Application of project management to materials selection for diversified product design parameters

The selection of suitable material is a key step in the product design process. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, nor only technology-oriented engineering requirements, but also production-oriented manufacturing and customer-oriented marketing must be included in the analysis of the materials requirements. This work presents a methodology for deriving diversified product design parameters which are function-based and project-oriented for supporting the analysis of materials requirements. When developing the product design parameters, cross-functional problems attributed to the conflicts between functional departments should be resolved by the project management using a heavyweight team structure in the organisation. The proposed diversified product design parameters form the basis of materials selection rationalisation.