Abstract
The remarkable effectiveness of Japanese practices has led to a growing interest in the application of structured methodologies to the processes of product design and manufacture. In this paper we will critically examine some of the unexpected benefits and pitfalls which have been experienced by some major U.S. companies in the application of these methods to current products. While unexpected benefits have been achieved, it is also shown that rigid application of oversimplified rules has been seriously counterproductive.
From an awareness of these experiences we have been led to an ongoing inquiry into the true nature of design simplicity. By treating the Pareto distribution in probabilistic terms and as a discrete embodiment of the Riemann zeta function, we have been able to quantify some aspects of design simplicity and thereby to account for a recently reported, empirical relationship between product design attributes and observed rates of defects in product assembly. Quantitative insights derived from this study identify the most effective design/manufacturing strategies to reduce defects as a function of the currently existing magnitude and source of defects.
Work supported by the United States Department of Energy under contract DE-AC04-76DP00789.
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Barkan, P., Hinckley, M. (1994). Benefits And Limitations of Structured Methodologies in Product Design. In: Dasu, S., Eastman, C. (eds) Management of Design. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1390-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1390-8_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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