Niklas Adamsson, Business Consultant, Technia AB
Many Swedish companies are confronted by the increased amount of embedded software in their traditionally mechanical products. Niklas Adamsson has in his PhD dissertation (PhD in Integrated Product Development - Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) “Interdisciplinary integration in complex product development - Managerial implications of embedding software in manufactured goods” studied 11 Swedish manufacturing companies and their attempts to manage the resulting increased product complexity. Based on four years of research he concludes that the ability to implement proper measures regarding work procedures, supporting computer tools, and work organization are the most effective ones to succeed with multidisciplinary and complex product development.
Today, managers face an increased product complexity and products that requires extensive and costly system integration. Embedded control systems and an increased amount of software components in our traditionally manufactured goods make many product improvements possible such as new functionality, increased flexibility, reduced manufacturing costs. For example – 80-90% of new functionality in an automotive is realized by software and electronics. But, this change of technology content do however increase the complexity – both product and organizational-wise. At the same time a great deal of quality issues are related to these technologies – about 50% of car breakdowns in Germany 2003 were due to faults in the electrical and software systems – which in many cases is argued to stem from the increased complexity.
There are many strategies to manage this increased product complexity. Niklas Adamsson presents in his PhD dissertation (within the field of Integrated product development at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) results based on four years of research. Altogether 11 different companies (and more than 300 persons) from many different industrial sectors (e.g. automotive, all-terrain vehicles, robotics, advanced medical technologies, commercial vehicles, automation systems) took part in the research. The presented results strengthen the belief that it is not one single factor which is the key to master the increased complexity these companies experience.
One of the greatest challenges lies in that many of these companies have difficulties to adjust their operations to any new requirements posed by the changed technology content of their products. They are not ready to ask themselves the critical questions which are needed to make it possible for the organization to develop in the same speed as the products are changing. It is important to understand that, for example, PDM/PLM systems which have been developed based on mechanical product development and CAD environment are not fully suitable to be able to handle the information content created in this multidiscipline era. It is also central to understand that the changing competence profile of the engineering workforce must be carefully managed. Software knowledge must be cultivated throughout the organization, both to design engineers as well as to management personnel, in order to create the right conditions for well-integrated engineering disciplines.
If the product development organizations are prepared to make the needed changes in terms of changed ways of working, PDM/PLM investments, organizational changes, and a radically new approach to competence development they have all the possibilities to succeed. If they also manage to create a positive working environment where engineering disciplines not used working with each other, they have all the right conditions to attain high quality products with highly innovative solutions – something needed for Swedish companies to outperform their competitors in the global market of R&D knowledge.