2nd week unanswered terms- Burcu HASDEMİR- 503101302

Continuous Improvement

 There is much to be said for small-scale incremental improvements in processes,

methods, and systems. This is in contrast to the historical pattern in the United States, wherein large-scale, capitalintensive

automation projects are used as a means to reduce costs and improve quality. There is nothing wrong with such

an approach if the changes are technically and managerially sound and economically justifiable. However, sometimes a

series of grass-roots, incremental improvements can yield the same results in the long run with much less investment and

upheaval. The continuous improvement approach, a major element of TQM, has much to be said for it.

Many American managers have problems with the idea of continuous improvement, in knowing exactly when the point of

diminished returns is met. In other words, how do you know when to stop spending cash to improve quality? For the

answer to that question, we turn once again to the QLF.

As described earlier, the QLF can be used to set tolerance limits for a product. Knowing the product or process deviation,

and the loss due to scrap and rework and current tolerances, the manufacturer can determine the loss per unit for a given

performance level of a process. It can then calculate the loss due to variation and decide whether further expenditures for

improvements in quality are justified.

(ASM Handbook Volume 20 Materials selection and design, ASM INTERNATIONAL The Materials Information Company, p.268, 283)

Continuous Improvement (previous answer) (better)

Continuous Improvement is a culture of sustained improvement targeting the elimination of waste in all systems and processes of an organization. It involves everyone working together to make improvements without necessarily making huge capital investments. CI can occur through evolutionary improvement, in which case improvements are incremental, or though radical changes that take place as a result of an innovative idea or new technology. Often, major improvements take place over time as a result of numerous incremental improvements. On any scale, improvement is achieved through the use of a number of tools and techniques dedicated to searching for sources of problems, waste, and variation, and finding ways to minimize them.

(Bhuiya N., Baghel A.,Management Decision, Vol. 43 No. 5, 2005,pp. 761-771.)

KNOWLEDGE BASED ENGİNEERİNG

The aim of Knowledge based engineering is to capture and reuse the intent and product design knowledge through parameters, rules, formulas, automation and also knowledge templates. The reuse of knowledge allows to speed up the design process by reducing design recreation and to save costs. The ultimate goal is to capture information related to best practices and design know-how in a company. Knowledge based engineering isnowadays used by many companies ad has proven its advantages.

(Enterprise Information Systems: 12th International Conference, ICEIS 2010 Funchal-Madeira , Portugal, June 2010, Revised Selected Papers, p152)

Knowledge-based engineering (previous answer) (better)

                Knowledge based engineering originated from a combination of computer aided design (CAD) and knowledge based systems but has several roles depending upon the context. In a design process, computer aided design is considered as the basis of the generative design with many expectations for hands-off performance along with the knowledge based engineering which would result in a limited human involvement in the design process.  Today, the application of knowledge based engineering includes design (CAD), analysis (FEA), simulation (CAS), optimization, manufacturing, and support (CAPP) where CAD is the foundation for the rest of the cycle. In this paper, the authors start with discussing the traditional process, its pros and cons, how knowledge based engineering is revolutionizing today’s design capability, and finally, the role played by CAD in synergizing knowledge based engineering.

(Kulon, J., Broomhead, P., & Mynors, D.J. (2006). Applying knowledge-based engineering to traditional manufacturing design. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. 30,p. 945-951.)

SUSTAINING ENGINEERİNG (better)

This effort spans those technical tasks (engineering and logistics investigations and analyses) to ensure continued operation and maintenance of a system with managed (i.e., known) risk. Sustaining Engineering involves the identification, review, assessment, and resolution of deficiencies throughout a system's life cycle. Sustaining Engineering both returns a system to its baselined configuration and capability, and identifies opportunities for performance and capability enhancement. It includes the measurement, identification and verification of system technical and supportability deficiencies, associated root cause analyses, evaluation of the potential for deficiency correction and the development of a range of corrective action options. Typically business case analysis and/or life cycle economic analysis are performed to determine the relative costs and risks associated with the implementation of various corrective action options. Sustaining Engineering also includes the implementation of selected corrective actions to include configuration or maintenance processes and the monitoring of key sustainment health metrics. This includes:

·         Collection and triage of all service use and maintenance data

·         Analysis of environmental and safety hazards, failure causes and effects, reliability and maintainability trends, and operational usage profiles changes

·         Root cause analysis of in-service problems (including operational hazards, deficiency reports, parts obsolescence, corrosion effects, and reliability degradation)

·         The development of required design changes to resolve operational issues

·         Other activities necessary to ensure cost-effective support to achieve peacetime and wartime readiness and performance requirements over a system's life cycle

Technical surveillance of critical safety items, approved sources for these items, and the oversight of the design configuration baselines (basic design engineering responsibility for the overall configuration including design packages, maintenance procedures, and usage profiles) for the fielded system to ensure continued certification compliance are also part of the sustaining engineering effort. Periodic technical review of the in-service system performance against baseline requirements, analysis of trends, and development of management options and resource requirements for resolution of operational issues should be part of the sustaining effort.

(Integrated Product Support Element Guidebook, ACC Practice Center)

2. Sustaining engineering (previous answer)
Sustaining engineering often can be more challenging than developing a new piece of code. It requires a complete and comprehensive understanding of the existing architecture, design goals, key technologies, and functionality as it was originally envisioned. It demands a disciplined approach to provide a workable solution under a tremendous time pressure while introducing zero regression.
Phases:
Ramp up: Short ramp up with fundamentals, foundational skill set, environment, formal technology training, process training, knowledge acquisition through deep dive, explorative testing, and ad-hoc testing
Productive: Able to perform simple tasks, continuous self-paced training, and occasional formal training. Work products by the individual contributors are reviewed internally (buddy review, group review) and externally by our customer’s engineering team
Efficient: Able to solve and carry out more complex issues, and occasionally requires help from other experienced engineers. Focus on improving deeper understanding of finer details of product issues
Optimal: Equivalent level of proficiency as the existing experienced engineers. Improving or fine tuning process
Reaching the steady state is achieved by rigorous training, feeding and caring of the team members, providing technical guidance and oversight, and proactive performance management.

Augmentum, Product development outsourcing, sustaining engineering, 2010