Enabling an Active Design Desktop with

Critical Parameter Management

Executive Overview
What is Critical Parameter Management? Motivation for CPM
• A disciplined methodology for managing, analyzing, and reporting technical product performance
• Enables a lean approach to to optimize product cost, performance, schedule, and manufacturability
• A process for mathematically linking parameters for sensitivity analysis and optimization of requirements
• CPM means PREDICTING product performance and design characteristics before a system is actually built
• An “Active Design Management” system providing real time collaborative feedback of system performance behavior
• Provide complete history of design intent, rationale, input/output, thereby easing compliance requirements
• A strategic tool for improving product development by integrating systems, software, and hardware engineering
• Leverage statistical design methods to allow for performance to be modeled in a PROBABLISTIC manner
CPM Primary Program Benefits • Re use of technical knowledge, capture of corporate TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE and intellectual capital
Improve Collaboration • Trace each design parameter to its corresponding Voice of the Customer
-Share technical analysis and knowledge ←Collaborate
-Link ownership to parameters • Connect performance based design decisions with their COST IMPACTS early in the development process
-Mathematically connect parameters to understand requirement flow-down
-Capture and leverage invested intellectual capital for future business reuse • Connect design teams and encourage COLLABORATION between all disciplines around performance
Facilitate Analysis •Connect various geographical sites
-Statistical modeling & optimization of the performance – cost trade space
-Real-time System-level sensitivity analysis •Connect large numbers of engineers from various disciplines
-Connect analyses between system, subsystem and component levels
•Provide a real time portal for managers to track the development process
Streamline Reporting ←Analyze*
-Design margins are statistically tracked over product lifecycle
-Automated, real-time requirements data gathering / report generation
Optimize Cost v. Performance
-Reconciliation of requirement allocation and engineering design capability CPM helps designs meet both cost and performance goals with predictive,

Performance repeatable results based on analytical input. CPM also helps development
teams make informed decisions that optimize both cost and performance
←Report
€¥$
throughout the development process. CPM lets teams answer important
questions such as: “If this requirement is being met, just how much
margin is there? Is it over-designed? Are there cost reduction
opportunities in this design?

Is CPM Just Like Requirements Management? Domains in Product Development

NO - CPM and Requirements Management are NOT the Same Process! System Requirements Management
Product Definition
Requirements
Management Voice of the SRM CPM, like these other product development domains,
Customer CPM has significant advantages over traditional requirements provides a key repository for product knowledge and
“The System SHALL …” management. A robust CPM process includes requirements becomes the “go to” location for all performance and
management as one piece but CPM allows requirements to be Critical Product functional data for a system.
System Parameter
connected to parameters in an analytical way Data
A-Spec
Management CPM PDM
Management
Performance Configuration
B- Spec Traditional requirements management is a text based approach to Definition Definition
B1- SS interaction with customer needs and regulatory compliance. CPM, PCM
through its dynamic relationships between requirements and
B2-HRD
parameters, provides real time feedback and notification throughout Product Cost Management
Requirements Management is used to track, the system about requirement or parameter changes as well as the Affordability Definition
manage, and control requirements flow-down in sensitivities of individual parameters on the overall system.
a text based environment
CPM helps the product or process development team trace the
Critical Parameter connection between each key design decision and it associated
CPM Creates the Dynamic
Management Voices of the
Customers Relationships to Monitor all
VOC (Voice Of the Customer). This helps ensure that the
Performance/ Design Aspects of a Process or System development team works on the most important design elements
“The System CAN …” Capability
System and lets the corporation re use product knowledge in future
System Cpk/PNC/Notifications
TPM / Req Requirements Parameters generations of design.
System Subsystem Cpk/PNC/Notifications Subsystem
Parameters f(x)
Requirements
Sub-System
Subassembly … Subassembly
Parameters f(x)
Sub-Assembly

Component
Requirements

Component
Requirements
… Component
Specifications
f(x)
The Active Design Desktop
CPM is a mathematically interconnected hierarchy
of requirements and parameters allowing flow Mfg. Process Mfg. Process
The CPM process creates an Active Design Desktop
… f(x)
down AND flow up of design sensitivities Requirements Specifications which allows engineers and management to:
CPM captures corporate “tribal knowledge” along with best • Query and access parameter information and relationships
practices and analytical reasoning, and provides complete
historical tracing for any process, system, or system of systems. • Create real time, dynamic program status reports
• Manage the many-to-many relationships of parameters
Critical Parameter Management (CPM)
CPM is a Disciplined Methodology to Capture the • Navigate/browse through the parameter function tree Real time feedback on design
Product Performance into a Structured Repository • Manage all transfer functions , Y=F(x) and total system capabilities
• Control access & ownership for design control
Marketing MFG
Critical The CPM Active Design Desktop is a Single Point of
Parameter
Systems Control for Product Data and Knowledge:
Engineering Management Suppliers
(CPM) • Launch -> Load -> Retrieve Parameters with Applications
This parameter can now answer
the famous question: • Manage Application Files, Engineering Models, and Capabilities
Subject
Matter Partners • Repository for Supporting Design Artifacts and Documents
Who am I? Experts
Why am I Design Standards
here?
The CPM Active Design Desktop is a process and Where do I have design margin
tool set that enables the improvement of product and where am I at risk?
design and reduction of program costs by:
• Providing a single go-to repository for all users to interact with
Methodology: CPM Process Overview requirements and parameters in a real time collaborative
environment across the organization
Given a System Level Requirement and/or a Voice of the Customer…
• Reducing late-design firefighting due to inefficient collaboration
Ex: Range, Cost, Comfort, Force, Tone, Weight, Ease, etc. • Exposing and managing risks in product design and
manufacturing capability
• Allocate top-level requirements into sub-system/process and • Identifying cost savings opportunities due to over-design
component/raw material requirements that are given to designers to meet
• Eliminating inefficiencies in program reporting
• Each designer or team works independently to assess itself on how well it
is going to meet its allocation by building a model that predicts anticipated
design characteristics
Design Convergence reports track
• Teams identify which parameters are most sensitive to their requirements current parameter values v. their targets
CPM Enables the Active Design
and allocate appropriate resources for analysis Desktop through analytical
interactions between
• Statistical parameters are added to provide confidence to the model and
requirements and parameters
predict top-level capability probablistically. “Can I meet the cost target”, v.
“Can I meet the cost target with 99% statistical confidence?” The Active Design Desktop is
a Global Positioning System
• These parameters are rolled up from each designer or team using for Product Development
transfer functions to provide a system-level prediction
• Where necessary, sensitivity analysis is conducted to focus efforts where
they have the most significant impact on system requirements.

This poster is copyright 2007 by Cognition Corporation. All rights reserved. www.cognition.us *The Excel, Crystal Ball, Minitab, and Matlab symbols are trademarks of their respective owners: Microsoft, Decisioneering, Minitab, and MathWorks.