A Generic Systems Engineering Method for Concurrent Development of Products and Manufacturing Equipment

Manufacturing is getting more competitive with time due to continuously increasing global competition. Late market introduction decreases the economic lifecycle of products and reduces return on investments. Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS) reduce the time to market because the process of equipment configuration is less time consuming than engineering it from scratch. This paper presents a scientific framework, to be applied as an engineering design tool, that is capable of improving the relation between product design and the reconfiguration process of RMS. Not only does it support a cross-domain adjustment and information exchange between product developers and manufacturing engineers, it also adds risk analysis for conscious risk taking in a cyclic development process. The method was applied on an industrial case; concurrent design and manufacturing of an environmentally friendly circuit board for wireless sensors. The method may be considered successful. It will lead to better system architecture of product and production systems at a more competitive cost. Feedback on the development process comes available in the early development stage when the product design is not rooted yet and two-way optimisations are still possible.