Analysis of Information Interdependencies Between Product Development and Manufacturing System Planning in Early Design Phases

Manufacturing system planning (MSP) and product development (PD) are two highly interdependent domains of the product engineering process (PEP). Product design decisions impact on tasks and alternative solutions of the corresponding manufacturing system and vice versa. According to the “rule of 10” in quality management, especially within early design phases decisions highly impact on the accuracy of the overall result. Even today, PD and MSP are commonly processed sequentially without integration or interlinkage between the two domains. Existing integrative approaches aren’t successfully implemented in most companies.An innovative approach for integrating PD steps and tasks of MSP aims at an early conceptual design of the manufacturing system. While within PD, a conceptual view on the product exists, within MSP no early conceptual design is performed. Thus, a conceptual design for manufacturing systems is needed for a better integration of the two domains. In this context an integration of the process phases specification and concept design from PD together with preparation and structure planning from MSP is auspicious. For the integration of these early phases some preliminary analyses have to be performed.This paper presents the results of the interdependencies and information exchange analysis between PD and MSP in the phases named above. The information content is outlined and an approach for the information classification is given. The information is distinguished by the way it is used within the two domains and conclusions from the analysis are drawn for the concept to develop.