Project Title: IE655 Assignment #5
Author: Kanwal Rafiq
Class: IE 655 – Concurrent Engineering
Date: December 9, 2009
eLearning Pack ID: IE655-Fall2009-30-21
Kanwal Rafiq has performed all the work for this assignment.
Table of Content
Introduction and Objective of Project
The objective of this project is to develop and innovate Finest Toy Rides’ green initiative of environment and manufacturing technologies. Finest will strive to create a green strategy in order to convert the traditional engineering company to the modern PLM/Digital Design Manufacturing company. In order to implement this plan, we will try to use the least amount of resources, address budgetary issues, and determine our ROI.
Methodologies Applied
In this project, product lifecycle management will be used. PLM will help manage the entire lifecycle of our toy cars from conceptualization all the way to its waste disposal. KANRI will be used for our strategy plan. KANRI is a strategic planning and management methodology that has 4 steps – plan, do, check, act. It is crucial to reduce product waste in order to be environmentally friendly. Therefore, Muda, Muri, and Mura are very important concepts and will be utilized in our green design. Human errors are likely to exist in any process; to help mitigate these errors, the method of Poka-Yoke will be used. Poka-Yoke is a technique for avoiding simple human error and aiming for zero defects at all levels of work.
Also, CORA will be revisited in this project to ensure we are meeting the requirements of our customers. CORA is aimed at minimizing dissatisfaction, financial loss due to inadequate requirements and poor communication between customers and providers. This tool is integrated into 4 modules – user requirements, engineering solutions, parameter calculations and benchmarking. CORA is applied during the electronic support system planning stages of a product/process development project, as well as later for TQM/TQC, and then updated on a regular basis to document changes in these requirements. The main goal of CORA is to study the customer and the future user, and then collect, analyze, and reason over customer requirements.
We will also utilize the PFRA method to determine our process risk. PFRA is a team oriented problem solving method which concentrates on minimizing dissatisfaction and financial loss for process related failure risks. PFRA is applied during the planning stages of a process and any changes are documented on a regular basis. PRFA tackles negative quality issues and is typically concerned with any events that can may any process fail. A process with a higher number should be of concern and requires immediate attention. The causes and effects should be investigated and then the risk should be eliminated. The medium and low RPN values should be analyzed and eliminated as well.
Main Body
Innovative Green PLM Design
Finest’s environmental consultant team helps our suppliers realize the benefits of total participation of all parties in pursuing the green vision. We also strive to make design changes earlier in the product lifecycle to avoid wasting money, work to prevent schedule slippage that can cause an increase in project costs. Lastly, our team works to produce more innovative designs and respond more efficiently to our customers’ needs.
Finest knows that in the rough economy of today, it is cumbersome for people to waste money on unnecessary things such as toys. Therefore, to make themselves more favorable to its customers, Finest uses solar chargeable batteries for all of its battery operated toys. This is not only better for the environment, reducing wastes produced by batteries; it also ensures that our customers are not being burdened with having to constantly buy batteries for our toys. Finest took this challenge and finalized its sustainable green design around it. Product lifecycle management was utilized to help make this easier on our organization. Four steps were taken to achieve our sustainable green design. These steps are conceive, design, realize, and service.
Step 1: Conceive
In this step, an idea is conceptualized, detailed, and planned out. Finest is committed to making sure that all its ideas are eco-friendly. Finest saw a great potential in making their toy automobiles to be remote controlled. Knowing that our customers could save money on buying batteries, Finest made the battery for its toys with the ability to be charged by solar energy. This ensures that power is not needed to recharge the battery and relies solely on solar. Another advantage of this is that the customer does not have to waste money in buying new batteries or incur an electric bill for hooking the car up to a charger. A component oriented requirement analysis will be done to ensure customer requirements are met. Along with the solar powered capability, the toy automobiles are made of recycled glass. In order to make this successful, researching on the internet will be done to ensure we are utilizing the most efficient process and the CORA will help us satisfy our customers’ needs.
Step 2: Design
In this step, the product design is formulated. Design engineers come up with drawing specs to determine the best eco-friendly design. After much research is done on our solar powered battery options, we will determine the most efficient one to ensure quality is not compromised. Our team will take every precaution to ensure that quality products are used in our toys. Each toy automobile is built so that the glass is cut precisely to minimize wasting any material. The tiny solar panels inside the battery for the cars are detailed so that they fit perfectly within the car without any overlay ensuring a perfect and smooth finish. To ensure our process is safe and not set up for failure, a Process Failure Risk Analysis (PFRA) will be done to help mitigate any risks to our process. This also helps us know where our areas of improvement are.
Step 3: Realize
In this step, we will try to find areas where we can improve and become more economically friendly. For example, the more waste we reduce in the manufacturing phase, the more costs we can save. That is why Finest is committed to use the Poka-Yoke technique to help minimize defects and reduce human error. Precision cutters are used at Finest to insure material and resources are not wasted and that we use just the right amount that we need to build a toy automobile. Also, to package the end product, Finest uses recyclable material such as cardboard, tissue paper, etc. Finest uses only recyclable materials to ship its toy automobiles to its customers and that too without compromising the integrity of its packaging. To save money and space in its warehouse, Finest utilizes Just in Time (JIT) method. Doing so ensures that material is available on a needed basis without taking up more space then it needs to. This also reduces the carrying cost of unnecessary inventory.
Step 4: Service
Finest is committed to providing excellent customer service just as much as it is to providing good quality toys. Finest has a 24/7 call center to assist customers with any issues they may be having with their toy automobiles. This call center also deals with customer complaints, product returns, product information, and troubleshooting information.
NPI&I Methods
1. Toyota Hybrid Car
http://www.sptoyota.com/pages/2010-toyota-prius.php?_kk=2010 toyota prius&_kt=870b5d4a-9b0f-45b3-916b-fccbcaae0cb5&gclid=CLCD07HcmZoCFQQrFQodbRnu-A
The 2010 model Prius which has high performance, uses less gas, more innovative will replace old cars. It has significant improved fuel consumption and the hybrid design produces less CO2 emission.
2. General Electric Co. (GE)
http://www.ge.com/innovation/index.html
General Electric has been undertaking a continuous effort to improve its innovation. GE spent $2.4 billion on R&D in 2004 which was around 2 percent of sales.
3. Nokia
http://www.nokia.com/corporate-responsibility/environment/sustainable-products/eco-sensor-concept
Nokia has created their cell phone design with green and sustainable concept. Nokia builds on the "three Rs"-Reduce, reuse and recycle. That is what we can do on our toy design as well. We set up a recycle stations at every branch and community for collecting recyclable parts of toy.
4. Siemens
http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/teamcenter/
Built on top of industry-standard JT technology, Teamcenter’s visualization tools deliver high-end visualization and virtual prototyping capabilities that extended enterprises can use to visually configure and virtually test product innovations comprised of design components created under multiple CAD systems. Teamcenter provides engineering teams with the vaulting, global sharing, and workgroup management capabilities they need to capture, manage, and leverage geometry and engineering data created by multiple CAD, CAM and CAE systems.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7436974.stm
HP recently announced eco-friendly endeavors focusing on reducing the carbon footprint of data centers by 75%, increasing energy efficiency in its products and developing open tools for measuring the amount of energy used in the manufacturing process. That is something that Finest is striving for in our toy manufacturing process. All our designs are based on trying to increase system efficiency and save as much power as possible. The materials we used for toy production are all recyclable and reusable.
http://www.sap.com/usa/solutions/npdi/pdf/BWP_NPDI.pdf
Portfolio management and Innovation Management allow companies to make decisions about products and how to prioritize the use of resources. Product management techniques are used to manage project, cost, and resource management capabilities that assist companies in improving their product development and introduction process.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/02/0209_green_products/index_01.htm?chan=search
This 10 quart trash bin is made only of recycled, biodegradable materials. Finest is striving to make all of its toys byproducts to be recycled and biodegradable. We will use this recycled bin as our motivation to work harder towards this goal.
http://www.greentoys.com/green.html
Green Toys Inc. makes a line of classic children’s toys constructed from recycled plastic and other environmentally friendly materials. This helps reduce fossil fuel use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improving the overall health and happiness of the planet.
http://www.infosys.com/Pages/index.aspx
INFOSYS’s Rapid Product Innovation (RPI) solution is a strategic capability that helps in implementing product changes faster and cheaper. The RPI solution combines product introduction methodology, externalization of hard coded business rules, automated workflows, and integrated data management to deliver higher operational efficiency.
http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/pubs/about.htm
Green building is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle from design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction. Green building is also known as a sustainable or high performance building.
Finest’s CORA
After implementing a design for solar charged battery, Finest went back to modify its CORA and PFRA. The CORA helped us realize what was of importance to our customers and helped identify areas where we needed to be strong in to maintain these customers. The PFRA helped us identify our risk areas and from there we sought to find solutions to mitigate the risks.
Once Finest analyzed its customers’ requirements, the requirements were rated on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being of more importance to the customer. Once the customer requirements were identified, the engineering solutions were taken into consideration for each customer requirement. These engineering solutions were ranked as a 1, 3, or 9 based on their importance to the requirement. When all the requirements and engineering solutions were identified, a CORA analysis was produced for Finest’s toy manufacturing process. Working with the customers, the ranks were filled in the spreadsheet as well as the rankings of three other competitors.
There were eleven customer requirements for the glass toy automobiles. The use of recyclable materials was added to our CORA spreadsheet for this project as our customers demanded this requirement. Of these requirements, toy specification as per customer, safety factor, quality of toy, eco-friendliness, customer service, perfect assembly, and recyclable materials was of the most importance to the customer. To help better satisfy these customer requirements, twelve engineering solutions were used. Based on the CORA spreadsheet, relationships with collaborating companies, design software, research and development, quality control/quality assurance, solar charged battery, and a green initiative had the highest AIR ratings which were 158, 243, 235, 222, 270, and 243 respectively. The relative importance ratings for these engineering solutions were 11.5, 17.7, 17.1, 16.1, 12.9, and 11.6 respectively. Ensuring that we utilize these engineering solutions is in the best interest of our company. This will help us keep our customers happy and provide them with the product they desire. For example, manufacturing the toy automobiles with customer requirements, product safety, the quality of product, an environment friendly product and product warranty can all be met if we have an updated design software since the importance rating for this engineering solution was 9 for these requirements. Ensuring that our design software is up to date with the increasing technology helps us be more competitive in the market. This means that Finest should definitely invest in the engineering solutions that have both a high AIR and relative importance ratings. In order for Finest to maintain its customers’ business, it should consider the customer requirements and the associated engineering solutions with the high AIR ratings as its critical priorities.
Finest’s PFRA
To generate Finest’s PFRA, six processes were analyzed for their associated risk and occurrences of these risks. Examining the solar charged battery was added to the PFRA These processes were deemed to be the potential problem areas in manufacturing the toy automobiles. These potential risky processes are as follows: (1) Check for toy integrity (i.e. cracks and thin wall), (2) Examine wire connections (3) Examine glass body for imperfections, (4) Examine remote control for proper circuit board connections (5) Check integrity of packaging (6) Examine solar charged battery.
The toy integrity was considered a risky process because the customer wants their toy to have to be durable and resistant to breaking. It is very common for toys to have defects that can cause them to break easily. This can be caused by a failure of the molding process. Overall, the process cost was 0.25 which is good. However, if we can work to reduce the process cost, we can further decrease this process cost. Though the process cost was good, the RPN for this process is 126 which is considered low. However, this RPN was the 2nd highest value for Finest. It’s not an immediate threat but we should definitely work to look for solutions in correcting this risk. One solution that was brought up by the engineering department was to look into more up to date molding machines to better the toy body molding process to prevent the toy’s integrity to be compromised.
Examining the wire connections of the toy automobile was the next process that was analyzed. Customers demand that their toy be able to work electrically to be eco-friendly. Therefore, it is very important that we meet their expectations. As can be seen from the PFRA, this process was at a high risk with a RPN value of 224. This process requires immediate attention in order for Finest to maintain good customer relationships. This process failure can be due to loose connections within the toy which would ultimately cause unstable electron flow. Finest will begin to investigate this failure immediately and research on ways to mitigate it.
The final three processes were examining the glass body for imperfections, checking the remote control for proper circuit board connection, checking the integrity of the toy packaging, and examining the solar charged battery which had RPN values of 28, 96, 20, and 96 respectively. All of these processes’ risks were considered low. However, because Finest is committed to continuous improvement, these processes will be investigated further to better enhance the overall quality of the toys to ensure customer satisfaction.
Collaboration of Companies
In order for Finest to satisfy all of its customers’ requirements, it must work well with all of its collaborating companies. Regal will be a major contributor to the success of Finest Inc. Regal will create the glass body of the electric toy automobiles we will supply to our customers. Therefore, we must ensure that Regal supplies us the perfect glass body with zero defects. Mega will be the key supplier to our company ensuring that our toy automobiles run electrically. Mega will fabricate the creative parts to be used inside the toy automobiles. Mega will be responsible for ensuring that their parts are made specifically for the automobile specifications required by the customer. SAE Torino will provide Finest with the most innovative concepts and designs for their toy automobiles so that we can be more innovative and strive for customer satisfaction for the many years to come. C&H will handle all of Finest’s exports and imports and manage our vendors overseas as well. This company will help us spread our business nationwide.
PLM/Digital Design & Digital Manufacturing and Sustainable Green Plan
Finest will recommend our CEO to use Green Transition Program, or GTP, software to convert traditional engineering businesses into modern, PLM/Digital Design and Manufacturing companies. With GTP, managers can easily access to all involved with the lifecycle of a product. GTP ensures a quick and efficient transition from product concept to manufacture while eliminating failure modes and ensuring customer satisfaction. GTP is an integration software which helps us to convert conventional system to new PLM system without any problem of data losing. Since we know most of our sub-companies, vendors, and partners have their own CAD systems and are efficient at using their own files and formats. GTP will deal with all the issues of translating CAD data and is user-friendly so that any problems encountered can be dealt with immediately.
Return on Investment Plan (ROI)
|
Sales |
$1,150,000 |
|
GTP Software |
($40,000) |
|
PLM Training |
($25,000) |
|
Equipment |
($150,000) |
|
CAD/CAM |
($30,000) |
|
Advertising |
($5,000) |
|
Salaries |
($300,000) |
|
Revenue |
$600,000 |
ROI = (Return – Investment)/Investment = 0.09 = 9%
Summary
At Finest, we are committed to being environmentally friendly for the better of the entire economy. We also believe that making a sustainable green toy automobile is something to be proud of. We are protecting our environment for the future generations to come. When creating a new product, every organization should ask themselves the following questions: (1) Will the use of my product create waste, and cause harm to the environment?, (2) Will the product be easy to dispose of in a safe and environmentally friendly manner at the end of its life?, (3) Is the product of a good quality and functional to use?
In this project, we were able to come up with our sustainable product design. Finest will continue to find ways to become more and more eco-friendly.
Further Work Needed
Finest will continue to strive to improve its quality and use any green and sustainable methods to stay competitive in the economy. The green and sustainable concepts will be implemented in our day to day activities.
References
Ranky, Paul. “Ranky-eBook-IntroCE_GreenPLM.” Chapter 3.
Ranky, Paul. “Ranky-eBook-IntroCE_GreenPLM.” Chapter 4.
Ranky, Paul. “Ranky-eBook-IntroCE_GreenPLM.” Chapter 6.