Sunday, December 8, 2013

Operations Management - B. Mahadevan - Book Information


Book by IIM Bangalore Professor
Pearson Education Publication

"Covers the core concepts and theories of production and operations management in the global as well as Indian context. Includes boxes, solved numerical examples, real-world examples and case studies, practice problems, and videos. Focuses on strategic decision making, design, planning, and operational control"


http://books.google.co.in/books?id=pq4k3EaFzMYC

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Driving Innovation through Design: Engineering in the 21st Century - 2010- Workshop Proceedings Information



Innovation has been the key to the United States’ success [1] and evidence suggests that
transformational innovations occur at the intersection of multiple disciplines rather than isolated
within them [2]. The innovation process can be accelerated when using integrated design
methods and tools [3]. However, there is limited consensus on the constituents of scientific
approaches for design innovation, and there are many research questions spanning multiple
disciplines in the world of Design. In the current discipline-oriented university system it is equally
challenging to create and cultivate an interdisciplinary learning environment that empowers our
students and provides the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they will need to deal with the rapid
pace of technological change, the interconnected world, and the complexity of its problems.
Solutions will require multidisciplinary approaches and systems thinking.

http://faculty.babson.edu/sfixson/NSF.DesignDrivingInnovation.final.pdf

Mass Customization: Engineering and Managing Global Operations - 2010 - Book Information




Mass Customization: Engineering and Managing Global Operations
Flavio S. Fogliatto, Giovani J. C. da Silveira
Springer, 09-Nov-2010 - Electronic books - 396 pages


Mass customization (MC) has been hailed as a successful operations strategy across manufacturing and service industries for the past three decades. However, the wider implications of using MC approaches in the broader industrial and economic environment are not yet clearly understood.

"Mass Customization: Engineering and Managing Global Operations" presents emerging research on the role of MC and personalization in today 's international operations context. The chapters cover MC in the context of global industrial economics and operations. Moreover, the book discusses MC topics that are relevant to the manufacturing and service sectors, such as:
product platforms;
learning curve modeling;
additive manufacturing; and
service customization.
Case studies in manufacturing (e.g., apparel and transportation) and services (e.g., banking and virtual worlds) are also included.

"Mass Customization: Engineering and Managing Global Operations" is a valuable text for mass customization researchers and practitioners. Researchers will find a selection of chapters prepared by internationally renowned authors, comprising most of their recent research in MC. Engineering professionals will be drawn by the vivid discussion of operational aspects and methods of MC, as well as by the selection of cases illustrating their practical application.

The Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing publishes the best teaching and reference material to support students, educators and practitioners in manufacturing technology and management. This international series includes advanced textbooks, research monographs, edited works and conference proceedings covering all subjects in advanced manufacturing. The series focuses on new topics of interest, new treatments of more traditional areas and coverage of the applications of information and communication technology (ICT) in manufacturing.

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=YZnvw5a5SO4C

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Product Design Management in Japan - Books, Articles and Research Papers




Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization, and Management in the World Auto Industry



Kim B. Clark, Prof Harvard Business School

Harvard Business Press, 1991 - Business & Economics - 409 pages
The result of six years of research conducted at the Harvard Business School on how different manufacturing firms around the world approach the development of new products. Its principal focus is on the impact of strategy, organization, and management on this critical component of business strategy. Concentrates on case studies from the world auto industry. Drawing on extensive research on twenty companies in Europe, North America, and Japan, the authors identify the strategies, practices, and capabilities that create superior performance in lead time, engineering productivity, and total product quality. The authors make the general applications of their findings clear to other industries. Managers will see how engineering needs to become more customer oriented, how integrated problem-solving activities pay off, how lead times can be cut without damaging side effects, and how strong project leaders championing products can promote innovative results.
http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Product_Development_Performance.html?id=7cCAASTW6IQC&redir_esc=y

Engineered in Japan: Japanese Technology-management Practices - Book Information



Engineered in Japan: Japanese Technology-management Practices


Jeffrey K. Liker, John E. Ettlie, John Creighton Campbell

Oxford University Press, 1995 - Business & Economics - 404 pages
Engineered in Japan presents a unique and comprehensive examination of technology management in the most successful Japanese companies: unique in that all chapters go beyond superficial descriptions of stylized practices to look in depth at particular issues, often contradicting or qualifying the conventional wisdom; comprehensive in that it covers the entire technology life cycle from basic R&D, to development engineering, to manufacturing processes, to learning from the Japanese.
Each chapter is based on original research by noted scholars in the field, and identifies technology management practices that have become a major source of competitive advantage for highly successful Japanese companies. Engineered in Japan documents the best practices from such companies as Toyota, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Nippondenso, and discusses how these technology management practices can be usefully adopted in other cultural contexts.
Going beyond past observations, the authors all delve below the surface of Japanese management approaches. They look more closely than has been done before at how particular methods are applied, and they identify some new practices that have not yet been highlighted in books on Japanese methods. Presenting recent data that contradict some conventional thinking about U.S.-Japanese differences, they look at old techniques from a new perspective.
"U.S. managers can perhaps learn more from the process of creation in Japan and the organizational structures that support innovation," say the editors in their introduction, "than from the particular approaches, tools, and technologies created." A running theme throughout the book is that Japanese managers and engineers tend to think in terms of systems, focusing not just on the parts but on the connections between them. Engineered in Japan is must reading for technology managers and engineers, along with anyone interested in Japanese business, engineering, and management.

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=JGBCf1XEFSYC

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Historical Development of Engineering Management


Engineering Management as an idea and discipline has a long history.


Engineering Management - The Definition, Scope and Content by Narayana Rao

ASME Management Division History 1886- 1980
http://management.myasme.info/upload/ManagementDivisionHistory1886-1980.pdf

http://management.myasme.info/

50 years of engineering management through the lens of the IEEE transactions

Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on
Nov. 2004. Volume: 51  , Issue: 4, Page(s): 391- 395
Allen, T.J.
Sloan Sch. of Manage., Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA


Father Engineering Management - Henri Fayol by Narayana Rao
Lock (1993) named Fayol as the founding father of Engineering Management.
Lock, D., 1993, Handbook of Engineering Management (Butterworth-Heinemann, Boston, USA).
From the paper - http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/6371/1/strathprints006371.pdf

________________
________________

Management of Engineering Design


Engineering design work may be classified as:

Creative Design: Design of a completely new item. This has to be done from a prototype developed by an inventor. It requires high degree competence as the invention has to designed in a such a way that the cost of producing the product will give a profit.

Developmental Design: This type of design may proceed from an existing design but the ultimate product could differ significantly from the earlier design.

Adaptive Design: Adapting the existing design for some constraints of the engineering system in which it will be used.

Approach used in Engineering Design

1. Needs analysis
2. Define the design problem: Converting the customer requirements into technical specifications is done in this step.
3. Developing high level alternative solutions to the problem
4. Perform feasibility analysis
5. Optimize selected solutions
6. Choose a solution
7. Do the detailed design


Objectives for Design Department

Customer Acceptable Design
Creative Design
Reliable Design
Profitable Design
Design for Manufacture
Meet Design Delivery targets

Management Decisions in Engineering Design Activity or Function
Management Decisions - Planning, Organizing, Resourcing, Directing and Control Decisions

Accepting the design task
Developing the estimates for budget, office space, human resources, equipment etc.
Acquiring the resources
Breakdown of tasks
Liaising with suppliers
Deciding priorities
Division of responsibility among various technical responsibilities
Monitoring the output


Review of Design by Specialists

Manufacturability Review - Constructability Review
Safety Review
Reliability Review
Maintainability Review
Industrial Engineering Review
   - Ergonomic Review
   - Value Engineering Review
  - Engineering Economics Review


Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_management

AMEC - detailed engineering phase activities list
http://www.amec.com/documents/1_about_us/brochures_and_publications/detailed-engineering-design-phase.pdf

NSW Transport Rail - Design Management Process Manual
http://engineering.railcorp.nsw.gov.au/Disciplines/AllStandards/Design_Management_Process.pdf

Managing Design in Outsourced Contracts for Design
http://oro.open.ac.uk/28479/1/IJTM_ManagingEngDesign.pdf


Video Presention on Engineering Design Management
http://vimeo.com/40625313

Design Engineering:  Bentley White Paper
http://ftp2.bentley.com/dist/collateral/docs/assetwise/wp_design-engineering_hilmar-retief.pdf







Monday, February 18, 2013

Father of Engineering Management - Henri Fayol



Henri Fayol is the Father of Engineering Management.

Henri Fayol may also be known as Father of  Modern Management itself. But he initiated the discussion of management as a component of properly doing or administering engineering activity.


You can see the emphasis of Henri Fayol on Engineering Management or Industrial Management or Technology Management in his first sentence of the book "General and Industrial Management."

All activities to which industrial undertakings give rise can be divided into the following six groups-

1. Technical activities (production, manufacture, adaptation)
2. Commercial activities (buying, selling, exchange)
3. Financial activities (search for and optimum use of capital)
4. Security activities (protection of property and persons)
5. Accounting activities (planning, organization, command, statistics)
6. Managerial activities (planning, organization, command, co-ordination, control)


In an industrial undertaking, the six essential functions are closely interdependent. Production cannot exist without raw materials, sales outlets, capital and payment system based on accounts.

Management is not exclusive privilege of one person in an organization. It is an activity carried out in varying degrees by many people in the organization. Fayor indicated that even workman does some management activities.

____________________________________________________________________

Class of                Managerial  Technical   Commercial   Financial  Security  Accounting
Employee

Workman                   5%            85%                                              5%          5%
Foreman                   15               60                  5%                         10           10
Superintendent          25               45                  5             5              10          15
Head-of-Section        30               30                  5             5              10          20
Head-Tech-dept        35               30                 10            5              10          10
Manager - CEO        40               15                 15           10              10          10

CEO - Several          50               10                 10           10               10         10
Establishments

____________________________________________________________________

The important point to note is the importance of the technical function. Even if one is the CEO of an engineering concern, his understanding and direction engineering activities is very important and every engineering manager has to be involved deeply in engineering activities early in his career.


Fayol gave a similar table for CEOs of one man technical firm to large technical company

________________________________________________________________________

Size of Business           Managerial  Technical   Commercial   Financial  Security  Accounting

One man                            15            40                  20            10            5          10
Small firm                          25            30                  15            10           10         10
Medium size                      30             25                  15            10           10         10
Large firm                         40             15                  15            10           10         10
Very large firm                    50             10                 10             10           10         10
________________________________________________________________________



References

Henri Fayol, General and Industrial Management, Sir Issac Pitman & Sons, 1949

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Chapter Assessment for Product Design for Manufacturability




Manufacturing system designer has to assess the product design for which he is designing the manufacturing system for manufacturability.


The basic questions to be asked during the analysis:

Manufacturing:

Does the design of any part require unfamiliar equipment or methods?
Can we acquire the equipment and trained manpower?

What fixtures or assembly aids will be required in assembly? Can we design and develop them?



Quality - From quality angle, do we require higher quality machines?

Test Engineering - Do we have concepts for testing components and testing finished products?

http://www.mdtmag.com/articles/2012/06/quantifying-design-manufacturability

Manufacturing System Design - Online Book




Preface

According to me industrial engineering is redesign of a system to improve the efficiency. It means a designer of the system first designs it and makes it capable of delivering an expected or target or specified output. Industrial engineers take this proposed design and subject it to efficiency evaluations through their methods and improve its efficiency. The main methods used by them are rationalization, standardization, improvement and optimization.

Rationalization is examining every components of the system with applicable laws and principles and removing idiosyncracies. One can even say, rationalization process identifies more visible mistakes present in the proposed design that will improve efficiency. Standardization would mean that if any activity is being at multiple places within an organization, the best method is identified and at all other places that method is used instead of lesser efficient methods. Improvement is an ongoing search for better solutions. Optimization is changing the parameters of components of a system in response to an improvement in any component. There are many opportunities for optimizing the systems by understanding interactions between various activities. Any improvement in one activity would call for reoptimization.

In this subject of manufacturing system design, the issues related to the  act of original design of manufacturing systems will be detailed. Manufacturing system includes products which are to be manufactured, a location (land), factory building, machines, layout, power sources, fuels, raw materials, storage facilities, manufacturing technology, operators, supervisors, managers, clerical staff, administrative staff, security staff, transport vehicles and equipment, utilities like steam, water, compressed air, inspection procedures, etc. A manufacturing system design involves design or plan for each of the above mentioned components. The system design process has to describe how a designer develops requirements and converts the requirement into a designed facility or procedure.