Project/manufacturing industries techniques

The reason for this was because it was felt, initially, that process-based industries would tend to have higher tool and technique usage requirements than project-based industries, and that manufacturing industries would also tend to have more need than service base industries, with combined industries somewhere in between. The rationale here was that manufacturing and process-based industries would tend to need more routinised and standardised approaches to business that would favour tool and technique usage across all four functions. On the other hand it was hypothesised that project-based and services related industries, with a more ad-hoc and less routinised approach to business, would use tools and techniques much less across all of the four functions. 

Before setting about the task of developing such a model, the product development process requires definition along with an indication of its key stages, this is so the appropriate tools and techniques can be applied (Booker et al., 1997). In the approach presented here in Figure 5.11, the product development phases are activities generally defined in the automotive industry (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991). QFD Phase 1 is used to understand and quantify the importance of customer needs and requirements, and to support the definition of product and process requirements. The FMEA process is used to explore any potential failure modes, their likely Occurrence, Severity and Detectability. DFA/DFM techniques are used to minimize part count, facilitate ease of assembly and project component manufacturing and assembly costs, and are primarily aimed at cost reduction. 

Hall and Cassel describe a complete, commercially available experimental system for detailed studies of the thermal history and other characteristics of fibers, a common form of evidence material. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has developed a large library of inks of known manufacture dates and reports excellent cooperation from industry in its tagging project (Brunelle and Cantu). Again, the application of a well established technique (in this case thin-layer chromatography, which is sensitive enough to allow concurrent handwriting and other supportive analysis) proves its value not only operationally but also from the viewpoint of legal admissibility (Brunelle and Cantu). 

Coopers, 2006 Worldwide Fuel Cell Industry Survey, 2006). Nevertheless, cost projections for AFCs can present a more optimistic picture, in the case of evolvement of the basic materials and construction techniques results in lower manufacturing costs (Staffed et al., 2007 McLean et al., 2001 Gtilzow et al., 2004). 

In conclusion, test equipment is available in all areas of interest for the determination of feed and product characteristics, including new techniques that have been developed in response to advancements in modem mechanical process technology and to new applications for the manufacturing of novel, for example, engineered products. However, testing is only as good and predicts industrial performance of the projected plants as correctly as test conditions reflect what will be found later in the actual installation. 

Cost is only one of several restrictions on the use of these techniques. The problem of obtaining satisfactory industry statistics can be a major hurdle in monitoring sales through market share analysis or the sales budget. A resin manufacturer who sells most of his product to custom molders may find an end-use pattern that shifts markedly from year to year. In such a case, projections based on end use patterns can become meaningless. Even obtaining usable data from within the organization is beset with difficulties. 

When disaggregating by industry sector and groupings it is clear that most sectors follow these broad patterns, but there are one or two anomalies. Thus, the Process/Combined grouping stands out as the one sector that places internal barriers (50%) over tool and technique inadequacy (39%) as the major cause of failure. This grouping also stands out as the one that places unrealistic expectations ahead of all of the other internal barriers. When it comes to internal barriers the Process/Manufacturing and the Project/Combined sectors both place culture (40% and 32% respectively) as the major barrier ahead of insufficient resource (28% and 15 respectively). 

---