Approaches to Design Development

Question 1

Describe converging and diverging when in the context of new product strategy.

Answer 1

When diverging, the team goes off separately and gathers info/makes prototypes. When converging, team comes together and discusses progress made and makes important milestone decisions.

Question 2

Give some examples of concurrent engineering benefits.

Answer 2

1. Rationalisation - ensures design is rationalised for capabilities of manufacturing system. Team focuses on a common goal rather than conflicting departmental goals.
2. Working in parallel - many processes occur concurrently rather than sequentially.
3. Reduction in lost time caused by communication breakdowns - conversations tend to be more direct and less formal
4. Preempting errors and spotting problems early - when products are finally released for production there are less changes.
5. Flexibility to accommodate changes.
6. Providing best overall input - brings concentrated resources to bear in on the task.
7. Decreased occurrence of obsolescence
8. Better use of scarce technical resources.

Question 3

Give some examples of downsides and pitfalls of concurrent engineering.

Answer 3

1. Degradation of turnaround time - group may not be able to deal large amount of information is divulged simultaneously.
2. Risk of wasted effort - greater degree of risk of human resources doing something parallel than is required.
3. Possible increase in iterative costs - some portions of work will have to be redone.
4. Errors build up - engineers can go overboard and engage in more simultaneity than necessary.
5. Concurrent chaos - sharing immature or imperfect information early results in increasing number of life cycles effected.