Rapid Product Development &

Manufacturing
K.P. Karunakaran

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Outline
Problems in Product Dev and Manufacturing
Rapid Product Development and Manufacturing

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Three functional groups
Product Development is concerned with,
influences and influenced by

Marketing dept
Design dept (Product)
Manufacturing (Production)

Product Development is the responsibility of

design department; but they need to interact with
the marketing and production department to keep
quality, cost and time (QCD) under control.

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Sequential events
Sequential events: Events tend to occur sequentially even if they can
occur in parallel.

Reason: Poor interplay and planning.

Effects: This not only delays Product Development; it leads to costly/
sub-optimal/ faulty design and the corresponding penalties due to late
feedbacks.

[Andreasen pp. 14]

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Market needs and design possibilities are poorly combined
Market needs and design possibilities are poorly combined: Designer
perhaps has a better design that meets the same needs.

Reason: Poor interplay between marketing and design groups.

Effects: Unoptimal design.

[Andreasen pp. 14]

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

There are hick ups at the time of manufacture
There are hick ups at the time of manufacture: Less optimal
combination of design specifications and production methods. Design
mistakes are detected very late.
Reason: Poor interplay between design and manufacturing groups.
Effects: Unoptimal design.

[Andreasen pp. 17]

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Starting trouble
Starting trouble: Lack of devotion and seriousness.

Reason: Delay in budget allocation and formation of a dedicated

team for the new projects. The tasks in the beginning are assigned as
additional responsibilities to members with other major
responsibilities.
Effects: Early project phases proceed haphazardly and in the wrong
way at times.

[Andreasen pp. 17]

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Late detection of mistakes
Late detection of mistakes: Later a mistakes is detected, the costlier it
is to rectify.
Reason: Decisions for an inverted tree. Once you are deep in a
branch, you have to come up and then go to the other branch.
Effects: High cost of rectification. At times, company can close due to
these liabilities.

[Andreasen pp. 17]

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Mismatched in the rate of committed and actual costs

Rate of
Expenditure

Rate of expenditure under different heads in various phases

Time

[Andreasen pp. 102]

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Mismatched in the rate of committed and actual costs

Cumulative
Expenditure

Cumulative expenditure under different heads in various phases

Practical

Ideal deterministic

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Mismatched in the rate of committed and actual costs
About 80% of the product cost is committed (or allocated or forecast)
at the design stage.

Design
Phase

Productionizing phase

Cumulative
Expenditure

Effect: Later decisions like better cutting tools, reduction in tooling

cost etc. have limited influence. Therefore, early decisions need more
attention than the later ones.

This is true in life too.

That is why Dr. Kalam
emphasizes the role of
elementary teacher in
character building.

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Interpersonal relations
Interpersonal relations: Pyramidal
hierarchy. Different levels of
motivations. Different levels of patting
and punishing powers and
commensurate responsibilities
Reason: Mismatch between
organizational goals and individual
ambitions.

Effects: Lack of identification with the

organizational goals and hence lack of
integration.

Problems in Prod Dev & Mfg

Interpersonal relations
Do punch ek lunch
Sahib! Aap keliye kar denge
Ego Selfishness Jealousy
Enmity Non-cooperation/ shoot the
idea/ sabotage.
In spite of my best training in HAL and
experience for almost a quarter century
with workers, colleagues, bosses and
students, I still find difficulties in this
domain.

Rapid Product Development and

Manufacturing

Todays Industrial Scene

Short product life
In the past, product life was long and hence it could take long to
design; today, product life is very short due to :
fast-changing taste of the customers
technological obsolescence
Effect: Less time is available for product development.

Todays Industrial Scene

Severe competition indigenous and global
Competition can come from all over the globe in a buyers market.
Companies cannot afford complacency. Retaining market share
requires constant effort.

Competitors squeeze like a python: Companies on a tread mills: They

It exploits the fluctuations (cash flow, inventory,
manpower etc.).

have to keep running just to remain where

they are. They have to sprint to overtake.

Todays Industrial Scene

Todays Industrial Scene vis--vis the Past
Yesterday

Today

Protected economy
Local competition

Open economy
Global competition

Sellers market
Price = (Cost + Profit) Cost
Conformance to design

Buyers market
Profit = Price Cost
Customer delight

Longer product life

Shorter product life

Less liabilities and social

commitments
Complacence

Stringent laws for liability and

social commitments
Competition

Todays Industrial Scene

Remedies
Being the BEST alone is NOT enough; one also needs to be the
FIRST among the BEST to respond. To be the FIRST is more
important than to be the BEST.
The shortest Time to market fetches the highest market share.
So it decides the survival of organizations, leave alone their
success. So, agility is vital along with efficiency and ready
knowledge.
Sustaining as well as increasing market share by continued
service.
Rapid conversion of new knowledge to practical results is required.
The company should have a steeper learning curve to be able to
absorb new technologies faster.

Todays Industrial Scene

Remedies
Innovative designs only can handle competition, quality
requirements and product responsibility. This calls for recruiting,
investing and retaining appropriate manpower.
Laws related to liabilities and social damages such as pollution are
more stringent; these have to be taken care at the product
development stage.
Adopting technologies of Rapid Product Development &
Manufacturing makes more sense than ever before.

Todays Industrial Scene

Remedies
Ascertain the need of the
customers correctly. This is
vital for successful business.
It is a team work.

Product development is a
creative multi-disciplinary
process. People must
interact across the
disciplines. It is enabled by a
Concurrent Engineering or
DFX environment.

Todays Industrial Scene

Remedies
Product development is an iterative process. The more the design
iterations, better is the quality of design. But more iterations also cost
more! So use virtual tools as far as possible!!

Todays Industrial Scene

Remedies
Every mission is time-critical. Just because it is a creative activity, it
cannot take infinite time and money! Plan the work and work to plan.
This will minimize initial hick-ups.

Todays Industrial Scene

Remedies
Feedback as well as the required knowledge for product development
can come from within the company other groups and other projects
- as well as from outside customers.
A progressive organization continually responds to these feedbacks
and evolves the design.
Create interactions among projects.

Todays Industrial Scene

Remedies

Interactions among multidisciplinary teams within the

project

Interactions among the

projects

Todays Industrial Scene

Remedies
Plan development of technologies and processes to match with that
of Product Development.

Rapid Product Development &

Manufacturing (RPD&M)
Rapid Product Development & Manufacturing (RPD&M) is the
synergic integration of time compression technologies.
Its three principles are:
i.

Perform the activities in the virtual world as far as possible.

ii.

When these can no longer continue in the virtual world, switch to

physical world. While doing so, perform them as rapidly as
possible using modern tools.

iii.

A marginal sacrifice in performance is acceptable (!?!) if it will

increase speed.

RPD&M
Three pillars
i.

Virtual prototyping and

testing technologies

ii.

Physical prototyping and

rapid manufacturing
technologies

iii. Synergic integration

technologies

Three Pillars of RPD&M

Virtual Prototyping and Testing Technologies

Anything is possible

Minimum risk to human

life

Upward or downward
scalability of time in
virtual world

Less fatigue to the

personnel

Geometric Modeling
Reverse Engineering
Virtual and Augmented
Reality
Finite Element Analysis
Boundary Element Analysis
Motion analysis
Design for X
Virtual Manufacture
(Manufacturing Simulation)

Three Pillars of RPD&M

Virtual Prototyping and Testing Technologies
X in DFX
A - Assembly
B - Beauty (Aesthetics)
C - Cost
D - Details
E - Environment
F - Function
G - Gestalt
H - Hi - Lo Situations
(extremes of use)
I - Identification

J - Joy of Use
K - Komfort (Ergonomics)
L - Long Life
M - Manufacturability
N - Newness
O - Operator (Poka Yoke or
Mistake Proofing)
P - Performance (same as F?)
Q - Quality
R - Reliability

S - Safety
T - Transport
U - Uniqueness
V - Variety (same as mass
customization?)
W - Weight
X - Xcellence
Y Yuppies (?)
Z Zeitgeist (trend of times)

Three Pillars of RPD&M

Need for Physical Prototypes
Purchase of a car depends strongly on subjective impressions. Next
to technical properties like horse power or security equipment,
properties like noise, handling or styling are key factors for a
purchase decision. But these properties can only be evaluated by
physical prototypes. For that reason availability of high quality
functional prototypes will remain an important element of product
development and cannot be substituted by digital models and
analysis.
- Dr. Werner Pollmann, DaimlerChrysler AG in IMS International Conference on Rapid Product Development, Stuttgart, Germany (1994)

From the above observation, it is amply clear that technology is still

far away to carry out everything in the synthetic environment.
Therefore, we will have to produce a few physical prototypes to prove
and fine-tune design.

Three Pillars of RPD&M

Ways to speed up physical processes
Human being is the bottleneck to speed both due to muscle power
limitation and fatigue. Therefore, automation is the only way to speed
up physical processes.
Two stages of automation are:
i.

Automation of processes
- Hard automation:
automats, SPMs, Tr. lines
- Soft automation:
CNC, Robotics, AGVs, FMSs

ii.

Automation of Process
Planning
- CAPP, RP&T

Physical technologies: CNC, Robotics, CAPP, RP, RT, RM, rapid

Casting etc.

Three Pillars of RPD&M

Synergic integration
The activities of product development need to be integrated such that

the parallelism existing among them is exploited

design mistakes are detected and corrected early

There is need for synergy in the integration so that the benefits

achieved at any stage are carried forward till the end with least
attenuation.
Technologies for synergic integration: Concurrent Engineering and
DFX, PDM, PLM, CIM, ERP etc.

Conclusions

Companies no longer can afford to remain complacent

with their current performance. They have to
continuously improve to stay in business. For this,
adopting new technologies is essential.
In todays economy driven by global competition, RPD
makes more sense than ever before. This course aims
to bring in this awareness.

References

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, 1993, The Goal, Lionheart

Publishing.
Bill Gates, 1999, Business @ the Speed of Thought;
Using a Digital Nervous System, Warner Books.

Thank You!
K.P. Karunakaran
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Powai, Mumbai-400076, INDIA
Tel.: 022-25767530/ 9869541570
karuna@iitb.ac.in
www.me.iitb.ac.in/~karuna