different
colors of paint. Often, factories that produce paint and don’t employ the delay
differentiation technique find they have overproduced particular colors while under-
producing other colors.

Automobile manufacturers are also known to use delayed differentiation.

That way, they are able to mass produce base models of their cars but only make alterations
or add minor customizations when a car is actually ordered by a customer. Such
customizations can include upgraded audio systems, air conditioning, tires or back up
cameras. In some cases, these additions can be installed right at the car dealership.

Industries with high demand uncertainty utilize delayed differentiation to address their
inability to make accurate predictions about demands for their products. Take t-shirt
companies, for example. They may have numerous prints available for their customers to
choose from. Instead of printing all of their different t-shirt designs, they ensure that they
have enough plain shirts in stock to customize once specific shirts have been ordered.
Start with white and add color later.
Many clothing companies take advantage of delayed differentiation by producing their
items in white. The final coloring process isn’t conducted until they know exactly what
colors are bound to be the highest sellers. Just as with the automobile upgrades, many
clothing items are manufactured and sent off to their distributors before the coloring
process begins.

To put it into context, Scott Haliday of Acumen Information Systems offers an apt scenario:
“For example, you offer an item in red, orange, green, black, and white. If you’re using
delayed differentiation, you can, instead of ordering 100 items of each color to keep in your
inventory, order only white ones to keep in stock. Then, when a customer orders ten green
items, you take ten of your white items, turn them green, and ship them to your customer.”

Haliday highlights the fact that manufacturers that use delayed differentiation pay less for
inventory and likely waste much fewer items. In addition, they save room in their
warehouses to store other necessities. “It also reduces the need to have very specific
demand forecasting, as speculating which colors will be the most popular is nearly
impossible,” he writes.

For more information about delayed differentiation and how the Flux Connectivity team
takes advantage of it,
4) "Mass customization is a challenge but very useful if implemented successfully". Validate the
statement.

Answer:

Mass customization refers to a business process of providing customized goods and services
that best meet individual customer’s needs. It reaps the benefits of flexibility, integration, and
personalization to produce custom-made products with low unit costs at near mass
production efficiency.

Mass Customization

Mass customization is a business strategy that focuses on customers and recognizes the need
to provide outstanding products while using new programs and procedures. The strategy
makes it possible to design a product that reflects the actual choice of an individual customer
through a flexible process. The components of a product are modular in some situations.

Summary
Mass customization is the use of standardization and scale economies to deliver wide-market
goods and services tailored to suit specific customer’s requirements in high volumes and at a
reasonable low cost.
Mass customization takes independent and capable modules and customizes them into
different functionalities that suit the user’s preference.
The four main phases of mass customization include collaborative, adaptive, cosmetic, and
transparent customizations.
Understanding Mass Customization
The flexibility of mass customization enables the customer or retailer to mix and match the
modules into different configurations and eventually realize a final custom-made product.
Mass customization is more common in the retail industry but may also apply to other fields.
For example, software creators can design products to allow remote services to increase
functionality.

Another sector that embraces mass customization is the financial industry, which is
characterized by the growth of independent and free-only companies. Mass customization
attempts to give companies a competitive edge by providing unique value to their customers
at lower costs associated with mass production.

Manufacturing firms make use of readily available information and efficient processes to
facilitate the customization process. However, managers have discovered that mass
customization, similar to mass production, is tied with unnecessary complexity and cost. Such
disruptive risks are linked to a lack of due diligence before adopting such a business strategy.
The managers believe that they need to use various methods to provide customer value.

Mass Customization Processes

The process of mass customization entails an interlinked set of activities to capture individual
requirements and translate them into a physical product to be produced and delivered to the
client. Companies provide their customers with a toolkit for product innovation during the
process.

Mass customization attains its goals if the product is developed and tailored to the user
requirements at a reduced cost. The development of sub-processes helps transform the
various customer requirements into generic product architecture from which several
customized products can be derived.

Modularity facilitates the creation of customized-product variety. Other than minimizing the
development lead times considerably, modularity enables companies to realize economies of
scope, economies of substitution, and economies of scale.

Companies use additional concepts to increase the re-usability of customized products, such
as platform and commonality approaches. Under the commonality approach, end users can
use multiple comments on a product for various purposes.

Similarly, a product platform strategy can help companies customize products into several end
variants of the product family. The originator of the innovation gives customers the ability to
develop new product concepts on their own.

Types of Mass Customization

Below are the four main types of mass customization, each with different characteristics and
are applied under different conditions:

Mass Customization

1. Collaborative Customization
Companies work in collaboration with customers who cannot articulate what they want and
are not in a position to specify their preferred options. Under collaborative customization,
customers are offered a range of product options from where to choose, while the product
features are reviewed and adjusted.

2. Adaptive Customization
Under the adaptive approach, manufacturing firms provide customized products that can
perform different functions. The available technologies make it easy to create the product’s
architectural aspects rather than repeatedly adjust its components. Customers can then alter
the standard products during use.

3. Cosmetic Customization
The cosmetic customization approach is used when end-users prefer similar features and differ
in how they want it packaged. In such a case, companies produce standardized products and
present them in different ways that suit customers. For example, the products’ attributes are
advertised or displayed differently.

4. Transparent Customization
The transparent customization approach is mostly used when companies can predict their
customers’ specific needs, especially when customers do not prefer to state their preferences
repeatedly. Companies need not overstate that the products are customized when providing
them; rather, they customize products within a standard package based on customers’
behavior and no direct interaction.

Mass Customization of Software Products

Mass customization is also applicable to intangible products, such as software. Companies use
prototype implementation with industrial partners as a tool to enable the automatic
derivation of software artifacts required to meet customer-specified features.

A product model is then used to deduce information about the different software components
and the existing issues. Quite often, product families are presented using a product model
with multiple abstractions. The technique helps in the identification and definition of software
features. However, meeting personal customer’s needs requires optimal balancing between
operation reality and customer needs.

Real-World Examples
Free-only financial planners allow their principal clients to customize their managed accounts
to align with market conditions. The customer may decide to purchase products that are in
line with their time horizon, future goals, or risk tolerance.

Another example of mass customization is in the clothing industry, where apparel firms use
computer-controlled machines to cut fabrics that match individual body measurements.

More Resources
Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to Mass Customization. To keep learning and advancing your
career, the following resources will be helpful:

Investment Horizon, Product Differentiation, Mass Production

Value Proposition, See all management & strategy resources
5) Name all the objectives of designing.

Answer :

The most general, high-level, decomposition that you can make in BriefBuilder is the
Objectives / Principles tree.

This breakdown is intended for capturing the project’s overall aims and the underlying ideas
—explaining what needs to be achieved with it and what kind of general solutions the client
has in mind. It is the type of information that you will normally find in the strategic brief of a
project.

In contrast to the rest of the BriefBuilder model, objectives and principles are usually quite
abstract: it concerns ‘prose’ rather than explicit requirements. Even so, it is crucial
information because objectives and principles give direction to the overall project and they
are the basis for all the other, more detailed requirements.

This module is not always relevant, for example if you just want to use BriefBuilder for
making a good room book. There is, however, a strength in capturing all requirements
(strategic, functional and technical) in one place.

Objectives and principles

In the breakdown, you can make a distinction between objectives and design principles and
you can use folders to structure the tree. All three are explained below.

Project objectives
Objectives explain what needs to be accomplished with the project. Ideally, objectives do
not focus on the building itself, but on the value that the project has deliver for to the client
and the project’s users. Defining clear objectives is important because it gives purpose and
direction to the project.

It is not a must, but we recommend to formulate objectives as verbs, thereby clearly

indicating that the project has to do something for the client. For example, when building a
new office, the project’s objectives could be formulated as follows: to improve staff well-
being, to reduce costs, and to enhance collaboration.

Tip: try to be as concrete as possible about the project’s objectives. For example: don’t just
say that it should help to “reduce costs”, but explain what kinds of costs it concerns (e.g.
maintenance costs or investment costs) and what the target is (a 10% reduction?).

Design principles
Design principles are the overall concepts, general ideas or high-level requirements that
apply to the project. They typically apply to the project as a whole and not just to a limited
number of objects. Just like objectives, design principles tend to be fairly abstract and of
textual nature.

Examples include general requirements on topics such as sustainability,

maintenance/operation, health and wellness, architectural expression, accessibility, and
efficiency or flexibility.

Folders
You can use folders to structure the tree, grouping project objectives and design principles
according to category if necessary. If you are using a certain classification system, you can
also add classifications to folders.

Creating the structure

To create objectives and principles, go to the Objectives & principles tree via the navigation
menu and click on the at the top of the page. This will allow you to create your first object.
A window will pop up offering you three options to choose from (discussed above). Just click
on one of the options and add a name.

The breakdown of objectives and principles can be quite simple. Most often it is just a list.
See below for an simple example (of an office project).

Simple example of a list with objectives and design principles. It concerns general
information that applies to the project as a whole
Tip: don’t overload the project with all too many objectives and principles. Keeping the
number down (e.g. just five key objectives) will help the design/engineering team to
understand what is truly important in the project and enable them to make the right design
decisions.

Defining project objectives

To explain the objective, you can use the description field. Typically, it concerns fairly high-
level, somewhat ‘fluffy’ texts (at least when compared to the more concrete requirements
in the rest of the model). There is no harm in that, but try to keep it simple and to-the-
point.

Example of a description of a project objective. Note that the text is just a couple of
sentences long. There no need to ‘tire’ the design team with endless texts.
Where possible, the recommendation is to add key performance indicators or specific
targets to the objective. This allows you to evaluate whether objectives have been met. You
can use the properties for this. See example below.
Example of how a general objective is translated into more specific targets. Not always
possible by the way.
When you have many objectives, you may want to add some kind of categorization by using
the labels.

Defining design principles

As said earlier, a design principle is a concept or a general requirement that applies to the
project as a whole. Good examples are things like circularity, accessibility or adaptivity.

Again, you can use the description field to explain what is meant with the design principle in
question. See example below.

The property section can be used to become more specific about the design principle. Don’t
get too detailed however. Detail requirements (e.g. concerning indoor climate or sizes or
enclosure) can best be placed at the specific spaces or construction parts to which they
apply.

An example of a how specific themes/topics can be captured for a design principle. The
Note fields have in this can been used to refer specific parts of the model where the more
detailed requirements can be found.
Linking design principles to specific objects
If relevant, you can link design principles to the objects to which they specifically apply.

For example: if you have a design principle called “agile working”, you may want to link that
principle to the work spaces in your space tree. In similar fashion, you may want to link a
principle like “sustainable design” to specific systems or elements (e.g. PV cells) in your
technical tree.

You can make these links in the following tables:

Specifically applies to (spaces)

Specifically applies to (systems and elements)
Specifically applies to (services)
See below for an example in which the design principle accessibility is linked to the entrance
area (space), the access system (system) and the reception services (service).