Master Thesis

Master Thesis

University of Groningen

Faculty of Economics and Business Technology Management

Author: Alejandro Mena

Student Number: 1752219

Company: Eaton Electric B.V.

Primary Supervisor: MSc. A. Alblas Secondary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ir. J. Slomp Company Supervisors: MBA. J. de Jong

Date: April 2009 - July 2009

MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

This report contains an investigation of design reuse and platform-based product design and development in the Medium Voltage Switchgear product line of Eaton Electric B.V. This company has been designing new products one-at-a-time, resulting in failures to embrace commonality, compatibility, standardization and modularization among different product lines. Therefore, new projects present the perfect opportunity to reuse components and knowledge across product generations and product lines.

Certainly, the idea behind design reuse is quite simple; Eaton Electric B.V must take past designs and repurpose them into new ones. As a consequence, the R&D department would start a new project with a point of reference, avoiding starting from scratch.

Design reuse plays a vital role in product development; it is a common practice for a designer to resort to similar past designs as a starting point. However, product information takes various forms and is subject to changes. To achieve effective design reuse, the solution relies in building a reuse library of metadata complemented with validation of the information registered in a computerized system. The analysis suggest concentrating on planning ahead by creating categories and indexes to build up a library, and then putting search tools in place to automate information retrieval. Nevertheless, to build this library, it is important to practice solid ‘hygiene’ by standardizing on names and labels wherever possible, and by creating search categories that can facilitate searches based on functional attributes.

Moreover, this research presents a straightforward method to determine a modeling approach and therefore a CAD tool. The method is based on factors such as product strategy, design strategy and new design cycle length. It considers that Eaton Electric B.V. products are complex, highly engineered, and want to implant a family-based or platform product strategy.

In addition, to facilitate data management and reuse, it is possible to generate a database where product data is clustered into product families.

Next, we consider a group of products sharing common parts and assemblies. The products in question we call a product family, and the common elements, the platform. Viewed from these interpretations, the general objective of developing product platforms is to reduce cost and time by improving commonalities of the functions and physical structures among a set of related products. Accordingly, platform communization is one of the key problems in developing product platforms. For that purpose, this report presents a bottom-up approach for product platforming; due to the fact that the products are already in production, but that they can be improved to satisfy different market segments.

The tools and methods introduced in this investigation can be used to help designers plan and

design product platform. A case study of medium voltage switchgear, namely Xiria and SVS,

is presented to illustrate the feasibility and validity of the approach. The platform analysis

includes a differentiation plan, platform strategy, followed by the Product Family

Representation and Redesign Framework (PFRRF) that uses three tools, such as Product

Vector Matrix, Function Component Matrix and Product-Component Multicontext Cross

Table to gain an overview of the relationship between the customer needs, functions and

components of the system. In fact, this suitable representation of the product family during its

design will help designers visualize alternate product architectures while providing insight

into the coupling between components and subsystems. Then, The second part of PFRRF

implements Component-Based or Product-based approach to redesign which increases

product family commonality by either making variant components common, or by making unique components variant.

Finally, modularity is introduced to group components for practical production objectives. For

this reason we have choose the Module Indication Matrix to examine the aptness from certain

components to form a module. Further, the analysis focuses on describing and assessing

concepts through the Pugh Selection Matrix which is a qualitative tool appropriate for the

concept design phase.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MANAGEMENT SUMMARY ... 4

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION... 7

1.1 Company Profile ... 7

1.2 Research Motivation ... 9

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH DESIGN ... 13

2.1 Methodology ... 13

2.2 Research Framework... 15

CHAPTER 3 RELATED LITERATURE ... 16

3.1 Product Platform Relevant Concepts... 16

3.1.1 Modularity, Commonality and Standardization ... 19

3.2 Design Reuse Systems... 22

3.2.1 Computational Perspective of Design Reuse ... 23

3.2.2 Design Reuse Systems Characteristics ... 24

3.2.3 Design Reuse Systems for Product Family Design ... 25

3.3 Relevant Remarks ... 26

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS... 28

4.1 Drivers and Trends Product Line Roadmap ... 28

4.1.1 Eaton Electric B.V Production Environment... 29

4.1.2 Deficiencies Affecting the Adoption of a Platform-based Product Development ... 29

4.1.3 Relevant Remarks... 31

4.2 Generic Project Descriptions and Case Results... 32

4.2.1 Xiria Cost-Out Project ... 32

4.2.2 SV-X Project... 32

4.2.3 New Fixed Platform (NFP) ... 34

4.2.4 Project Comparison... 35

4.2.5 Relevant Remarks... 35

4.3 Description of Cases... 38

4.3.1 Design Reuse: Overview of the Current Situation ... 38

4.3.2 SV-X Housing: Overview of the Current Situation ... 39

CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS... 41

5.1 Design Reuse Systems Applied to Eaton ... 41

5.1.1 Relevant Remarks... 41

5.2 Product Platform Design ... 42

5.2.1 Bottom-Up Approach to Product Platforming... 42

5.2.2 Identifying the Core Platform... 44

5.2.3 Relevant Remarks... 54

5.3 Modular Function Deployment ... 55

5.3.1 SV-X Housing Concepts ... 57

5.3.2 Concept Assessment ... 63

5.3.3 Relevant Remarks... 68

CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS... 69

6.1 Recommendations for Eaton ... 71

6.2 Areas for Future Work... 72

LIST OF REFERENCES ... 73

APPENDICES ... 76

Appendix I Methods to define modules and platforms to develop products ... 76

Appendix II PROLaunch Overview ... 78

Appendix III ELSS for Manufacturing -- Six Sigma Tools ... 83

Appendix IV ELSS for Manufacturing – Lean Tools ... 87

Appendix V Design Reuse ... 89

Appendix VI Description Module drivers (MIM) ... 96

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Eaton Electric B.V. designs electrical systems and components for power distribution and control. However, Research and Development design new products overlooking at existing solutions, reinventing the wheel with every new project. Similar functionality within the Medium Voltage System portfolio has not been exploited in proper manner. In fact, components and sub-systems of these products can be re-used for new product generations.

To this end, design reuse and platform management will be reviewed, trying to carefully balance standard and differentiation components inside a modular architecture.

This thesis project will continue with the investigation on platforms and modular product architectures performed by Wools (2009), the aim is to offer an illustration of the methodology and tools that can be introduced in the actual product development process to implement a product architecture that will enable Eaton to offer two or more highly differentiated products that share a substantial fraction of components. One of the principal interests may be to develop a family of products using a maximum number of standard components which, along with minimal architecture changes, allows to develop different products. Consequently, it is imperative to review certain company attributes in particular the products, strategic projects and product development process; all of them entangled in this investigation.

This chapter gives a general overview of Eaton Corporation identifying its market segments, focusing on Eaton Electric B.V. whose products and services play an important role in medium and low voltage applications in the energy line. The research will dwell on projects from the Medium Voltage System, to understand the applicability of relevant concepts introduced as the investigation progresses. The chapter also explains the system and tools used to achieve operational excellence in all Eaton’s businesses. Specifically, our interest lies in understanding the product development process and tools which Eaton employs to conceive, design, and commercialize a product.

1.1 Company Profile

Eaton Corporation is a diversified power management company with a broad industrial and commercial focus, reaching in 2008 sales of $15.4 billion. Eaton is a global technology leader in five distinct segments: Electrical, Aerospace, Hydraulics, Truck and Automotive. In addition, Eaton has approximately 75,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 150 countries.

Eaton’s Electrical Group

The Electrical Sector had sales of $6.9 billion in 2008. The business is a leader in electrical

power distribution, power quality systems, industrial automation and control products and

services. Eaton’s Electrical business in Europe encompasses the market leading brands of

Bill®, Cutler-Hammer®, Elek®, Holec® and MEM®. This means that the company can

provide Medium Voltage and Low Voltage products and project solutions to suit installation

requirements throughout utilities, industrial, commercial and residential sectors. The company

is a world leader in low voltage distribution and a dominant player in the medium voltage

market.

Figure 1.1 Eaton Electrical Group Eaton Electric B.V.

Under the legal entity name of Eaton Electric B.V., the Holec brand is part of Eaton Corporation. Eaton Electric B.V. develops, produces and sells products for switching, distributing and protecting electrical energy on low and medium voltage level. Low and medium voltage applications in the energy line require most of the products and services supplied by Eaton. In fact, these products can be found on every nodal point in the energy line, the network between power station and the users of electrical energy. The product portfolio includes switchgear systems and components, distribution systems and Motor Control Centers (MCC), all of them based on the latest insulation and interruption technologies, and manufactured in compliance with IEC safety and ISO quality standards.

The research conducted at the Hengelo premises will be focused on medium voltage activities which are directed towards switchgear systems for applications in distribution networks (main and substations, transformer stations) and for industrial power supply. The Medium Voltage Switchgear has been selected because of its relevance to Eaton’s businesses, with a turnover of $67 million in 2006. For example, there are products like Xiria and SVS responsible for 12% and 41% of this total, respectively. Furthermore, this section contains products such as those mentioned before that can be used in the platform analysis, because their designs present an ample scope for efficiency improvement which correlates with management desire for cost reduction.

Eaton Business System

Eaton Business System (EBS) was introduced to manage all the Eaton Corporation businesses

systematically, in order to achieve operational excellence. Operational excellence for the

electrical business is defined as meeting or exceeding customer expectations in a cost

effective manner through a culture of continuous and sustainable improvements in the value

chain. Since its inception EBS has provide a common set of values, philosophies, processes

management tools and measures to continually assess and improve performance.

Fundamental parts of Eaton Business System are the key tools used through all business units to achieve operational excellence:

• Eaton Lean Six Sigma (ELSS).- combination of Lean System methodology and Six Sigma quantitative analysis with the purpose to eliminate waste, simplify processes, reduce cycle times, and achieve exceptional profits and performance.

• PROLaunch and in the near future NextGen PROLaunch.- a set of integrated processes designed to guide product development from concept through production launch. It is conformed by four key components, namely the Phase-Gate Process, Project Management Process, Six Sigma for Design and Development Process, and the Portfolio Management process. PROLaunch will be described in more detailed in Appendix II.

• Supply Chain Management.- a comprehensive set of tactics to strengthen and diversify supplier relationships worldwide while achieving maximum value in commodity management, global logistics and sourcing.

1.2 Research Motivation

As product life cycles become shorter and shorter, stakes are higher in terms of sales and profits, making it an imperative for companies to enhance existing product families as much as possible (Alizon et al. 2007). Consequently, Eaton has developed a Product Line Roadmap that shows the current and future product portfolio; designed to increase profit margin and market share. Eaton’s imperative is to understand and fulfill the market needs while meeting the co-equal imperative for achieving low cost.

Eaton Electric B.V. has been designing new products one-at-a-time, which according to Meyer and Lehnerd (1997) results in a failure to embrace commonality, compatibility, standardization and modularization among different product lines. The Product Line Roadmap of Medium Voltage Systems is introducing new products that have to be launched in the next couple of years, among them three projects are of strategic importance to Eaton Electric B.V., these are Xiria E, SV-X and NFP or MM-X. Yet, these new projects present the perfect opportunity to reuse components and knowledge across product generations and product lines. Therefore, this research is set out with the aim to support product family development and foster component reuse. The main goal is to create a product platform that permits the generation of a product family by adding one or more modules. Simpson (2003) affirms that platform-based product development offers a multitude of benefits including reduced development time and system complexity and reduced development and production costs.

These new to be developed products will use PROLaunch that stands for Profitable, Reliable,

On-Time Launch of new products. Analogous to new product development projects

Tatikonda (1999) found that platform and derivative projects are executed in a similar

manner, this suggests that Eaton can manage single product and platform projects with

PROLaunch. However, there are some constrains; first, not all the tools are present in

PROLaunch, and second, literature offers diverse methodologies for developing standardized

and modularized platform architectures, Appendix I shows a classification of the methods,

mathematical tools and algorithms found in literature, yet those methodologies are designed

for specific case studies, undermining their applicability to the Medium Voltage System

products. Therefore, there is no recipe to implement product platforms the solution requires customization to Eaton’s current situation. For this reason one of the priorities of this investigation is to provide a methodology to identify a core platform using a case study. In addition, it is imperative to review product architecture since system-level designers must still address the problem of what product architecture should be used to deliver the different products while sharing parts and production steps across the products.

Research Objective

The objective of this investigation is to offer improvements to the actual new product development system known as PROLaunch with the aim to meet financial objectives and to reduce the time to market of Medium Voltage Switchgear by promoting platform-based product development. The investigation will include an analysis of the tools used to archive and search information which are an essential part of the design process. The introduction and proper use of these tools will generate activities that have to be implemented in the NPD process. In fact, these practices will aim to improve conceptual development, detailed design, verification and validation and variant design generation. Afterwards, a methodology and tools to identify standard elements between product lines will be proposed; to illustrate an example from the SV-X project will be executed. The tools used will be added to the NPD practices.

Problem Statement and Conceptual model

Using the research objective as a starting point, it is possible to formulate the following problem statement:

Which tools, methodologies, and activities can be introduced in Eaton’s new product development system to implement design reuse and platform commonality in order to reduce the costs by economies of scale?

In order to answer the problem statement, the following research questions have been formulated:

1. What are the characteristics of the new product development process?

a. What are the new features of NextGen ProLaunch?

b. What are the problems addressed by NextGen ProLaunch?

c. What problems affect the adoption of a platform-based product development?

2. What are the drivers and trends distinguished on the Product Line Roadmap?

a. Which are the strategic projects carried at Eaton Electric B.V.?

b. What are the criteria to change the existing products?

3. What are the main features of design reuse systems?

a. What are the tools used at Eaton for product data management?

b. What activities should be implemented in the NPD process to enhance the design reuse system?

c. What is the vendor perspective to cope with design reuse?

4. How can Eaton Electric B.V. introduce Product Platform design?

a. Which methodology can be used to identify the core platform? Illustration of the methodology with a current Eaton Electric B.V project.

5. How can Eaton Electric B.V. chose the best concept for the SV-X housing?

a. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each concept?

b. How many variants are necessary within each concept?

In order to assimilate this material into a more usable form a translation approach is required, Figure 1.2 shows a conceptual model including performance objectives that will affected by the introduction of key concepts such as design reuse and product family design. This kind of analysis helps to understand what is relevant for Eaton and the customer.

Performance Objectives

Speed

Costs Quality

Flexibility

New Product Development Process PROLaunch Design Reuse

Product Family Design and Platform-Based Product Development Examples from Product Line Roadmap

- SV-X: combining Xiria and SVS

- SV-X housing +

+

+

+

+ Positive relationship Has influence on

Figure 1.2 Conceptual Model

Design reuse has a positive relationship with speed and quality of the projects. For example, reusing an existing design in a new application is an obvious way of reducing time, effort and risk. It helps avoid some of the resources consumed in original design besides assisting the designer to develop products that maximize customer satisfaction. Similarly, Xu et al., (2006) affirms that time saving can be achieved through more efficient information retrieval because the information has to be collected and well-indexed in a database. Regarding, quality Demian and Fruchter (2009), suggest that building better products requires a good comparative perspective and exploration of the product evolution, in order to understand this item and make an informed decision about whether and how to reuse it.

Further, product family design and platform-based product development has a positive influence on flexibility and costs. For example a product platform gives the company flexibility to move from one market sector into neighboring ones by redesigning the present product to include a common core for reuse in other sectors. The strategy is to merge existing designs to develop a common core design, which can then be built as a variety of products.

Besides, commonality is recognized as an effective way to achieve economies of scale and

scope. Contrarily when a product is unique such as the products within Eaton portfolio it

results in high development and production costs. Finally, both of these concepts will be

integrated into the new product development process including activities, tools and methodologies.

In order to make a clear distinction between design reuse and commonality. Within this paper

design reuse refers to the activity of recalling from past design experiences, and what is

reused is not limited to the product, it includes the knowledge acquired through the entire

development process. On the other hand, commonality is identified between the designs of

individually generated products to decide on the shared platform.

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH DESIGN

This chapter presents the methodology that will be used to collect data on the problems in applying design reuse and product platforms. It is worth mentioning that a previous research involved the use of platforms and modular design to reduce product costs, even though some of the ideas and previous reasoning will be considered in this paper, the problem itself will be treated from a different perspective; instead of focusing on the theoretical aspects, emphasis will be place to illustrate the main concepts extracted from literature. The results from this study will be considered for inclusion in Eaton’s Product Development System, PROLaunch.

2.1 Methodology

Research will be conducted in the field, trying to solve real problems using literature and the creative insights of people at all levels of the organization. This report uses case research which is a method that uses case studies as its basis. Voss (2002) defines a case study as the history of a past or current phenomenon, drawn from multiple sources of evidence. It can include data from direct observation and systematic interviewing as well as from public and private archives.

The methodology used to conduct this investigation can be divided in five steps:

• Interviews: extracting relevant information from the main stakeholders such as R&D, Marketing and Manufacturing

• Document analysis: backup the information extracted from the interviews by reviewing PROLaunch archival sources to understand projects status and exploring relevant literature to cope with the issues identified.

• Project Involvement: participation in the regular meetings from the SV-X project and member of the cross-functional team designated to handle the construction of the SV- X housing.

• Data analysis: confront literature with three specific topics ‘Eaton’s design reuse systems’, ‘Identifying the core platform for the SV-X project’, ‘SV-X Housing Concept Selection and Assessment’. Using illustrative examples to embed the theory in the PROLaunch process

• Conclusions: summarizing the main findings and extending advice to Eaton Electric B.V.

As mentioned before, three topics are going to be elicited during the study, namely ‘Eaton’s design reuse systems’, ‘Identifying the core platform for the SV-X project’, ‘SV-X Housing Concept Selection and Assessment’. All these topics have something in common, and that is the influence they exert to embrace product family design based on platforms and modular product architecture which is our main study case. A single study case gives the opportunity for depth of observation.

There are several data sources that are going to be used in this study, among them semi- structured interviews, personal observation, informal conversations with Eaton personnel, attendance at meetings for two projects and collection of objective data reviewing archival sources, for instance access has been granted to the shared PROLaunch hard drive where we can find all the projects related information.

Once the information has been gathered and coded, analyzing data is the hearth of building

theory, Eisenhardt (1989) recognizes that there is no standard format; this paper will use

tabular displays and graphs to illustrate and synthesize the most important findings. The overall idea is to become intimately familiar with the case. For example, a comparison between the strategic projects will stress subtle similarities.

Case studies can be used for different types of research purposes such as exploration, theory testing, theory building and theory extension. The study case on Product Family design using platforms and modular product architecture will be used for exploration purposes, since we will try to uncover areas for research and will develop theory in platform implementation using Eaton’s current situation. Thus, the theory-building process relies on past literature and observation.

To have a better overview of the project a short description of the main topics is given below:

“PRO-Launch” which is a set of integrated processes designed to guide product development from concept through production launch will be reviewed because of its importance and use in the strategic projects. Moreover, we will try to identify issues that constrain the implementation of platforms among Eaton’s product portfolio.

“Drivers and trends of product line roadmap” has an exploratory purpose. Three projects will be described at the beginning of the research program to develop research ideas; the purpose is to find evidence that will justify our research in product platforms and design reuse.

“Design reuse systems”, Eaton’s current situation will be described emphasizing on the modeling CAD tools that the Design Engineers use in their every day activities. Focus will be placed on the Product Data Management software package, which is a fundamental part of design reuse because it allows to search, index, browse, aggregate and analyze knowledge across projects. To avoid bias several users or key informants of the CAD tools will be interviewed, seeking multiple viewpoints particularly where there is likely to be subjectivity and bias such as the preference of CAD software by certain design engineers.

“Product Platform Design” Even though, authors like Simpson, et al (2006) have mentioned approaches to product family design such as Bottom-up or Top-down. There is no clear methodology to implement these concepts. The starting point is Eaton Electric B.V.’s attempt to consolidate a group of distinct products to standardize components to improve economies of scale. The current research will examine a bottom-up approach to product platforming using the Product Family Representation and Redesign Framework (PFRRF) proposed by Nanda et al., 2005 and 2007. In addition, we introduce the component-based approach and product-based approach to redesign product families. In the former approach designers select unique or variant components in a product family and try to make them variant or common to improve commonality in the family; while in the latter designers select multiple products from a product family and try to increase the commonality between the selected products. The result from this analysis will be the identification of the SV-X core platform.

“SV-X housing”, we are going to investigate how to choose the best concept using one of the tools specified by Eaton’s DFSS (Design for Six Sigma) procedure. We will use this example because of its importance to achieve modularity in the products.

“Conclusion and Recommendations”, in the last part of this report we find a compilation of all

the relevant findings from our research. These conclusions will answer the problem statement,

besides identifying issues for further research.

2.2 Research Framework

The starting point for case research is the research framework. We need to have a prior view of the general topics we intend to study and their relationships. This can be done through construction of a conceptual framework that is going to explain graphically the main things that are going to be studied. Figure 2.1 shows the main topics that we are going to study in this paper.

Figure 2.1 Research Framework

CHAPTER 3 RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter offers a review which is organized according to various topics in relation to product families and design reuse systems including fundamental issues and definitions. First, product platform concepts such as product family, product platform and product architecture are listed because these concepts are used to increase variety, shorten lead-times, and most important to reduce costs. In addition, there has been growing interest in the concept of modularity, commonality and standardization of products as means to tackle product complexity. Second, design reuse systems characteristics are elicited to understand the basic elements that are present in a design repository.

3.1 Product Platform Relevant Concepts

Product family: a group of related products that share common features, components, and subsystems; and satisfy a variety of market niches. A product family comprises a set of variables, features or components that remain constant from product to product (product platform), and other that vary from product to product (Simpson et al., 2001).

An increasingly popular method to reduce complexity in products is the product platform, which essentially divides the product architecture into a standardized part (the platform) and customized modules. Combining the two allows the creation of a large number of distinct product variants.

Product platform: the set of parameters (common parameters), features and components that remain constant from product to product, within a given product family (Simpson et al, 2001).

In Meyer’s (1997) view, “a product platform is a set of subsystems and interfaces that form a common structure from which a stream of derivative products can be efficiently developed and produced”. Some definitions and descriptions focus mainly on the product or artifact itself as the previous concepts, whereas others try to explore the platform concept in terms of a firm’s value chain. The effort of this paper is geared towards the extraction of those common product elements that are stable and well understood, so as to provide the basis for introducing value adding differentiating features.

Many companies are utilizing product families to increase variety, shorten lead-times, and reduce costs. Simpson (2003) acknowledges that the key to a successful product family is the product platform from which it is derived either by adding, removing or substituting one or more modules to the platform or by scaling the platform in one or more dimensions to target specific market niches. Typically, Eaton Electric B.V has been designing products or improving product lines one-at-a-time, this focus results in a failure to embrace commonality, compatibility, standardization and perhaps modularization among different product lines.

Notwithstanding, the strategic plan reveals the intention to design a family of products or group of related products that share common features and components to satisfy a variety of markets.

Approaches to product family design

There are two basic approaches to product family design (Simpson, et al., 2006).

• Top-down (proactive platform) approach: a company strategically manages and develops a family of products based on a product platform and its derivatives.

• Bottom-up (reactive design) approach: a company redesigns or consolidates a group of

distinct products to standardize components to improve economies of scale.

Top-down or bottom-up platform-based product development can be achieved through a Module-Based Product Family wherein product family members are instantiated by adding, substituting, and/or removing one or more functional modules from the platform. An alternative approach is through the development of a Scale-Based Product Family wherein one or more scaling variables are used to “stretch” or “shrink” the platform in one or more dimensions to satisfy a variety of market niches.

Platform Planning

A desirable property of the product architecture is that it enables a company to offer two or more products that are highly differentiated yet sharing a substantial fraction of their components. And this collection of assets, including component designs is what we call a platform. According to Ulrich and Eppinger (2004) planning the product platform involves managing a basic trade-off between distinctiveness and commonality. On the one hand, there are market benefits to offering several very distinctive versions of a product. On the other hand, there are design and manufacturing benefits to maximizing the extent to which these different products share common components. For example, to manage this trade-off it is possible to use a differentiation plan.

Platform Leveraging Strategies

As Simpson et al., (2006) mentions the basic development strategy within any product family is to leverage the product platform across multiple market segments. The market segment grid introduced by Meyer (1997) can be used to demonstrate this concept and is useful for both platform development (top-down) as well as product family consolidation (bottom-up). As shown in Figure 3.1, market segments are plotted horizontally in the grid while price/performance tiers are plotted vertically; each intersection of a market segment with a price performance tier constitutes a market niche that is served by one or more of a company’s products. There are three platform leveraging strategies, namely vertical leveraging, horizontal leveraging and beachhead approach.

Figure 3.1 Platform Leveraging Strategies. Simpson et al., (2006)

Originally Meyer (1997) introduced the “power tower”, an integrative model for managing product and process innovation, forcing management to consider the following three elements:

• In a first step, the market applications are visualized by a matrix of customer segments and product price or performance that defines what customer groups the derivative products go to.

• Second, every company should determine the architecture of its product platforms most suitable for its particular business, since product platform should provide leverage.

• The third step determines the common technical and organizational building blocks

forming the basis of product platforms. These building blocks are categorized into

four areas: insights into customer needs, product technologies, manufacturing

processes and organizational capabilities. These capabilities must be leveraged across the product platforms of different product lines to achieve more successful product development.

Figure 3.2 The Power Tower. Meyer (1997) Product Family Representation and Redesign

In this paper we propose to use the framework introduced by Nanda et al., (2005 and 2007) based on Formal Concept Analysis that can be applied systematically to visualize a product family and improve commonality in the product family. Within this framework, the components of a product family are represented as a complete lattice structure that can summarized in a multi-context cross table.

Figure 3.3 Product-Component Multi-Context Cross Table. Nanda et al., (2005)

The lattice structure is then analyzed to identify prospective components to redesign to improve commonality. Two approaches are part of this product family redesign methodology:

Component-Based approach, and Product-Based approach. In the Component-Based

approach, emphasis is given to a single component that could be shared among the products in

a product family to increase commonality. In the Product-Based approach, multiple products

from a product family are selected, and commonality is improved among the selected

products. Besides increasing the understanding of the interaction between components in a product family, the framework explicitly captures the redesign process for improving commonality.

Product architecture: can be defined as the way in which the functional elements of a product are arranged into physical units and the way in which these units interact. A product can be thought of in both functional and physical terms. The functional elements of a product are the individual operations and transformations that contribute to the overall performance of the product. The physical elements of a product are the parts, components and subassemblies that ultimately implement the product’s functions. The physical elements of a product are typically organized into several major physical building blocks, which we call chunks. The architecture of a product is the scheme by which the functional elements of the product are arranged into physical chunks and by which the chunks interact (Ulrich and Eppinger 2004)

3.1.1 Modularity, Commonality and Standardization Modularity

The main characteristics of product family design are modularity, commonality/reusability, and standardization. Modularity is referred to as the most important characteristic of a product’s architecture. Accordingly, there are two types of architecture, modular and integral.

Modular product architecture can easily create product variants by combination of components or building blocks. On the other hand, integral architecture can acquire advantages of performance by individual design and optimization. A module refers to a physical or conceptual grouping of components that share characteristics. Modules are identified in such a way that between-module (inter module) interactions are minimal whereas within-module (infra-module) interactions may be high (Jianxin et al., 2007).

Ulrich and Eppinger (2004) mention that a modular architecture has the following two properties:

• Chunks implement one or a few functional elements in their entirety

• The interactions between chunks are well defined and are generally fundamental to the primary functions of the product.

In order to understand how exactly a function is different from the perfectly modular situation in which there is one-to-one relationship between function and component, Fixson (2005) mentions the use of function-component allocation (FCA) schemes. What is called function here includes technical functions as well as attributes as would be used by marketing. On the other hand, a component can represent all subsystems, modules or parts. The basic idea is to identify the number of components that jointly provide a function and assess the extent to which this set of components also contributes to other functions.

In addition to the modular-like FCA style that shows a one-to-one relation between function

and component. Fixson (2005) mentions three other styles. If a function is provided by a large

set of components, which individually are not involved in other functions; it exhibits an

integral-fragmented FCA style. In contrast, if one component delivers several functions, these

functions show an integral-consolidated FCA style. Finally, only if multiple components

provide multiple functions in such a way that most components participate in most functions,

then the functions would fall into the integral-complex FCA style.

Product modularization enables the customer to choose from a large variety of products while letting the producer profit from economies of scale (shared components) and economies of scope (using modules in different products).

Figure 3.4 Types of Modularity. Marti (2007) Marti (2007) describes six types of modularity:

• Component – sharing modularity, the same component is used across multiple products to provide economies of scope. It is often associated with the idea of component standardization.

• Component - swapping modularity is the complementary case to component-sharing modularity. Here, different components are combined with the same basic product to create a number of product variants belonging to the same product family.

• Cut-to-fit modularity is the use of standard components with one or more continually variable components. Mostly, the variation is expressed as physical dimensions that can be modified (e.g. length, power)

• Mix modularity can use any of the above three types, with the distinction that the resulting product is something different than the constituent components that are mixed together. Therefore, it can only be applied to products consisting of a mixture of various substances.

• Bus modularity relies on a standard structure with two or more interfaces that can attach any selection of components from a set of component types. Bus modularity allows variation in the number and location of the components.

• Sectional modularity, it allows connecting components in any arbitrary way, as long

as each component is connected to another through standard interfaces.

Modular Function Deployment

Modular function deployment (MFD) is a method presented by Erixon (1998) that supports the development of modular products. It is based on the concept of module drivers, which are supposed to describe the main criteria of modularization. MFD consists of five steps as shown in Figure 3.5

Figure 3.5 Modular Function Deployment. Erixon (1998) Commonality and Standardization

The core of product platform development is to obtain the biggest set of products through the most standardized set of basic components and production processes. Accordingly, platform commonization is actually the process of finding a collection of common elements (functions, parameters, features, components, subsystems, corresponding manufacturing information, etc.) within a product family and designing for commonization and standardization of them.

Dahmus et al., (2001) define product modules as subsystems within a product that are bundled as a unit, and which serve identifiable functions. The product module is the pair, both the subsystem and the functions. Portfolio modules are defined as product modules that are used in multiple products.

Qin et al, (2005) states that platform commonization mainly involves:

1. Identifying a common platform from a set of similar products

• Formulating the product family and platform architectures to facilitate product platform identification and construction.

• Identifying elements and their constraints in common platforms from representation, including:

o Identification of common modules/subsystems and their interface relationships.

o Identification of common components and their relationships

2. Determining the standardization approach to platform design, mainly the means of capturing platform elements (components and subsystems). Standardization for platform elements include:

• Standardization of components (including structures and parameters)

• Standardization of subsystems and interfaces (including structures and parameters)

• Standardization of correlative manufacturing process and managements, etc.

Utilizing commonization and standardization of components/modules in platforms, varieties

of products can be provided on the same production and assembly lines.

3.2 Design Reuse Systems

In current practice, information captured while designing products in a family is often incomplete, unstructured, and is mostly proprietary in nature, making it difficult to index, search, refine, reuse, distribute, browse, aggregate, and analyze knowledge across heterogeneous information systems, Nanda et al., (2007). While all engineering organizations report that they are currently reusing designs, including Eaton Electric B.V, top performing ones are further along in the deployment of techniques and technologies to capitalize on design reuse.

Product development in general is a mix of old designs and new innovations. Therefore, when reuse is applied too much in a product, the market will eventually go elsewhere, and if reuse is not sufficiently employed, there will be a proliferation of empty innovation providing an excess of product variety the market does not need or want as identified by Sivaloganathan and Shahin (1999).

The potential of design reuse has been identified by many researchers and research groups with differing motivations. However, the ultimate aim of all their efforts is to assist the designer to develop products that maximize customer satisfaction with minimal resources, cost and effort. According to Ong and Guo (2006) it is estimated that 90% of all industrial designs are adaptive or variant which means that most of the design problems are solved by making use of existing designs in some way rather than being designed from scratch.

Therefore, design reuse is vital to reducing development costs and lead-time while maintaining stable design quality in an ever-changing and highly competitive market.

Pahl et al., (2007) define the design problem solving process in four phases: problem clarification, conceptual design, embodiment design and detailed design. Hence, the form and substance of design reuse at different phases vary respectively. Due to the fact that detailed design is the final and output stage of the design process, design reuse activities will concentrate in this phase. Since the detailed design phase is so far the most explicitly understood and computerized phase in the design process, much more effort will be devoted to this area.

Several studies in this field have been carried out. Table 3.1 shows related research issues that can be found in literature.

Related research issues Authors

Detailed design data-storing methods Andrews and Sivaloganathan (1998)

Database construction Shooter et al., (2005), Ong and Guo (2006)

Feature-extraction techniques Xu et al., (2006)

Geometrical data similarity evaluation Simpson et al., (2006)

Development of standard languages: Knowledge management and ontologies

Nanda et al., (2007), Zdrahal et al., (2000) Functionality capturing of detailed design data Xu et al. (2006)

Table 3.1 Detailed design reuse related research

All these findings are expected to contribute to the reuse of information. For instance,

functionality-capturing of the detailed design data is a form of design for reuse, and the

functionality recorded can be used as a searching index for product data retrieval. In addition,

design description languages and the methods for storing and for database construction are

selected to facilitate product representation, recognition and information extraction.

3.2.1 Computational Perspective of Design Reuse

A significant amount of work has been done in the use of computers for knowledge capturing and reuse. Sivaloganathan and Shahin (1999) describe this development under three computational issues:

(a) Indexing and information retrieval.- involves structuring cross-references of knowledge that typify the area of interest to enhance retrieval of related information.

(b) Knowledge utilization.- three types of knowledge modeling are developed. First, Case-based reasoning in design involves the storage and reuse of past design cases in new design. It encompasses approaches to representing, indexing and organizing past design cases and processes for retrieving and modifying selected instances. Second, Model-based reasoning involves the development of knowledge models upon which to base new designs. Third, Plan reuse involves the rationale behind design and the replaying of a suitable design history during a design activity.

(c) Exploration and adaptation.- it involves access the existing design cases when queried, using some relevant features and support possible modifications to an existing design.

Challenges of Design Reuse using a CAD database

Inside the analysis of a major CAD provider PTC (2008), it has been suggested that at its most basic level, design reuse works ‘opportunistically’. That is, when assigned a new job, engineers may recall that the part to be designed is similar to a part that already exists. Thus, the first step is to find the existing part, perhaps by searching a CAD database by part number.

In fact, with the new design underway contextual information will be generated for the new part or assembly. The engineer might need record information such as: temperature ranges within which it will operate; results of vibration analysis; sizes and types of bolts or other connectors; and other pertinent information; however, this activity is not performed on the computer system.

A year later, when the organization is adding a new product to that particular line, it’s up to another designer to remember that part, search on its part number, retrieve it along with any additional documentation the first designer had added and then go to work on the next version. And, that new designer will probably start working without the accompanying information generated previously.

Search Limitations

First of all, searching from memory or by part number is a hit-or-miss proposition. The designer may or may not find a usable part file, depending on the quality of the CAD database. As well, the user may not find the best variation or option; the only way to do that is to search all relevant part numbers and then try to determine the one that is optimum for the design purpose. For example, while designing a part that handles vibration, heat, and other conditions especially well, it will be convenient to find out which previous part design satisfies these criteria.

Non-Digital Documentation

Non-digital storage means that no matter what functional information accompanies the part

model, it cannot be used to search electronically for the model; in other words, it can’t be

turned into a category that’s visible to the search engine. By contrast, digital storage enables

the new designer to search on a variety of functional parameters from temperature ranges to

usage context. And thus the user has a better chance of finding the best part or assembly to use as the starting point for the new design.

3.2.2 Design Reuse Systems Characteristics

Several articles have been reviewed to find the basic operations that can be present in the design reuse systems. Even though, all the designs founded in literature are proprietary and modeled for a company specific situation, it is possible to extract the design intent and main characteristics relevant to the case at hand.

Media Types.- Nanda et al., (2007) describes a system that integrates several types of media that can be associated with artifacts. Media types can take the form of pictures, graphical functional models, graphical assembly models, two-dimensional CAD files, three- dimensional CAD files, stereo lithographic files for rapid prototyping machines and many others.

Product family features.- Ong and Guo (2006) introduce this concept in their design, the main idea was to cluster into one product family products that share the same functions and have similar geometrical structures. The reason to do so is to simplify product data management and facilitate data retrieval and reuse. A product family can be seen as a virtual spreadsheet that records information of a group of products. The family definition is made up of a series of characteristic features and parameters of the products.

Product data browsing.- The applicability of this concept is in efficient collaboration among product teams, which is the key for achieving product development business goals. Superior collaboration must support both synchronous and asynchronous information exchange to match the way team members naturally engage. For example, PTC has a software package known as Model explorer which is a model viewing, inspection, and analysis tool that helps product development teams communicate design ideas effectively, using the CAD files.

Model explorer is part of OneSpace.net, a software product that also includes an application (meeting center) to schedule a meeting, invite other designers, access project files, and share model explorer. Zdrahal et al., (2000) also describe an online web-based environment that takes advantage of the cross-referencing feature of hypertext markup language.

Product searching and retrieving.- this process largely determines the performance of a

design reuse system. The relevance of the search results mostly depends on the indexing

methods of the product data and the design of the searching mechanism. Users can retrieve

data using one index or a combination of several indices, for instance functions, comments or

quantitative indices such as cost or weight. Zdrahal et al., (2000) and Nanda et al., (2007)

represent and store design information using ontologies to establish common vocabularies and

capture knowledge. An ontology consists of a set of concepts, axioms and relationships that

describe a domain of interest, and will create the metadata used for search purposes. These

concepts and the relationships between them are usually implemented as classes, relations,

properties, attributes and values. The structures developed are encoded using languages such

as OWL and RichODL. An ontology editor such as Protégé is used for the purpose. Though,

the methodology introduced by these researchers is valid and well-thought, the software

package has a lot of deficiencies. Protégé which is a free, open source editor based on Java

provides plug-in applications which are unstable, for instance the graphics generator that can

be used to visualize the relationships between parts has conflicts once installed. In addition,

these ontologies have to be integrated with CAD databases and media types as described

before, which in turn increase the difficulty of the project. For this purpose, it is better to

focus on solutions developed by providers of CAD modeling solutions that have more experience in product development process, and understand the needs of the market.

History of the design.- Demian and Fruchter (2009) focused on evolution history exploration of the design. The evolution history is the record of the iterations a design progresses through, from an abstract idea or a set of requirements to a fully designed physical entity. There are products in the market that try to solve this problem, namely Product Data Management (PDM) systems. State of the art PDM systems such as Teamcenter by Siemens aim to provide a single source of all content related to the product. This resource can remain active over the product’s entire lifecycle. Windchill by PTC, Enovia by 3DS, and MatrixOne are all similar but focus on very slightly different aspects such as process management and team collaboration. In addition, PDM systems sometimes include versioning functionality and are increasingly web-based

3.2.3 Design Reuse Systems for Product Family Design

Successfully capturing design knowledge, effectively representing it and easily accessing it are crucial to improve the product family design process. The main characteristics of product family design are modularity, commonality/ reusability, and standardization. According to Zha and Sriram (2006) design knowledge is classified into two categories: product family information and knowledge, and family design process knowledge.

In other words, product design knowledge may include all information defined and created during the design process and all knowledge used to create that information. The former is often defined as product knowledge, which includes all product or artifact-related information needed throughout the whole design process such as product specifications, concepts, structure and geometry. The latter is referred to as the process knowledge, which can be described in two aspects; design activities and design rationale.

Figure 3.6 Knowledge support for product family design. Zha and Sriram (2006)

Further, the design reuse system for product family will establish a comprehensive repository

that can be retrieved and reused when necessary. Similarly, Shooter et al., (2004) mentions

that the main objective of the system is to develop an information management infrastructure

that emphasize on capturing information regarding component sharing and reuse within a family of products. Functionality, physical parameters, manufacturing process, input/output flows, performance parameters and interfaces are needed component knowledge for archival and reuse. Taken together all these characteristics constitute a design repository.

Figure 3.7 Design repository for modular product family design. Zha and Sriram (2006) The current commercial offerings that contain elements of a design repository can be grouped into three categories:

• Mechanical CAD (MCAD) packages that augment traditional CAD models with more abstract design knowledge.

• Systems engineering tool-sets that contain higher level design information that may be used to generate CAD models

• Systems modeling and simulation packages which have no interaction with traditional CAD packages.

3.3 Relevant Remarks

The basic concept of a family of products is to obtain the largest set of products through a standardized set of base components that will be identified based on their function commonality. This work clusters components based on function similarities so as to decrease product variability within a product family resulting in a new assembly system. Currently, Eaton has separate assembly cells for similar products. The assembly workcells produce completed products such as Magnefix, Xiria and SVS. The introduction of platform thinking assumes that part families can be combined justifying layout and equipment changes.

In addition, design reuse is going to be studied within Eaton Electric B.V. because improving and supporting the process of design knowledge can increase productivity and improve the quality of the new design. This research recognized that internal knowledge reuse or in other words a designer reusing knowledge from personal experiences is not enough when the company wants to create a new generation or a new family of products based on old designs.

We propose the proper implementation of an external knowledge repository conjugated with the right activities to embrace the creation of a product family. As mentioned by Zha and Sriram (2006) knowledge-intensive support becomes more critical in the design process and has been recognized as a key solution towards future competitive advantages in product development. Therefore, to improve the product family design, it is imperative to provide knowledge support and share design knowledge among the engineers.

The best way of promoting reuse, is to provide better design databases. Indeed, the greater the

knowledge that a designer in search of reuse can manipulate, the better. According to Shooter

et al, (2005) the theoretical aim should be to construct a design repository which combines heterogeneous design knowledge such as functionality, physical parameters (e.g., dimensions, geometry, type, material), manufacturing process, input/output flows, performance parameters and interfaces; for reuse purposes.

There is currently no technology on the market that is truly a design repository; however,

there are several packages that contain elements of a design repository. Such computerized

design packages are systems engineering tool-sets that contain higher level design

information that may be used to generate CAD models. The review of literature and current

commercial offerings indicates that the concept of a design repository is extremely useful to

automated design storage and retrieval packages. For this reason, we will analyze Eaton

Electric B.V. current situation regarding the application of CAD databases for design reuse

and provide directions for action.

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the current situation at Eaton Electric B.V which affects the insertion of product platforms and design reuse concepts. First, it is essential for this investigation to gain a better understanding of the development projects for the coming three to five years; in order to identify those cases in which platforms thinking can be applied.

Second, complex new product development requires to share and coordinate distributed resources and synchronize decisions. Within PROLaunch we want to stress the need to introduce Portfolio Management and creation of special programs dedicated to the development of a new product family. Third, advances in information technology pose an untapped potential for assisting in the capture, storage, retrieval and facilitated use of product development information, therefore at the end of this section we present a brief description of the software employed by the Research and Development department to fulfill these functions.

4.1 Drivers and Trends Product Line Roadmap

Roadmapping selects the portfolio for the coming three to five years and it is considered part of the strategic plan. The strategic plan is prepared by the Eaton European Operation Divisional Leadership team which is formed by multi- functional representatives of Sales, Human Resources, Research & Development, IT and the General Manager. The product line manager of the medium voltage switchgear is in charge of providing the long term product line strategic plans which consists of product line roadmap, product roadmap and a technology roadmap. Figure 4.1 shows the new products that will be part of the portfolio.

Figure 4.1 Product Line Roadmap

It is clear that three products are being developed according to the product line roadmap, Xiria

E, SV-X and NFP. For that reason, this report will provide a short description of the projects

conducted at this moment at Eaton Electric B.V., instead of Xiria-E we have included a

description of the Xiria Cost-Out Project for illustration purposes. All of them are in different

stages in the Phase-Gate process.