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Procedia CIRP 63 (2017) 342 – 347
Abstract
Agile development processes have recently regularly been named as key to the development of novel physical products. Coming from the software
industry, these processes pursue the target of limiting both time-to-market and resources associated with the realisation of innovative products.
In the case of physical products, agile development in the form of highly iterative prototyping is furthermore employed for assuring a stable ramp-
up phase. The goal of this paper is the creation of an adaptive engineering change management (ECM) for rapid engineering changes which are
identified as central enablers for the agile product development of physical products.
Due to a lack of in-depth studies in this field, an agile development project in a manufacturing company has been investigated. The findings of
the case study are based on action research. Challenges and requirements faced by the case company have been identified in workshops and
interviews. A broad study of closely related literature improved the understanding and helped in the generation of a framework for an adaptive
ECM.
The investigations led to an approach that employs a step-wise product development process with different stages of maturity. Hereby, the shift
of requirements in the course of the agile development project as observed in the case study is taken into account. The ECM is continuously
adapted along the different stages of maturity of the agile product development to cope with this shift of requirements. It is illustrated that the
adaptive ECM is reflected in three layers: responsive means of communication, a responsive design of engineering change processes and roles,
and consistent data structures. Examples for the specific design of these layers are presented.
The result of the work is thus a framework for an adaptive ECM that meets the specific requirements of agile product development for physical
products.
©©2017
2017TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published B.V. This
by Elsevier B.V.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 50th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 50th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems
Keywords: Agile development and ramp-up; Product development processes; Engineering change management
2212-8271 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 50th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2017.03.106
Günther Schuh et al. / Procedia CIRP 63 (2017) 342 – 347 343
4. Findings and Discussion has been identified as low during the prototyping because of
the extremely high time pressure of this phase and the often
The aim of this paper is the development of a framework for elevated administrative effort connected to their completion.
an efficient ECM (chapter 4.3) which has been identified as the For both alternatives banal problems such as the disappearance
central enabler of an agile development of physical products. of paper-based drawings and forms are frequently observed.
This framework must take into account both the challenges in Unfamiliar scope of duties of shop floor staff. The work
the field of ECM (chapter 4.1) and the requirements of the content of production staff is developing more and more from
dynamic prototyping processes as investigated in the case study routine tasks to regulative and steering tasks. This implies
(chapter 4.2). higher requirements concerning capabilities in the field of
problem solving, communication and self organisation [19].
4.1. Categorisation of challenges Moreover, during the highly iterative prototyping problems
identification cannot be automated like in series production.
Together with an in-depth literature study, the investigations This is especially the case for assembly tasks. Consequently,
in the case company have led to a better understanding of the the entire system is more dependent on the human-being and
challenges mentioned briefly in chapter 2. The observations its expert knowledge. In practice, workers have partly been
resulted in a categorisation that complements existing overstrained with this increase of responsibility.
segmentation approaches in the field of ECM found in
literature [16,17,23]. This research work proposes that the x Processes and roles
challenges can be divided into three categories: means of
communication, processes and roles and data structure. The Organisational speed is decisive for the efficient handling of
problems found within these categories are considered as the unforeseen events [25]. However, organisational structures and
main obstacles for a fast and high-quality information transfer workflows are often not adapted to the requirements of the
between the design and production departments impeding specific phase. This interacts with a lack of transparency as
organisational learning from existing knowledge for the presented in the following section.
structural increase of the product maturity. Missing or too rigid and inefficient processes. Process
design is one major challenge for early phases when
x Means of communication departments collaborate for the first time. This is also the case
for dynamic prototyping: Either clear workflows to
Today’s conventional information feedback from the shop communicate problems are absent or they are too formal and
floor to the design department is characterised by contents that bureaucratic [15]. The former case is true for the observation
are frequently incomplete, misleading and incomprehensible. within the case company where there is a lack of guidelines for
This is due to communication barriers between the problem efficient process flows. A lack of transparency about statuses
identifying shop floor staff and the problem solvers in the further compounds the situation.
design department [24]. Barriers have been identified as Numerous organisational interfaces, unclear roles and
especially pronounced during the dynamic phase of the highly responsibilities. In the case company, it has been observed that
iterative prototyping. Reasons for this are among others: on the one hand organisational structures are too hierarchic for
Poor accessibility of content-related data. Basic metadata fast decision making and on the other hand, process owners are
for contextualising a product failure identified on the shop floor often not clearly defined. This is in line with observations in
are e.g. part no. and name. During the prototyping phase, these literature [19]. In combination with unrefined processes this
data are often not accessible to production staff as standard leads to an ad-hoc way of problem solving and
documentation such as paper-based drawings, work-plans or misunderstandings. Moreover, decisions are often delayed.
bills of material (BOM) are either missing or incomplete due to
the avoidance of the effort associated with their creation. x Data structure
Absence of standards and little systemic support.
Conventional documentation tools used on the shop floor today Initiating change creates data, which are the source of the
are mostly still of analogue, manual nature. High following processes. Both an efficient downstream data flow
administrative effort and poor operability concerning and the fast feedback of these data back to the engineering
conventional documentation tools are the consequence: In the department are significant aspects for shortening the product
case company, when a product specific problem arises it is development time and for planning capacities [25]. A major
usually noted down on the drawing (if available). This way of source of long delays and resulting cost increases is an
transferring information is highly unstructured and handwriting insufficient data management. Engineering mostly looks at
has frequently been unreadable making avoidable loops computer-aided design (CAD) and structure information etc.
between the staff in the course of the observation in the case while manufacturing uses separate expert systems for
study necessary. Furthermore, a lot of effort is currently operations, e.g. for manufacturing planning. This leads to
connected to the translation of information from the shop floor disconnected teams, complicating data exchange, as described
into digital formats as there is little systemic support when below:
transferring hand-written notes into IT-Systems. An often used
alternative to this in series production are more systematic pre-
structured forms. However, their acceptance within the staff
Günther Schuh et al. / Procedia CIRP 63 (2017) 342 – 347 345
Machine utilisation manual prototyping semi-auto. small series production automated series production
Tool use simple tooling simple and pre-series tooling pre-series and series tooling
Conformity to standards simple valididation higher conformity to standards full standard compliance
Documentation hardly any documentation effort individual authorisation objects large amount of documentation
Bill of material low level of detail medium level of detail fully defined
Fig. 1. Shift of requirements along the different stages of maturity during development
Lack of high quality digitalised geometric data. Many absent or minimal, according to the product maturity, which is
non-conformances in the case company are due to the manual still low at this stage. As for the Scrum method from software,
data exchange from engineering to manufacturing and vice a working product is preferred to comprehensive
versa. The media disruption in form of 2D drawings that are documentation, that is time consuming to create and maintain,
derived from the original 3D model results in inaccuracies (e.g. as prototypes change quickly in their design. The output of this
rounding of values) and interpretation errors when drawings maturity stage is simulations, mockups and functional
are created or used for manufacturing. subsystem prototypes.
Intransparent and inconsistent data management. Due Stage 2. The second stage is a transitional phase between
to different perspectives of the company divisions, various data the highly agile stage 1 and the more rigid stage 3. It is needed
management applications, such as product lifecycle to include an integration stage that is still fundamentally agile.
management (PLM) and enterprise-resource planning (ERP) As soon as most of the functions are intended to be put together,
systems have been established. Comparing and transferring the product should enter this stage of maturity. In the first loops
data from one system to another is necessary but highly time of this stage, it is intended to validate the interaction of the
consuming and an error-prone process. Thus, the engineering subsystems together and their interfaces. Progressively, it is
change process leads to inconsistencies and intransparency of necessary to start using transitional manufacturing processes
data states in the data management systems. Information and optimise the BOM. The output of the stage 2 are functional
deficiencies of different development teams and decisions products that are ready to go into pre-series production in
about the product without up-to-date data are the result [26, 27, stage 3.
16]. The lack of consistent documentation is a frequently Stage 3. Both product and processes need to be pre-set for
associated problem of ECM [16]. high volume production. The design is made in order to meet
the certifications requirements, a detailed documentation is
4.2. Typology and requirements of the product development required and the change management needs to be highly
process controlled. In this stage intended for the preparation of
production and series ramp-up, the amount of changes
A central result of the case study’s investigations is the decreases. They are now however more complex and time
characterisation of the requirements of the highly iterative consuming as more implications on manufacturing and
prototyping process. The observations resulted in the documentation are the consequence. The output of stage 3 is a
identification of an overall process that can be roughly divided shippable product that is realised by means of processes
into three distinct stages of maturity. The intent is to start the intended for high volume series production and the
product development within a highly agile stage. This new corresponding materials.
agile approach for physical product development progressively As described above, the typology of the development
becomes more restrictive and controlled in order to ultimately process is changing over time with increasing product maturity.
deliver a fully documented product ready for series ramp-up The three stages of maturity and the associated shift of
and certifications. requirements are defined accurately using eleven dimensions
Stage 1. The product development is considered to start found to evolve over time from stage to stage. These are
from scratch. This stage needs to be suitable for radical presented in figure 1.
innovation, which is subject to great uncertainty. It is intended
to be the most agile of the three stages with a lot of freedom for 4.3. Development of a framework for an adaptive ECM
the designers and the production staff. This stage offers a
highly flexible work environment to allow the teams to be fast The aim of this paper is to define a framework for the
performing their iterations. This also implies that only development of an efficient ECM within an agile environment.
rudimentary production planning is conducted for the early For this purpose, the findings previously described in the paper
mockups and prototypes. The documentation is intended to be
346 Günther Schuh et al. / Procedia CIRP 63 (2017) 342 – 347
Stage
Stag
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Dimension Mockups/Prototypes
Mo
oc
oc
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Pr
Pr
Prototyp
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production volume single products single products to small series small series to series
Design element/layer
Means of !
communication
Processes and
roles
Data structure
Means of
Create new ECR Complete description
communication
1 2 3
!
Processes and
Design Production (Shopfloor)
roles