New customizable agile reconfigurable design system

Abstract

This research presents a Customizable, Agile, Reconfigurable Design System (CARDS), a novel holistic approach to product design which involves people from inside and outside the company working together; embracing change and handling it systematically, and providing maximum customer satisfaction. CARDS enhances the transparency of the product development process, helps staff to overcomes the traditional inertia they experience when faced with change, and helps managers to cope with the flood of information which is prevalent in the rapidly changing business environment of today. The CARDS works through three distinct modules: the Team Transformation Module, the Process on Demand Module, and Product Specifications Enhancement Module. Each module deals with different facets of the product development cycle, and is designed to address specific needs and purposes. The ultimate goal of the modules, is to achieve agility in three areas. The Team Transformation Module aims at delivering organizational agility, the Product on Demand Module is for achieving process agility, whereas the Product Specifications Enhancing Module optimizes the feature agility of products. These three modules, while being independent are closely and dynamically integrated. One distinguishing feature of CARDS is that outside parties such as customers, vendors, or outside resources are allowed to play a role in the product development including the making of management decisions. This form of external collaboration provides the form of agility that makes this system unique and particularly effective in satisfying market needs. In carrying out the three modules, several supporting technologies which are frequently utilized by manufacturing firms are incorporated. These supporting technologies are carefully chosen in relation to the actual business practice. However, it should be stressed that the supporting technologies used in this report do not exclude other supporting technologies. For different businesses or industries, different supporting technologies may be adopted in CARDS so as to suit the different specific needs of individual businesses or industries. Two case studies have been conducted to test and validate the feasibility of CARDS. A review of the system was carried out with follow through studies interviewing the participants in the case studies. The significance of CARDS lies in its ability to provide a holistic and systematic approach to address the problems of handling changes in the product development stage. Also, the approach brings in a whole new paradigm shift in organizational thinking. It breaks down the departmental and organizational barriers within an enterprise and brings in a system which enables the staff to make changes with the minimum of disruption. In turn, the approach will bring in a change in corporate culture which encourages the staff to take risks. Finally the whole organization and its staff will be converted to welcoming "change" and become "customer needs" oriented. In this way, CARDS will facilitate continuous improvement of the products under development, which is the key to success for most manufacturing companies.