In some more progressive circles, the notion of lean manufacturing goes hand in hand with smart product design. And within some of those circles, it’s an open secret that manufacturing engineers — the folks who plan the production processes on the factory floor — think they can design better products than the product engineers themselves. "Better," in this case, means more efficient and easier to produce.

In that vein, Sandy Munro, CEO of Munro Associates, has some advice for lean aspirants: "You’ve done a good job on the [factory] floor," he told attendees at Delmia’s annual user’s conference in Detroit this week. "But you’ve got to be further upstream."

Munro has made a name for itself among manufacturers for its success in promulgating product design practices that are based on a design-for-manufacturability philosophy. The company’s CEO makes a good point, one that challenges lean’s standard operating procedure to broaden its focus. If you’re simply looking at the shop floor for opportunities to strip out waste in process (WIP’s evil cousin), you’re automatically in reaction mode — you’re conforming to whatever your product designer sent to the floor.

A more progressive lean approach involves engineering products to suit an efficient production process. Munro, for one, has made a business of this kind of planning. Of course, it wouldn’t have a business if manufacturers were practicing this kind of forward thinking themselves.

This is one lean discipline where technology fits snugly. Production planning, or digital manufacturing, tools such as Dassault's Delmia, Siemens PLM’s Tecnomatix, and PTC’s Windchill allow manufacturers to simulate how a specific product design will act during the assembly process, including whether it’s feasible given existing equipment and the ergonomics of the workforce.

As for manufacturing engineers' taking over the product design process, that’s open for discussion. But there’s no doubt that bringing the two camps together can deliver a windfall of efficiencies come production time.

What about your company — how integrated is your product design process? Do your design engineers work with manufacturing teams to create efficient products? Or do they just throw things over the proverbial wall?

Posted by Chris Chiappinelli at 10/09/2008 12:22:52 PM |