Narrow Results

Progen and Avexa Agree to Merge for Research Synergies

Merial to Develop Vaccine Candidates Using Imugene's Vector Technology

Mesoblast Named as Emerging Company to Look Out For at 2009 Frost & Sullivan Award

Joint Laboratory by ProGenTech and China CDC

BIG Taps Life Technologies' SOLiD System to Advance Research in China

Thermo Fisher Scientific Launches Program to Meet Melamine Detection Challenges

The Sym006 Discovery Collaboration of Symphogen and Meiji Advanced to Preclinical Development

Astellas Enters License Agreement to Use Millipore's Technology

S*BIO and Tan Tock Seng Hospital to Assess New Therapeutic

Preclinical Translational Imaging Center Opened in Singapore

KKH Implements Rapid HIV Testing for Unbooked Pregnancies

Singapore's Parkway Chosen to Manage Abu Dhabi Hospital

The product development capability is a core competence in a company, and the product development process is a knowledge-intensive process. The evolution of engineering design shows that knowledge is a key factor of a successful product development. From the 70's in the last century, artificial intelligence has been introduced into this field. It evolves from expert system through knowledge-based system to current knowledge management. Knowledge taxonomy is a core component in knowledge management. A new approach of mapping knowledge in product development through process modelling is proposed. Product development process modelling can help people structure knowledge and the employees linking to each activity in the product development process. According to the analysis of product development process models, there exist three basic kinds of objects: product states, process elements, and resources. The state-process-resource model provides available ontologies of knowledge in the product development domain. In this way, knowledge is hierarchically classified into six knowledge subjects: product, product process, process element, method, tool, and application specific domain. Furthermore, each of the knowledge subjects is divided into three types of knowledge: course, practice, and expertise location.

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is concerned with improving the product development process by considering the early stages of product design, and of the disparate factors associated with the life cycle of the product. Much of the research done so far in CE is focused on the internal operations of an enterprise. However, early participation of suppliers and customers in CE is generally considered to be of significant benefit. While this may be of considerable advantage, there still remains the need for a methodology for modeling the integrated enterprise CE process, connecting suppliers, manufacturers and customers as a seamless network. Such a methodology for modeling the integrated enterprise CE process will give insights on how to improve the system performance. What is giving added urgency to the need for such a methodology are the recent developments in communications, primarily based on Internet technologies, that readily allows for the linking of information systems between organizations. This paper aims to address this need for a methodology by proposing an approach, called Trans-Nets, that allows for an abstraction of information, removing many of the complexities, while retaining the ability to analyze the more important characteristics of the system. In this paper, the basis of Trans-Nets, including the definitions and operations, is described. Then, an example is presented to illustrate how Trans-Nets can be applied to integrated enterprise modeling of the CE process, to identify system bottlenecks and to investigate possible improvements. A test bed system is then described that implements the principles of Trans-Nets. Overall, the Trans-Nets approach offers three main advantages. First, multiple perspectives can be modeled at earlier design stages without undue complexity. Second, an approach that allows users to examine the interaction between different considerations so that important attributes such as costs and lead times can be readily calculated and bottleneck areas identified. Third, it applies a mathematical formalism to the problem, with the potential of being relatively straightforward to computerize.

The concept of pattern system design was presented. The pattern design methods with system characteristic were classified as the process pattern system design and the object pattern system design, both of which were studied in detail. Through integrating process pattern system design and object pattern system design, a P-OI (Process-Object Integration) pattern system design method was proposed. In addition to some common advantages in pattern system design methods such as sharing and reusing system resource, the P-OI pattern system design method is also consistent with integral criterion, well process and object integration, and prominent system open connectivity, all of which are of vital importance for high effectiveness and quality but of low cost during the development of products.

The supply chain management theory is advanced by a joint investigation of the mediating role of (a) supply chain responsiveness (SCR) (e.g., operation, logistic and supplier network responsiveness) in linking supply chain management practices (SCMP) with product development (PD) and (b) the moderating role of organization structure (OS) and research and development (R&D) in influencing the mediation. Using K. J. Preacher, D. D. Rucker and A. F. Hayes’s [Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions, Multivariate Behavioral Research42(1) (2007) 185–227] moderated mediation framework, the authors tested the model with survey data from 210 White-collars of national and multinational fast moving consumer goods companies operating in Pakistan. Results showed that SCR mediated the relationship between supply chain management practices with product development. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed that organization structure moderated the mediation for supply chain management practices with supply chain responsiveness, whereas research and development moderated the mediation for supply chain responsiveness and product development. Additionally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Sheet-metal parts are widely used in many engineering fields have different shapes and applications. It consists of small shapes, considered as basic building blocks which are called features. These features are combined to form a part. A sheet-metal part must go through many stages before considering it as the final product. Each stage has its own preferences of considering features set for the study and usages which requires suppression of not-considered features. These suppressed features may be considered in other stages. Sheet-metal features are the bridge to the die design CAD world. Therefore, features recognition from a sheet-metal part model and then smartly suppressing and inserting a feature in the model for product development applications are considered. Features extraction from a part model that is stored in STEP format is presented. Features in a sheet-metal part model are defined as the number, type, and connectivity of geometric entities in the part model. A sheet-metal features database is developed for the process of features recognition, suppression, and insertion in order to be utilized for the product development applications. The developed algorithm for feature recognition and database development is presented along with industrial use case examples.

This research presents a quantifiable value modeling approach for tracking and optimizing value addition at different stages of the product development process (PDP) and supply chain management (SCM). While there is a vast abundance of papers in the literature harping on the need to maximize the value, especially in lean thinking context, in PDP and SCM, there is a dearth of propositions on how to quantitatively measure and optimize value at each stage of product development and supply chain. This paper presents a multi-dimensional value modeling approach that incorporates parameters and variables from different stages of PDP and SCM by mathematically mapping them on to two macroscopic metrics, namely Product Information Evolution and Risk Reduction. These two metrics are in turn modeled by incorporating value attribute variables such as performance, risk, schedule, cost, form, fit, function and timeliness from different stages of PDP-SCM such as customer needs ideation, product functions, inventory management, logistics management and product delivery. The efficacy of the proposed model was tested by utilizing it to measure value additions at different stages of PDP-SCM as well as the total value addition for an ordinance disposal (OD) robot product family, once developed and supplied using traditional production method and once using lean production method, with the underlying axiom being the lean method will result in higher value. To ensure a fair and accurate comparison, both production methods used the proposed mathematical value model and worked toward maximizing total value using nonlinear programming. The results showed that lean PDP-SCM method added higher value at each of the stages as well as total value when compared to the traditional PDP-SCM method thus establishing the proposed value model as a viable mathematical way to measure value. While the proposed value model passed test of efficacy against the lean axiom, further research is needed to test it against other established axioms to establish it as a robust mathematical way to measure value in PDP-SCM.

Organizations are increasing the use of partnerships but improved models addressing the sharing of profits and risks are needed to foster innovations in networked new product development. We have used a case study approach to explore the implementation of profit- and risk-sharing mechanisms in a virtual enterprise. Lack of a shared vision may have been the most important cause for the early decomposition of the virtual enterprise. Therefore, the trust did not start to accumulate during the cooperation. This would have been imperative for the implementation of profit sharing mechanisms, because risk attitudes seemed to favor hierarchical rewarding mechanisms.

The results generated from a questionnaire survey conducted in the period of 2002 to 2003 have shown that Taiwanese home appliance firms' product design strategy can be classified into passive response, aggressive response, and R&D focus groups according to characteristics classified by factor analysis and cluster analysis. Differences in issues related to the design strategy adopted by each group are highlighted from case studies. Performance in new product development differs among strategic groups. Overall, the aggressive response group performs the best, followed by the R&D focus group, and finally the passive response group. Some relationships between the design strategy related issues adopted by each strategic group and performance have been found after comparisons between them.

Emerging market subsidiaries constitute an increasingly important asset for the innovative activities of multinational corporations (MNCs). This study examines how different types of these subsidiaries may be integrated into global R&D using two essential coordination mechanisms — hierarchical control and internal markets (competition among MNC units). Based on a sample of 146 Brazil based MNC subsidiaries, the key results suggest that (1) more innovative subsidiaries have higher autonomy than less innovative subsidiary as long as they have local market scope; (2) subsidiaries which develop new products for global or other emerging markets have competitive relationships with peer MNC units. Likewise, the results provide some preliminary support for an instrument which measures competition among MNC unit. Based on a comprehensive classification framework, the study puts forward some recommendations for MNC technology management regarding how subsidiary product development units may extend their market scope and technological capabilities.

An ongoing field study of 76 new product development teams in 27 companies identifies specific barriers and drivers to effective team performance. The paper provides insight into the affects of organizational environment and managerial leadership on project team performance in technology-oriented team environments. The results show that team leadership has significant impact on both the project team and its broader organizational environment ultimately affecting team and project performance. Team leaders must manage the work and people relations across diverse organizational and cultural boundaries, including support functions, suppliers, sponsors and partners. The paper provides suggestions for building the organizational environment, work processes and leadership skills necessary for successful implementation of complex development projects.

The development of new and improved management methods for new product development is important. Existing methods suffer from a number of shortcomings, especially their inability to deal with a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data. The objective of this study is to apply decision support techniques (especially Bayesian networks) to the area of new product development management in order to address some of the shortcomings.

The research approach is one of decision structuring and modeling. The literature shows the criteria that are important during the management of new product development. These criteria are used in a three-step decision structuring framework to develop a conceptual model based on a Bayesian network, in support of new product development management. The result is a Bayesian network that incorporates the knowledge of experts into a decision support model. The model is shown to be requisite because it contains all the essential elements of the problem on which decision-makers can base their action.

The model can be used to perform 'what-if' analyses in various ways, thereby supporting the management of risk in new product development. This research not only contributes a model to support new product development management, but also provides insight into how decision support — especially Bayesian networks — can enhance technology management methods.

The ability to measure performance is both fundamental to and critical in successful product development. Previous research has focused on adding new measurements, not on evaluating those currently used. The performance measurement evaluation matrix (PMEX) is a tool to evaluate the performance-measurement system based on success factors in the development of software-intensive products. Three case studies have been conducted to test the PMEX and the results indicate that the PMEX enables managers to determine explicitly what is and what is not measured. Time, cost, and quality seem to be the focus of the performance measurements while technology and planning activities are absent.

Product development teams sustain the level of ambiguity in product development projects through product configuration and project planning decisions. In this paper, we represent these decisions in terms of earliness, specificity and contingency of front-end activities and test their impact on project performance. We propose that product novelty mediates the impact of configuration and project decisions on performance. Our hypotheses are tested using data from a sample of radical and incremental product development projects. The results support a positive relation between earliness and contingency of front-end activities and development performance for incremental projects. Radical projects benefit from early milestones set during project planning.

Evaluating and selecting new ideas are central activities in project portfolio management (PPM). PPM dominant approach assumes that both ideas and decision criteria are clearly defined at their evaluation. It does not take into consideration ambiguous situations in which ideas are not fully understood, or there are opposing opinions about their potential. We explore evaluation of ideas when PPM decision makers experience ambiguity. We found that decision makers allow ideas to be developed further, which helps them to understand purposes, reveal benefits and construct judgments. However, it also affects resource allocation because it requires resources that had already been assigned.

As the degree of globalization increases, developing country’s race with countries practicing knowledge society norms requires creative techniques. Countries with limited technological capabilities tend to confront with middle-income trap that makes them create strategies profiting from technological innovation. The well-known method is to perform a technology foresight study and establish the technologies that the country must develop to improve its wellbeing. This paper proposes a differed approach in which a high technology product is serving as the prime motivation behind the nations planning of technology progress. The outcome of the methodology is the selection, prioritization and planning of necessary technologies of the product using all technological capabilities of the nation. Results of the exercise are instrumental in establishing the technology base of the country and enhance its promise of improving technological capability to a higher level. The paper explains the developed methodology and discusses its outputs.

In an exploratory inquiry, involving informants in 19 global manufacturing companies in six sectors of the process industries, ideation, and concept integration during the pre-development of non-assembled products was studied. New and previously deployed constructs and concepts related to innovation in a process-industrial context have initially been developed, refined, and empirically tested. The findings demonstrate the importance of an early integration of constructs and concepts for raw material innovation, innovation-related process technology, and product innovation, as a prerequisite for successful ideation of new or improved products in the process industries. Companies in different sectors of the process industries can implement and use the novel “integrated framework” for contextualization and conceptualization of new product ideas in their development or reconfiguration of an enhanced work process for non-assembled products.

The manufacturing sector has experienced significant changes over the past twenty years. Companies are becoming more international and are facing increased competitive challenges. Because of this, and owing to higher customer expectations, there are greater demands on product quality, functionality, aesthetics, reliability, and flexibility. In addition, product life-cycles have reduced which has led to shorter time periods in which to recover costs. There is greater pressure on design teams to develop products in shorter time periods as profits have been shown to be very sensitive to time-to-market (TTM). Many of the above factors are directly influenced during product development and therefore the approach adopted during this phase of the product life-cycle can have a major impact on profitability. This paper defines the simultaneous or concurrent engineering (CE) approach to product development, and the benefits of adopting it, versus the traditional sequential engineering approach. CE implementation techniques, including formal methodologies and computer-based initiatives, currently employed or being developed, are described. Finally, an overview of a design for manufacture (DFM) expert model for PWB design and manufacture, based on minimising manufacturing costs, is presented (in this context, a PWB includes printed wiring board plus componentry).

Many current models of the product development process pay insufficient attention to the impact of project-level influences. This paper looks at the case of the engineering industry in which product development is seen to proceed in two very distinct ways: the traditional process in which development takes place "off-line", and the contract process in which development takes place as part of a contract to manufacture a product for a specific customer. Drawing on two recent studies of engineering product development projects, the paper looks at how project-level influences lead to differences in project organisation and management in terms of the particular project structure adopted and in the involvement of different disciplines, internal and external to the company. This has implications for the way in which companies should interpret generic prescriptions regarding product development.

This paper focuses on the concept of ESI (early simultaneous influence) as a cornerstone of concurrent engineering. How much influence downstream functions such as manufacturing engineering should exert in product design decisions is investigated by stage of development. Six stages were defined as: (1) research, (2) product concept, (3) prototype and test, (4) final design, (5) tooling and facilities, and (6) ramp-up to full production. Performance is measured as time compression at the tooling and facilities stage and reduction in manufactured cost. Results from analysis of 74 companies suggest that manufacturing influence has significant effects on performance at the first three stages. Its peak impact is at the third stage, a crossroads of work by up and downstream functions. If the design is new, however, the peak impact of ESI is earlier as indicated by significant interaction effects at the research and product concept stages. We also show that high levels of manufacturing influence at the end stage have a weak negative interaction effect with performance when designs are new. To the extent that high levels of manufacturing influence within their own domain preclude reciprocal influence by upstream functions, this result is consistent with the notion of concurrency as simultaneous influence by multiple functions at all points along the value chain.