Reducing Rework by Applying Set‐Based Practices Early in the Systems Engineering Process

Abstract

Rework that occurs late in the product life cycle is dramatically more expensive than design work performed early in the cycle. However, shifting traditional design work earlier in the design process so as to avoid rework later is difficult. A number of product development practices that have been characterized as a shift from developing a single-point design to developing a set of possible designs have proven effective at reducing development rework. This paper refines the definitions of such "set-based" development practices, which are aimed at early development phases, and shows how they can be applied to the systems engineering process in order to reduce or eliminate the root causes of rework. Examples from the Wright Brothers, Toyota, and several other companies are presented.

A Lean Product Development (LPD) approach on education and knowledge management in aircraft design

“…4 It is interesting to note that lean practices such as exploring sets of solutions, using visual knowledge in trade-off curves and testing before committing to decisions were utilized by the Wright brothers when studying wing and propellers' parameters before building their aircrafts (and succeeding in less time, with less resources than their competition). 9 Trade-off curves, knowledge exploration and customer-oriented innovation focus are also found in the HondaJet project. 10 The question of how to organize and intersect all the generated visual knowledge to support the integration gates is of the utmost importance, and is closely related to the last three questions.…”

Process models in design and development

“…A third model that has gained attention is set-based concurrent engineering (SBCE), which advocates controlled reduction of technical uncertainties through a focus on up-front learning about whether the design is feasible. The guiding principle is that choosing the right concept means fewer surprises later, reducing rework, and allowing more standardised, more efficient work later in the design process (Kennedy et al 2014). SBCE proposes that this should be approached by developing and maintaining several workable designs for each subsystem, and gradually eliminating alternatives that are found to be infeasible or found to generate integration difficulties as the design moves forward (Fig.…”

Towards Model‐based Systems Engineering (Mbse) Patterns to Efficiently Reuse Know‐how

“…The "set-based design" approach consists in a paradigm shift for industries. Currently, Kennedy, Sobek, and Kennedy (2014) describe a fumbling situation where companies spend a long time to build their products, and test it at the end of the development process. What often occurs is that rework is needed, which requires them to take more time to develop a new version of the product to test.…”