TABLE OF CONTENTS This book primarily deals with design; however, once you understand the decision process, it is not just design that changes the methodology. Product planning, contents, and manufacturing methods also change. Not just the manufacturing contents and methods change, but also the speed changes. Once the speed changes, the cost also changes. The product then gains more margins and its market coverage expands. The profit, of course, also changes. Once we understand the decision process, the way products are made may change completely.
Let's break down the process of manufacturing (Figure 7.1). Conventionally, we used to split design and manufacturing. Someone thinks and documents the product, then once the design is complete, passes it to production where the production engineer executes the manufacturing processes. The timetable starts manufacturing once design is finished. This conventional method lacks coordination, and the engineers came up with the concept of concurrent engineering (the idea of design and manufacture taking place at the same time) to plan design and production at the same time.
Another view distinguishes the man and the machine. This idea separates the method of production (production system) from the human beings. It draws a line between what humans think in deciding, and where the production system simply executes what has been decided. This distinction requires the clarification of "what and how" humans decide.
This idea allows having design and production at the...
